Throughout the years there has been a common rule of thumb when placed between different laws of the Torah in which is going to be more valuable to keep. One of these concepts is the Preservation of Life, which recently has received some discussion as to how this comes from scripture and how it would apply, or even when. I understand these concerns, especially when we see so many examples of the Apostles dying for their faith, people dying to obey the commands of God or risking death such as bowing to idols and the furnace in Babylon. Even an example from the book of Maccabees of a mother and her seven sons being tortured to death in front of each other, and all dying, because they wouldn't eat pork to show acceptance of Helenization.
Yet all of these examples are a direct reflection of being willing to die for our faith. This issue when it comes to giving our lives for our faith is undisputed by believers of many stripes; that our faith should be - and inherently Is - worth dying for. Luke 9:24-26 says, For who ever tries to save his own life will destroy it, but who ever destroys his life on my account will save it. What will it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but destroys or forfeits his own life? For if someone is ashamed of me and of what I say, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and that of the Father and of the holy angels. So it's simple to see what saving our lives simply doesn't matter when it is a direct issue of our faith on the line. But is there a time when commands can be broken?
This discussion comes up usually with examples like in World War Two. Break man's laws, hide victims of the holocaust to save their lives, to follow God's laws, valuing lives and being against murder. This example is simple, God's laws always trumps man's when there is a conflict. 1st Peter 2 and Romans 13 show us reminders that we are to obey our governing authorities within reason and why, and yet we also see wonderful examples in scripture of disobedience to an unjust stance. The midwives lying about Hebrew babies to save their lives, and it was counted to them as righteous; resulting in Elohim Himself blessing them. The three men in Babylon entering the furnace rather than bowing to an idol of the king, and getting the gift of life from that attempt at killing them as well as the even greater blessing of spending time with the pre-incarnate Messiah! And it is put nowhere as plainly as in Acts 5:29 when it says, Kefa and other emissaries answered, "We must obey God, not men."
Yet so far the midwives are the first example we see given which is outside of giving our lives for our faith. So far we see that is good to die for our faith, but not so much about preservation of life. Keeping with the World War Two line we then a new part of the issue, modeled perfectly by the midwives in Sh'mot/Exodus. Is it okay to lie if it is to save a life? We all know there are direct commands to not lie. Yet the Midwives did it and were blessed. Would it then have been granted grace that those in the War would be blessed for having lied to save victims? This is a prime example of breaking a commandment of Elohim to save a life. But do we have more to go on?
In the scriptures we do have other examples of this, allowing us to further this conclusion. For starters we have the Sabbath as an example. A command from the very beginnings of this world, from creation, modeled and made Holy by our gracious Adonai. Yet He, Himself gave times in which it was to be "broken" in the sense of someone doing work or physical labour. B'midbar/Numbers 28:1-10 shows Priests needing to do sacrifices on the Sabbath. Y'hoshua/Joshua 6 shows us Elohim commanding the armies to continue to march around Jericho on the Sabbath, and that being the day of the start of the battle in the city. And Y'shua Himself directly stated that healing on the Sabbath was a Holy Act in Matthew 12, Mark 2, Luke 13 and John 5 and 7. Why did He say this? Because peoples lives where more valuable and it is good to do good on the sabbath even if it breaks conventional understanding. Not even to save lives, but to heal in general is all that is required for the sabbath to be "broken" by the healer.
Then we see the case in 1 Samuel 21 of David taking consecrated bread from the tabernacle to feed him and his men, bread that was meant only for the priests according to Sh'mot/Exodus 25 and Vayikra/Leviticus 24. Not only this but David lied to the Priest, claiming he was on a secret mission for Saul when he was fleeing instead. Now I won't try to do the hermaneutical gymnastics so many have on trying to say that perhaps Abimelek the priest was assigning the ritually clean men as priests in the same way we are today and thus could eat the bread, or some claim not found in scripture that shows the men and David starving when they'd just left the palace. The truth is I don't know exactly why this was granted as not sinful on the two fronts, all I know is that by the time of Y'shua it was generally accepted as a grace given story, and Y'shua Himself made such a statement in Matthew 12 defending that David and his men where hungry, and that David was innocent. In this, I will trust the Messiah's judgement.
So what do I draw ultimately from this? That sometimes things can easily feel like a grey area. That sometimes something more important than the rest helps us decide how to navigate a rock and a hard place, or the line between God's commands in scripture. Perhaps also looking at how sins can be categorized in at least two ways of the worse and lesser sins, that all sins are not created equally. With this, and the above, it's easy then to think of how our value of children of God would mean that certain things must bend when given a conflict. Lying to save the lives of babies or victims from abuse and murder, healing on the sabbath can easily mean then no conflict with lighting a fire in the wood stove to keep from freezing in a Canadian winter, soldiers or police working on the sabbath, all can be viewed as examples where something had to bend for the greater good of God's people.
Yet I warn you all, as scripture does, not to use this as an excuse. Do not make this a default to then look to How to break these commands. We still need to recognize that obedience is how we show love to Elohim, our Father. We shouldn't be trying to skirt the rules, but how best to be showing His grace to others. Sometimes that leaves us in a hard place, and sometimes it's clear. When in doubt, pray for guidance. But know that this is not a new discussion, and I'm sure it's not settled, but we do have grounds to hold to the idea that preservation of life becomes a defining category on how to choose when we are caught between one sin or another.
And so I leave you with this, Be blessed brothers and sisters in the Messiah.
Yes, rescue those being dragged off to death - won't you save those about to be killed? If you say, "We knew nothing about it," won't He who weighs hearts discern it? Yes, He who guards you will know it and repay each one as his deeds deserve. - Mishlei/Proverbs 24:11-12