Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “I Will Arise”. Yikes. What a lesson! As it moves from Sabbath to Sunday to Monday and on to Thursday, the lesson gains momentum, arriving to the sentence in Thursday’s lesson, “Yet, ‘the God-Who-Forgives’ takes vengeance upon the wicked deeds of unrepentant people (resulting in) … the defeat of the wicked”. Yikes, again! So, is our God a god of vengeance? Does He want to defeat the wicked? Is this His intent? Let’s look at this….
Does God ever exhibit vengeance… revenge? Is there a limit to His love? Our picture of God in this regard determines to a great extent how we treat others. Especially when we feel we are wronged. Does God love His enemies… especially those who have wronged Him? Did He love His enemies as He hung from the cross? Will God’s attitude be different at the end of time? Is God two-faced (loving but also “just”, as we often say. Splitting love from justice is a gross misrepresentation, as I understand it)? Is His “justice” a lack-of-love? Is He a God of “vengeance”?
Our word “vengeance” is fraught with severe, hard meanings for us humans. As a result, when we read that God will have “vengeance” we sinners think it means God will have “angry retribution” on us sinners. Likewise, this is how we likely interpret “hell” and the “fire” at the end… an angry God who wreaks revenge on those who have wronged Him and wronged His people.
But a careful reading of scripture shows us a different God. A God whose “vengeance” cannot be defined by human terms… just like His love cannot be defined in human terms. God’s love is so unlike human love. The intent of God’s love is restorative, if we will. The intent of God’s vengeance is also restorative, if we will. Because at the core of all God’s actions in our lives is the one word… “Love”.
If we hold tight to this truth (that “God is love” 1 John 4:8) than we will see all God’s actions and all His allowing’s as Love Divine… Agape Love. Even the destruction at the end is but Him allowing the irreclaimably wicked to have their own way. “They would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the full with their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them and the complacency of fools will destroy them” (Proverbs 1: 30-32). And so, at the end “his own iniquities entrap the wicked man, and He is caught in the cords of His sin. He shall die for lack of self-control. He will be lost because of his incredible folly” (Proverbs 5: 22-23).
This does not describe “vengeance” as we sinful humans describe it. This describes God sadly letting us go and letting us have what we are hell-bent on having. God uses every means to correct us in love. Even to severely rebuking us… punishing us… disciplining us. “For the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts” (Hebrews 12:6). And He does this because He loves us. “Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11). But when we sinners will not yield… will not turn from our self-destructive path, then a loving Father has no choice but to sadly let us go.
Does God often talk about vengeance in terms of retribution or wrath? Yes, He does. But as with all scripture, we must look at the larger view. We must put every scripture in the larger context of all scripture and how God has revealed Himself to us… best seen in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Even God’s talk of retribution and wrath can be seen as warnings from our God of love. Warnings that are the last-ditch effort of our loving God who will speak thus before we sinners plunge over the edge into the abyss.
I do pray that we see all God’s actions in our behalf as love. And that we even see the destruction in the end as love, too. God is not out to “get” us or “payback” (vengeance). He is out to save each of us. God “keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:5). And in the end, those who have utterly destroyed themselves will not be the objects of a vindictive God. But the objects of a supremely loving God. A God who has exhausted all avenues to win each one back to love and trust Him. For God and those who have been won back to trust Him, the destruction in the end is not a day for celebration but a day for mourning. Intense heart-rending mourning by God and all who have been won back to trust Him and be remade in His image. “For the day of the Lord is near against all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head. For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, all the nations around you shall drink; they shall drink and gulp down, and shall be as though they had never been” (Obadiah 15-16). “Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light; as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?” (Amos 5: 18-20). “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow” (Galatians 6:7).
Let us not reject God’s love. He will not kill us if we reject Him. But when we reject Him, we are rejecting life itself. And in this, “they know not what they do” (Luke 23:32). When we reject Him, we are choosing death. “But he that sins against me wrongs his own soul: all they that hate me love death” (Proverbs 8:36).
With brotherly love,
Jim