When Moses was giving final directives to the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land, he repeated God’s Law with the Statutes and Judgments. Among these was an injunction of what to do when they encountered someone who was leading others into idolatry.<\/p>\n
If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: . . . And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, . . .<\/em> If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying, Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known; Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you; Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword. And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the LORD thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again.<\/em> Deuteronomy 13<\/p>\n This may sound uncomfortably similar to the Muslim Jihad war cry, “Kill the infidels!” Is this God’s mode of operation? “Worship me or I will kill you.” “Love me or I will kill you.” Do we serve a vengeful God who selfishly wants all the attention? Some have this concept of Him, and they either serve Him out of fear or they totally reject Him as a cruel and unreasonable tyrant.<\/p>\n We also have passages that give seemingly opposite perspectives of Him: jealous but merciful; gracious and forgiving yet strict.<\/p>\n Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.<\/em> Exodus 20:5, 6<\/p>\n And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.<\/em> Exodus 34:6, 7<\/p>\n What kind of God is He? Is He so wishy-washy that we don’t know what to expect from Him?<\/p>\n from the SDA Bible Commentary on Exodus 34:7:<\/p>\n “God is gracious to repentant sinners, but He cannot afford to weaken His government by failing to uphold its righteousness and justice (Ps. 85:10; 89:14). God’s justice is an essential part of His nature no less than His mercy; without it God could not be God. Justice is, as has been argued, a necessary consequence of His true love, for “a God all mercy is a God unjust.” Without justice there could be no mercy. Although we read in the Bible that God delights in mercy (Micah 7:18), we never read in the Scriptures that God delights in bringing His judgments upon men. On the contrary, His judgments are said to be a “strange work” (Isa. 28:21). His loving-kindness is abundant (Isa. 55:7; Rom. 5:20). It is God’s mercy that moderates His judgments and makes Him “longsuffering” (Lam. 3:22; Rom. 2:4).”<\/p>\n God has a massive job to accomplish in dealing with the sin problem. He needs to completely eradicate sin and all connected with it, all that leads to it, and all that results from it. But He doesn’t want to lose His children in the process. How does He balance His love and His justice?<\/p>\n In our justice system, we make punishment fit the crime: the worse the crime, the greater the punishment. Pardon is a rare exception. In God’s justice system, the punishment is made to fit the criminal: if the perpetrator can be brought to repentance and reformation, he is no longer a criminal. He is pardoned and the impending punishment is averted. King Manasseh is a classic example from the Old Testament:<\/p>\n So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the LORD spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken. Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God.<\/em><\/p>\n Now after this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah. And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the LORD, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. And he repaired the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.<\/em> 2 Chronicles 33:9-16<\/p>\n The young Pharisee, Saul, is a good example from the New Testament. In his zeal to crush out Christianity, he was nearly the equivalent of the Gestapo in Nazi Germany or the KGB in Soviet Russia.<\/p>\n And cast him<\/em> (Stephen) out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Acts 7:58<\/p>\n And Saul was consenting unto his<\/em> (Stephen’s) death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. . . . As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Acts 8:1, 3<\/p>\n And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Acts 9:1, 2<\/p>\n But God was able to change him from being a blood-thirsty persecutor to being Paul, the great apostle of the kingdom, an ambassador of Heaven’s love, a wonderful instrument of salvation for the world. Later, he described himself as an example of what God’s grace can accomplish.<\/p>\n And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.<\/em> 1 Timothy 1:12-16<\/p>\n God has to deal severely with sin and incorrigible sinners, but that is His last resort after all reformative efforts have failed. He is primarily very patient, merciful, and gracious, trying first with all His persuasive powers to change the sinner so He can save him.<\/p>\n Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.<\/em> Isaiah 55:6, 7<\/p>\n And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.<\/em>Jeremiah 36:1-3<\/p>\n Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?<\/em> Ezekiel 18:23<\/p>\n Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.<\/em> Ezekiel 18:30-32<\/p>\n Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?<\/em>Ezekiel 33:11<\/p>\n And God saw their works (the people of Nineveh), that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.<\/em> Jonah 3:10<\/p>\n Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.<\/em> Micah 7:18<\/p>\n Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.<\/em>Luke 15:10<\/p>\n For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.<\/em> John 3:16, 17<\/p>\n God has been working tirelessly for 6000 years to change rebellious criminals into cooperative saints, to turn His enemies into friends, but there is a limit to His efforts. When He has tried everything and there is no more hope of change, He quits trying. His role changes from being a reconciler to being an avenger. Prophecy tells us that soon He will stop trying to bring repentance and offers of pardon and will pronounce that awful verdict,<\/p>\n He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.<\/em> Revelation 22:11<\/p>\n The Bible gives us dire warnings of God’s judgment and wrath but this does not come because His love has finally been depleted and He can’t control Himself anymore. His wrath, that final retribution, is not an impulsive explosion of His uncontrolled anger but a very predictable, deliberate act that He does only after all of His attempts at drawing sinners back to Himself have been unsuccessful.<\/p>\n While God’s hatred of sin is as strong as death, His love for the sinner is stronger than death.<\/em> The Desire of Ages<\/u>, p. 57<\/p>\n The Lord is . . . longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.<\/em> 2 Peter 3:9<\/p>\n What an awesome, loving, caring God we have!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Moses was giving final directives to the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land, he repeated God’s Law with the Statutes and Judgments. Among these was an injunction of what to do when they encountered someone who was leading others into idolatry. If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, … <\/p>\n
\nIf thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; . . . Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; . . .<\/em><\/p>\n