Tag: divine judgment

Oppressors Are On Notice (Nahum 1:1-13)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Nahum, by James Tissot, 1888

A prophecy concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
    the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.
The Lord takes vengeance on his foes
    and vents his wrath against his enemies.
The Lord is slow to anger but great in power;
    the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
    and clouds are the dust of his feet.
He rebukes the sea and dries it up;
    he makes all the rivers run dry.
Bashan and Carmel wither
    and the blossoms of Lebanon fade.
The mountains quake before him
    and the hills melt away.
The earth trembles at his presence,
    the world and all who live in it.
Who can withstand his indignation?
    Who can endure his fierce anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire;
    the rocks are shattered before him.

The Lord is good,
    a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him,
    but with an overwhelming flood
he will make an end of Nineveh;
    he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness.

Whatever they plot against the Lord
    he will bring to an end;
    trouble will not come a second time.
They will be entangled among thorns
    and drunk from their wine;
    they will be consumed like dry stubble.
From you, Nineveh, has one come forth
    who plots evil against the Lord
    and devises wicked plans.

This is what the Lord says:

“Although they have allies and are numerous,
    they will be destroyed and pass away.
Although I have afflicted you, Judah,
    I will afflict you no more.
Now I will break their yoke from your neck
    and tear your shackles away.” (New International Version)

I’m willing to wager you’ve never heard a sermon on the Old Testament book of Nahum. It’s unfortunate that many Bible-readers have never read the prophecy of Nahum, let alone know that this book even exists in Holy Scripture.

Each individual book of the Bible has its own particular message that is wise for us to understand. Although Nahum’s prophecy is against the long-dead empire of Assyria, it still contains a timeless message for us.

Nineveh

The capital city of Assyria, Nineveh, was a large and influential city in the centuries of 600-900 B.C.E. The Assyrians were a cruel people even by ancient standards. Their army was feared, and rightly so. Army officers were experts at torture, having turned it into an art form with all kinds of different ways of killing and maiming captured people from their conquests.

The prophet Nahum focused on the sure destruction of Nineveh, and the overwhelming judgment and justice of God. And at the same time, Nahum was also attuned to the great and many sins of Israel – their predilection for idolatry and immorality, as well as their purposeful ignoring of social responsibilities.

No matter who we are, or where we are from, the Lord God, the Almighty, shows no favoritism in condemning the guilty, and upholding the innocent. Unlike us, who have a nasty tendency toward practicing cronyism, bigotry, and ethnocentrism, Yahweh extends grace, judgment, and fairness in an even-handed way.

We humans also have a bent toward emphasizing one trait of God over another. There are those who talk only of love when it comes to the Lord; and others who always speak of God’s wrath and judgment.

Yet, in truth, God is the sovereign Lord of both wrath and love, judgment and grace. And, if we are able to hear it, God’s wrath is an expression of God’s love – not willing for oppression and violence to run amok among the powerless.

What’s more, God’s love has a penetrating way of arousing the conscience and bringing deep conviction of guilt for things we have done, and have left undone. So, when we talk of God, let us keep in mind that God is the Lord of both wrath and love, judgment and grace.

Nahum described Yahweh as a powerful God who is the avenging Lord against violence, cruelty, and injustice. If this God can make mountains move, oceans froth, and the earth heave, then no one, including the mighty Assyrian warriors, can stand against Yahweh’s indignation.

It is also true that with the Lord God there is abundant goodness which provides protection for those who seek refuge in Yahweh. Throughout Holy Scripture, including the prophecy of Nahum, divine vengeance and wrath is continually set in the context of divine mercy and grace.

Because God is holy and just, sovereign and powerful, God is Judge of the nations. Mercy only really has meaning when wrath is necessary. If everything were always unicorns and bunny rabbits, there would never be a need for mercy. But we live in a terribly broken world in which oppression and cruelty too often make sinister inroads into our lives.

Although the Lord is slow to anger and God’s fuse is long, divine patience has its limits. Yahweh does not let calloused hearts and selfish minds go on with impunity. Eventually, there will be hell to pay.

God saw all the foolish destruction and misery that Assyria brought to others. And so, Nineveh would see their own terrible destruction. This is why we now talk of Assyria as a long-past ancient empire; they no longer exist in any way, shape, or form. The Lord wiped the Assyrians off of the map.

As for Judah, there would be comfort. Even though it was true that God used the Assyrians to extend judgment upon Israel, there was also merciful relief and gracious rest from Assyria for the people.

With God, relief, rest, and recovery are sure and certain. Violence and oppression shall not last. Mercy always ends up winning the day.

This is most assuredly good news for us who seek the just, the right, and the good in this fallen world. The foolish decisions of contemporary politicians shall not win the day. God will have the final word on all things.

In a time when it seems the other shoe keeps dropping, we can be a hopeful people, because there is a transcendent God in heaven who sees it all, and will have mercy upon the innocent, while judging the guilty.

Therefore, those who engage in grift, corruption, violence, and cruelty, with no concern for the weak and needy, will eventually find themselves on the side of God’s vengeful wrath.

Whereas, those who are powerless against an evil misuse of authority, eventually they will know what it is to experience hope and deliverance from that evil. They shall know safety and perfect peace.

The overarching message of Nahum is that God is sovereign over all the world and all of history. The Lord will judge and love according to God’s own sense of divine wrath and divine grace.

Since God is the ultimate champion of the frustrated and the helpless, God will by no means acquit the guilty. The universe is God’s dominion, and in this dominion, violence, corruption, and oppression will face an awesome judgment which eradicates evil.

No nation, no person, and no government can withstand the God who is over all. Every corrupt person, especially politicians who have their eye only on themselves, should be on notice.

O God, by whom the meek are guided in decision-making, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us to do, so that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in your light we may see light, and in your straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Christ’s Parable of the Weeds (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Wheat Fields with Stacks, by Vincent Van Gogh, 1888

Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew.

“The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’

“‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed.

“‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked.

“‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn….’”

Then, leaving the crowds outside, Jesus went into the house. His disciples said, “Please explain to us the story of the weeds in the field.”

Jesus replied, “The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed. The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels.

“Just as the weeds are sorted out and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand! (New Living Translation)

As you have likely noticed, not everyone in this world is supportive of you and what you’re doing.

The good work we do – no matter how competently and expertly done – will be undermined by others. There will be people with selfish and sinister agendas who put roadblocks in our way to frustrate our ongoing work. They don’t like what we are doing and what we’re trying to accomplish.

Unfortunately, that’s just the way it is. So then, one of the big questions for all of us is this: How do we live with others trying to subvert the good work we are doing for the Kingdom of Heaven?

One of the most popular responses is to strike the enemy on their cheek just as hard or harder in the way they slapped you. It is responding to evil in kind.

But if we will ponder for a moment, we shall realize that is makes no sense to repay evil with evil. Why? Because then the Kingdom of Hell has just snagged this one with doing evil in order to defend good work – which ends-up ruining the whole enterprise.

No, instead let’s heed the words of Christ to turn the other cheek and not retaliate; and live the words of the Apostle Paul who reminded us to overcome evil by doing good. (Matthew 5:38-42; Romans 12:14-21)

Yes, all judgment belongs to the Lord, and not us. In today’s Gospel lesson the reasoning Jesus provides for non-retaliation and non-violence is both reasonable and practical.

Field with Stacks of Wheat, by Vincent Van Gogh, 1890

Christ told his disciples that the enemy’s efforts at thwarting our good works are sinister enough to bring about a situation where evil is so close to the good that to eradicate the evil is to therefore also do away with the good.

If you have weeds in your field or your garden, you know that some of those nasty weeds cannot be pulled out of the ground without yanking-up the good plant along with it. Instead, you’ll have to wait until you can harvest the plant, and then you can safely get rid of the offending weed.

Let’s think, then, about our own situations right now in this world. For myself, it seems that every single day I am upset and angered over decisions made by those in political power, because they almost always involve oppressing and/or harming powerless people.

Yet, to immediately stop the offending persons and organizations would involve some wicked methods. Instead, if I want to maintain doing good, I will have my time to unseat them through the vote, or writing my Senators, or directly contacting the offices of the institutions, etc.

Some of our responses may seem tepid in comparison to the evil being perpetrated, yet we can be sure that there is a time coming in which the reality of divine judgment will handle the wicked once and for all. At the proper time, heaven’s angels will do their own good work of removing evil and eradicating it forever.

We need to put our efforts into doing the very best at living in harmony with one another, promoting peace, and being peacemakers – using our greatest and most effective tools of humility, gentleness, grace, and love. These are the proper fertilizers which will keep the plants of righteousness and justice growing and thriving, even though they are surrounded by a bunch of close weeds.

As maddening as it is to see those weeds grow up alongside the plants, nowhere in Holy Scripture are we called or encouraged to become judge, jury, and executioner to the wicked.

Furthermore, Christians are nowhere called to force onto others Jesus as King through a theocratic nation, using authoritarian means. We are called, rather, to put our faith where our fear is and exercise a faith that does good work through love. (Galatians 5:6)

Equipped by the Spirit, we urge oppressors, tyrants, and egotists to turn from their selfishness and amend their evil ways. And we are not called to force the Kingdom of Heaven on others by trying to ensconce a form of Christian nationalism. For Americans, many of our ancestors came to the New World in order to flee their home Christian nationalist countries who persecuted them and did evil to them.

“To identify any particular form of government with Christianity is a dangerous error, for it confounds the permanent with the transitory, the absolute with the contingent.” T.S. Eliot

It takes very little prodding for Christians with political power to move into glorifying violence and ignoring biblical injunctions to love enemies, seek peace, and grant grace.

God puts a high premium of looking after the poor and needy, and rescuing them from oppression and violence. The last thing we ought to be doing is becoming the violent oppressors ourselves!

Giving ourselves as ambassadors of reconciliation, speaking truth to power, and doing the work of peacemaking is a narrow and hard road to hoe. The easy way is typically the road of destruction. (Matthew 7:13-14)

As citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, we are to labor toward the things Jesus himself did: Challenge the arrogant religious types; offer mercy to the lowly and forgotten ones; warn of judgment; encourage faith; forgive generously; and speak words of truth in all places, including the halls of political power.

It is perfectly legitimate to disagree with others, but only if we ourselves are willing to defend their equally legitimate right to be disagreeable.

So, instead of always trying to snuff-out and vanquish our opponents with overt tools of evil, let us do the good work of winning their respect, living in peace with them, and affirming our shared humanity together.

We all have the right to be different; we don’t have the right to do evil and reprise evil with evil. The organizations, institutions, faith communities, corporations, and governments of this world are only as good as the people guarding that goodness through their good work, utilizing good means toward good ends.

Anyone with ears ought to listen and understand.

God of steadfast love and grace: Teach us your way and your truth. Root us in you alone, and help us to grow in grace and love, so that we may fulfill our role and our work in the reign of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Day Is Coming (Malachi 4:1-6)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
The Great Day of His Wrath, by John Martin, c.1851

“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty.

“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.

“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” (New International Version)

These are the final words of the Old Testament, the concluding message of the prophet Malachi.

Malachi’s vision of God’s future action describes a Day of Judgment, a time of utter destruction for all those who devoted themselves to wickedness. The faithful, however, will receive healing by means of bright righteousness. God will restore a good, right, and just order of things.

The divine restoration will cause joy and celebration. In their freedom, the faithful will ensure that the wicked shall not have power and authority ever again.

Therefore, the conclusion to the Book of Malachi – and of all the Old Testament – is a call to obedience, to observe the law. Finally, it is communicated that Elijah – one of the greatest prophets in Jewish history – will return in order to turn the hearts of family members toward one another. And without this change of heart and behavior within the family, there isn’t anything good to look forward to.

In other words, justice and righteousness, humility and gentleness, mercy and peace, all begin within the home. If we are to get things right out in the world, it will be because we have learned how to develop and maintain right relationships and provide for one another in our families.

So, how is that project going? (said in a sarcastic tongue-in-cheek sort of way).

And, how is the religious and spiritual progress going? (said in that same obnoxious sort of tone)

Furthermore, what are you and I doing to help the situation, and not to bring harm to it? (said in an actual serious tone)

It will not do for any of us to simply blame others – even though those others likely have a lot to answer for themselves. You and I cannot control others, especially family members (although some folks do their darndest to try and do it!).

Therefore, we must practice self-control, and do what is within our own power to do in order to help bring blessing – not judgment – to the earth.

All of us need to allow accountability into our lives, so that we may continue in living good and responsible lives.

Yet, that does not always happen. Graciously, the world is not presently spinning on its axis because of me or you. Our mistakes, foibles, screw-ups, and sins are not good, but they are also not going to stop the sun from coming up tomorrow.

It is terribly sad that there is so much war, death, destruction, harm, malevolence, disease, and disaster in this old world. It’s as if the earth is under a curse, which it is. But the world is also loved by God.

The faithful ultimately trust in the grace and mercy of God. The Christian, specifically, looks to Jesus to provide the righteousness and justice that we ourselves have not been able to accomplish.

The judgment of God exists, so that the justice and mercy of God can be fulfilled.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

1 Peter 2:24, NIV

In union with Christ, the faithful know what a change of heart truly means. And they know what to do in order to affect that change in their lives today:

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. (Romans 6:6-13, NIV)

So then, let us restore right relationships with others, and especially with family. Let us live as people who have been lifted from a curse, and are free from divine judgment.

Let’s get up each day and live into the freedom we possess from the power of guilt, shame, and plain old-fashioned sin.

Let’s be people who choose to look both backward and forward:

  • We look back at the redemptive events of Jesus, to his coming to this earth in a miraculous incarnation, and to his death, resurrection, and ascension.
  • We look forward to the return of Christ, a second advent, when he will save his people, judge all people, and restore all things.

We can do this, my friends. We can live as we ought to live, love as we ought to love, and give as we ought to give – because of the One who has gone before us, is with us, and is coming again.

The Day is coming. Make sure that when it does, we are found faithful.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Mark 10:45, NIV

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. (Revelation 1:5b-6, NIV)

Divine Intervention (Isaiah 1:24-31)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem, by David Roberts (1796-1964)

So now, listen to what the Lord Almighty, Israel’s powerful God, is saying: “I will take revenge on you, my enemies, and you will cause me no more trouble. I will take action against you. I will purify you the way metal is refined, and will remove all your impurity. I will give you rulers and advisers like those you had long ago. Then Jerusalem will be called the righteous, faithful city.”

Because the Lord is righteous, he will save Jerusalem and everyone there who repents. But he will crush everyone who sins and rebels against him; he will kill everyone who forsakes him.

You will be sorry that you ever worshiped trees and planted sacred gardens. You will wither like a dying oak, like a garden that no one waters. Just as straw is set on fire by a spark, so powerful people will be destroyed by their own evil deeds, and no one will be able to stop the destruction. (Good News Translation)

Judgment does not mean that you need to leave a part of yourself behind in order to be accepted or belong. Judgment isn’t about stuffing down emotions and denying certain thoughts about things because you were told to.

Rather, judgment – divine judgment – is for those leaders, and the persons who support such leaders, who tell people they have to live a particular way, be a certain way, and think in the same way the leaders say you have to think.

Isaiah’s prophecy is first and foremost directed toward leaders – political leaders and religious leaders. Indeed, the nation of Israel had gone down a path of worship that God never condoned nor wanted.

And the Lord put the primary blame squarely upon rulers who led their people in unacceptable ways by telling them things that God never wanted. As a result, the nation as a whole, lived unjustly and unrighteously.

God was determined to do something about the situation of bad leadership: Replace the rulers and advisers. Get rid of them, just like a metallurgist gets rid of impure and worthless dross.

A lot of things in life rise and fall because of leadership. The character and competence of a leader is of upmost importance. God raises up particular people to lead. So, leaders and rulers are expected to fulfill their mandated duty with all diligence and decorum.

The city of Jerusalem fell to the invading Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. All of the Old Testament prophetic books are related to that seminal event in one way or another.

Jerusalem’s destruction, according to the prophets, had a direct relationship to the failure of political kings and religious priests to lead the people according to God’s law. And that failure was specifically tied to the lack of religious piety and leadership performance amongst the rulers of the land.

Indeed, individuals are responsible for their own thoughts and words and actions. Yet, at the same time, the leaders of a city and a nation are also responsible for whether they are leading the people into ways of justice and equity, or injustice and prejudice.

People in responsible positions of authority are to take ownership of the sort of culture they develop. And when people, as a whole, have rude and irresponsible words and actions, such behavior isn’t only on individuals – it’s on the leaders, as well.

God will hold everyone accountable – especially leaders = for what they have done, and not done, to foster a just and right society.

In the time of the prophets, the majority of those in authority led the people into a degenerate state. It had become so bad that divine judgment would intervene in order to burn out the evil, and remove the worthless dross of incompetent and inconsiderate leadership.

Only through the wholesale replacement of rulers and advisers could restoration and regeneration ever take place.

Fortunately, the Lord is a God of justice, mercy, and grace. The Lord is a redeeming God. And the theme of redemption runs throughout the Book of Isaiah. Yet, for a nation to be redeemed, it will require an elimination of rebellious evil.

The wrath of God exists precisely because of the love of God. Since the Lord has a steadfast, committed, and covenantal love for the people, God will render judgment, purging hate and injustice from the land.

When God decrees something, no one can stop it. And when God decrees destruction upon the material things which promote illegitimate worship and public injustice, you can be absolutely sure that it’s going to happen.

No one, no city, and no nation is truly autonomous, in the sense that they can do whatever the heck they want to do, regardless of whether it is right or just, or not. There is no person and no government who is free to indulge in their own selfish agenda.

We have a purpose and a mandate as people on this earth, to care for this world – the people and the environments we inhabit.

All of the ways in which individuals, groups, and governments cheapen and degrade human dignity and environmental worth, puts everyone at risk of survival and a good life on this planet.

Unjust and dysfunctional systems and structures must be purged of their impurities. And that means, in many cases, a new order of things must occur.

If we cannot learn to play well with one another, then playtime will be over; and God will call us back into the house and make us sit in the corner for a long time – or worse.

Whenever leadership fails to be neighborliness, then we have a huge problem.

Our world suffering divine devastation of all the things we know and love may not be far behind. And, quite frankly, it will be our own damn fault – and not somebody else’s.

However, in the prophetic biblical tradition, devastation and destruction never have the last word. There is always hope – a confident expectation that good, right, and just forms of social, economic, and religious communities will function yet again.

There are good leaders waiting in the wings. It’s just that no one yet sees or knows them. But God will raise them up at the proper time, to accomplish good purposes in communities, churches, families, and governments everywhere.

A divine intervention will make the last be first, and the first be last.

May it be so, for the blessing of the world, and to the glory and praise of God. Amen.