Tag: god’s judgment

Mercy and Judgment (Revelation 8:1-5)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Seven angels with seven trumpets, and the angel with a censer, from the Bamberg Apocalypse, c.1020 C.E.

Then, when the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. Another angel came and stood at the altar, and he held a gold bowl for burning incense. He was given a large amount of incense, in order to offer it on behalf of the prayers of all the saints on the gold altar in front of the throne. 

The smoke of the incense offered for the prayers of the saints rose up before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the incense container and filled it with fire from the altar. He threw it down to the earth, and there were thunder, voices, lightning, and an earthquake. (Common English Bible)

When I was kid, growing up on a Midwest American farm, I remember times when severe weather was coming. I knew it was going to be bad whenever everything became still and there was complete silence: No wind, no birds singing, no insects chirping, nothing moving whatsoever. It was the eerie silence which precedes something big coming.

That is the way it will be in heaven when the seventh seal is opened. The silence is so quiet that you know a lot of noise and movement are about to happen. It’s not serene silence; it’s scary silent.

With the opening of the seventh seal, a climactic moment is reached. The silence is not only an anticipation of the coming drama, but is also a sign of reverence and awe.

The seventh seal initiates a series of woes: The seven trumpets. But before the trumpets begin, an angel appears. Standing before a heavenly altar, the angel mixes incense along with prayers from the people, then offers them on the altar.

These prayers of the people are for justice, and a longing for the kingdom to come, and God’s will to be done, on earth, as it is always done in heaven.

The imagery relates to us that God hears the prayers, and will act, according to the divine character and will.

The angel takes fire from the altar and hurls it down to earth, causing thunder and lightning, and an earthquake. In other words, the prayers are being answered; they are having an effect. Judgment on the earth begins with the blowing of the seven trumpets.

As we may expect, the incredible silence gives way to an equally incredible noise of weather and the earth moving. And the angel, serving as a quiet and contemplative high priest, now moves to becoming a judge upon the earth.

It turns out that mercy and judgment are not two contrasting concepts and actions; they are two sides of the very same coin. The altar of mercy becomes the source of judgment.

Whenever there is an injustice, we want (and expect) to have that act acknowledged and taken care of by a proper authority. To have a judge simply say that he/she is merciful and will acquit the guilty, does not work in every situation. Mercy only exists because of the presence of guilt and judgment.

God takes care of sin because God loves. An unloving deity would be unconcerned, random, and capricious in handling injustice. But not the God of the Bible. God shows mercy to the righteous, and will judge the wicked.

God’s mercy extends to the point of acquitting the guilty, if God so desires to do so. And everyone needs mercy, because we all have committed injustices in our lives.

Yet, by means of humble contrition and faith, we can mercifully discover gracious amnesty. This is why Jesus came, to take care of the sin issue once for all through the Cross.

We have been made holy by God’s will through the offering of Jesus Christ’s body once for all. (Hebrews 10:10, CEB)

In the time of the Apostle John’s vision, which is the Book of Revelation, Christians were facing persecution and martyrdom. The prayers of the suffering believers rose to heaven:

They cried out with a loud voice, “Holy and true Master, how long will you wait before you pass judgment? How long before you require justice for our blood, which was shed by those who live on earth?” (Revelation 6:10, CEB)

God’s response to the prayers of the saints is to send judgmental fire against the earth by the hand of the angel. In John’s apocalyptic vision, not only are the believers in Christ facing trials and tribulations for their faith, but the unbelieving persecutors who victimize the saints will be punished, as well.

If the persecutors use fiery elements against the believers, God can (and will) turn that fire back on the them. This is similar to the Book of Exodus, in which the plagues that struck and judged the Egyptians were, at the same time, a means of protecting and preserving the Israelites.

The Book of Revelation included in the Christian canon of scripture, not for the purpose of predicting the time or the season in which Jesus Christ will come back to judge the living and the dead. Rather, John’s Apocalypse is meant to encourage the followers of Christ that their suffering will not last forever; and neither will the arrogance of the wicked.

We don’t know when all of this end-of-the-age stuff is going to shake out. Which is why it is so important we learn to persevere through suffering. Because we might have to wait awhile.

Prayer for us then becomes not simply something we do if we have a bit of discretionary time; it becomes vital for us. We discern that we must speak with God. We are compelled to offer our prayers. We feel the great need to cry out and petition God for justice and righteousness.

It seems, if I don’t pray, I won’t make it. Therefore, I must pray. I will pray with all of my heart and soul, till I cannot pray anymore. And then I will pray some more, because I need God.

There is nothing easy about moving through suffering. It’s hard to persevere. It hurts to be the brunt of another’s violent tongue and/or hand. Yet, we do not experience this alone. The divine presence is with us. And that makes all the difference.

Oh God:
Give me strength to live another day;
Let me not turn coward before its difficulties, or fail in its duties;
Let me not lose faith in other people;
Keep me sweet and sound of heart, in spite of ingratitude, treachery, or meanness;
Preserve me from minding little stings, or giving them;
Help me to keep my heart clean, and to live so honestly and fearlessly that no outward failure can dishearten me, or take away the joy of conscious integrity;
Open wide the eyes of my soul that I may see good in all things;
Grant me this day some new vision of your truth;
Inspire me with the spirit of joy and gladness and make me the cup of strength to suffering souls; in the name of the strong Deliverer, our only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

There Is a Larger Perspective (Psalm 73:1-20)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Psalm 73, by Keli Hogsett. The artist states, “This piece is made entirely of wood ‘ends.’ The wood colored ends represent nearness to God, where the darker pieces represent the opposite. The darker ends can attract and manipulate the wooden ends, but the darker they get, they turn downward and are swallowed by the wooden ends.“

God is indeed good to Israel,
    to those who have pure hearts.
But I had nearly lost confidence;
    my faith was almost gone
because I was jealous of the proud
    when I saw that things go well for the wicked.

They do not suffer pain;
    they are strong and healthy.
They do not suffer as other people do;
    they do not have the troubles that others have.
And so they wear pride like a necklace
    and violence like a robe;
their hearts pour out evil,
    and their minds are busy with wicked schemes.
They laugh at other people and speak of evil things;
    they are proud and make plans to oppress others.
They speak evil of God in heaven
    and give arrogant orders to everyone on earth,
so that even God’s people turn to them
    and eagerly believe whatever they say.
They say, “God will not know;
    the Most High will not find out.”
That is what the wicked are like.
    They have plenty and are always getting more.

Is it for nothing, then, that I have kept myself pure
    and have not committed sin?
O God, you have made me suffer all day long;
    every morning you have punished me.

If I had said such things,
    I would not be acting as one of your people.
I tried to think this problem through,
    but it was too difficult for me
    until I went into your Temple.
Then I understood what will happen to the wicked.

You will put them in slippery places
    and make them fall to destruction!
They are instantly destroyed;
    they go down to a horrible end.
They are like a dream that goes away in the morning;
    when you rouse yourself, O Lord, they disappear. (Good News Translation)

The psalmist Asaph communicated his own experience, which is really the experience of all Israel, and of all who genuinely seek to follow God.

Everyone who is truly pure in heart will struggle, at times, to make sense of all the impurity and injustice in the world. Even a cursory observation of this old world clearly sees that it is a broken messed up place.

Those observations challenge the faithful with questions such as, “Is God really good?” and “Is maintaining my purity and faithfulness worth it?”

Most often, the response to those questions is “Yes, but…”

Arrogant people prosper. They get away with being jerks. And it isn’t fair. Good people continually face adversity and hardship. Nothing comes easy. And it doesn’t make sense.

Contemplating this reality for too long can lead to a spiritual crisis of faith. It can produce doubt. It is likely to either morph into anger and bitterness, or a passive “meh” to most things in life.

However, observational appearances can be deceiving. There is much more to seeing than with our two physical eyes. There is the kind of sight which God has:

“I do not judge as people judge. They look at the outward appearance, but I look at the heart.”

1 Samuel 16:7

In truth, the real and actual power of arrogantly wicked people is their ability to create envy and jealousy in the righteous persons.

We need a different way of seeing, a reorientation of our limited understanding of life. Look at the world, containing both the wicked and the righteous, from an angle you haven’t seen before.

For Asaph, this breakthrough perspective happened in the sanctuary of his God. The psalmist began to see that the seeming wealth, health, and invincibility of the arrogant is merely a façade. Their true future is anything but prosperous.

Asaph also had a reorientation of himself. He began to understand and accept that his own heart had the shadows of bitterness and ignorance. He himself had too much vice hiding in his heart.

With the spiritual eyes of the heart, we can focus in on the presence of God. The Lord’s guidance is constant, even when it doesn’t seem like it. God’s handle on the future is secure.

The arrogant and the wicked will not last. There is a day coming when they will not rule over anything. Their end is a sure thing.

The wise heart discerns that not everything I see today will be the same tomorrow. Therefore, I can plan wisely for the future, and be patient that the goodness of God will ultimately prevail over it all. This orientation to life brings confidence and hope.

Wisdom also directs us to discern that our hope and confidence can wax and wane. Just because we may be full of faith, hope, and love today, does not mean that from here-on-out we will never have to struggle with these feelings of jealousy, envy, disappointment, and anger.

Far too often we think emotions can be easily replaced, the negative ones for the positive, envy for happiness, or jealousy for satisfaction.

However, we are more complex creatures than that, having the capacity to hold multiple emotions at the same time. Sometimes, the best thing is to recognize that I can be happy, even though I am sad, without ignoring or stuffing the sadness.

Consider this: At the same time, all the time, God is both terribly sad, as well as quite exuberant. The Lord both grieves and celebrates continually. That’s because God sees it all.

And if I were to see the entire scope of your life, I am sure there are aspects of that life which are joyous, and elements which are despondent, with great longing for change.

Asaph got a much fuller picture of how things actually are in this world. And with that more expansive perspective he discovered a sense of settled hope, despite the fact that nothing in his world had changed at all.

Indeed, I myself am to be the change that I long for in this world. And it starts with gaining a perspective of wisdom, and seeing the angle of immateriality.

Arrogant pride, hoarding of wealth, and injustice will not last forever. They are temporary. But there are permanent things in this universe, and none of them have to do with money or stuff.

When all is said and done, Love survives and thrives. God hasn’t gone anywhere. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Spirit is still alongside us.

And the wicked are no more.

So, may righteousness, justice, and peace surround you today and everyday like a warm security blanket of hope. And may you know that you are seen and loved by a God who cares. Amen.

Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Faith (Psalm 11)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

I have taken refuge in the Lord.
    So how can you say to me,
    “Flee to the hills like a bird
        because the wicked
        have already bent their bows;
        they’ve already strung their arrows;
        they are ready to secretly shoot
        those whose heart is right”?
When the very bottom of things falls out,
    what can a righteous person possibly accomplish?

But the Lord is in his holy temple.
    The Lord! His throne is in heaven.
His eyes see—
    his vision examines all of humanity.
The Lord examines
    both the righteous and the wicked;
    his very being hates anyone who loves violence.
God will rain fiery coals and sulfur on the wicked;
    their cups will be filled
    with nothing but a scorching hot wind
    because the Lord is righteous!
    He loves righteous deeds.
    Those whose heart is right will see God’s face. (Common English Bible)

We all know what it feels like to take the brunt of someone’s poison verbal darts. It’s scary and stressful. What do you do? In a state of fear, shock, or panic, we will likely either fight, flight, freeze, or faith.

Fight

If you have ever received a nasty email based on half-truths and accusations; stood dumbfounded as someone hurled misinformation and criticism at you; and/or experienced the victimization that comes from slanderous and gossiping tongues, then the psalmist knows exactly how you feel. 

Cobbling together a hasty email response, full of anger and vitriol, only sucks us into the person’s evil ways. Metaphorically punching someone in the face for their slap to your face is how the demonic realm handles offenses. Fighting back with an equal or greater force is diametrically opposed to the way of Jesus in loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us.

Flight

Then, there is the response of taking flight from the nastiness. Indeed, it sometimes seems as if good people are always getting swallowed whole by unjust words and behaviors directed squarely at them. 

And it doesn’t help when the downers among us stroll along and give us their unhelpful fatalism about how there is nothing we can do and how nothing will ever change.

Freeze

Some folks are just plain dumbfounded that another person can be so mean or controlling, so they freeze, unable to speak or do anything. They end up suffering in silence, without their victimization having a voice.

Faith

To be the target of evil speech or malevolent actions is, at the least, unsettling, and, at worst, can bring years of struggle, depression, and inability to serve. Yet, there is someone who sees it all, and that someone will address the wrong. 

We have an option beyond fighting back in anger, fleeing altogether in fear, or freezing in our tracks. We can trust God. We can have faith.

God Sees

The Lord sits aloft, overseeing all, and knows everything humanity does and says. God always does right and wants justice done. Everyone who shares a divine sense of what is right and just will see God’s face. God will act because the Lord abhors and despises those who are cruel and enjoy violence.

It’s not a good idea to get on God’s bad side. The way to flare God’s anger is by possessing an acerbic tongue; relishing in verbal violence; and, having no remorse about any of it. Because God loves people, God hates evil. 

The righteous can take solace in the truth that God really does see the harm done and is in a position to do something about it. Like the psalmist, we seek the Lord. The Lord fights our battles.

Not Okay

Whenever we are harassed and the ungodly give us a hard time, the psalmist isn’t offering some nice religious platitudes such as, “Just let go and let God,” “Everything works for the good of those who love God,” or “It’s okay, you’ll be in heaven someday.”

In another context, maybe those statements are helpful. But being in the teeth of the wicked, all is not okay. As much as some folks try to sanitize an evil situation with rainbows and butterflies, the evil is real, and it’s there.

The truth is that everything is not okay. And it’s okay to not feel okay. The earth is filled with violence, malevolence, oppression, injustice, and systemic evil. The psalmist knows this, all too well.

Humble yourselves under God’s power so that he may raise you up in the last day. Throw all your anxiety onto him because he cares about you.

1 Peter 5:6-7, CEB

God Acts

Today’s psalm is reminding and reassuring us that the Lord is aware of what’s going on and will most certainly do something about it. God will act to punish the wicked and deliver the Lord’s people.

There may not be peace this present moment, yet it will not always be this way. We shall behold the face of the Lord.

The Lord is a righteous judge. Justice is the foundation of God’s throne. God sees the entire spectrum of humanity and can make a right assessment of people’s thoughts, intents, words, and actions.

We, however, cannot. Therefore, it is most necessary for us to put our trust in a Divine Being who cares about right and wrong and has the power to act with justice.

Whenever we are hemmed-in through the schemes of diabolical persons and are powerless, there is always the choice to trust in the Lord. The outcome of every life on earth rests in the hands of God. And it will be a just and right rendering.

Trust in the Lord and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. We might struggle mightily on both the inside and outside – our hard circumstance might not change immediately – yet God is the One who will vindicate the just person when the time is right.

You are not alone. The Lord is with you always.

God of justice, look at the state of your servant and act on my behalf. Do not let evil prevail. Thwart the ungodly so that they can no longer do any harm. Amen.

Divine Goodness, Despite Human Ingratitude (Psalm 78:23-29)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Quail in the Wilderness, by Caspar Luyken, 1698

Yet he commanded the skies above
    and opened the doors of heaven;
he rained down on them manna to eat
    and gave them the grain of heaven.
Mortals ate of the bread of angels;
    he sent them food in abundance.
He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,
    and by his power he led out the south wind;
he rained flesh upon them like dust,
    winged birds like the sand of the seas;
he let them fall within their camp,
    all around their dwellings.
And they ate and were well filled,
    for he gave them what they craved. (New Revised Standard Version)

Today’s psalm is the second longest in the psalter (72 verses, with Psalm 119 the longest at a hefty 176 verses). Along with Psalms 105-106, Psalm 78 remembers and rehearses the history of Israel. This is a psalm which is meant for teaching and passing on important lessons.

The upshot of this psalm’s historical recollection is that the people’s ancestors were faithless; therefore, those reading the psalm now should live differently in a positive life of goodness, having observed how the past actors serve as a negative example of ingrates.

The psalmist, Asaph, viewed past events as highly informative for present circumstances. His purpose for crafting the psalm was explicit. He wanted the people:

 to put their hope in God—
        never forgetting God’s deeds,
        but keeping God’s commandments—
    and so that they won’t become like their ancestors:
    a rebellious, stubborn generation,
        a generation whose heart wasn’t set firm
        and whose spirit wasn’t faithful to God. (Psalm 78:7-8, CEB)

The verses for today’s lectionary reading have a unique place within the psalmist’s rehearsal of the past. They connect to the previous section (verses 9-22) which recounts the Lord’s angry response concerning Israel’s unbelief and rebellion.

In many ways, Psalm 78 has a consistent theme of human stubbornness, lack of faith, and wanting to do their own thing apart from God. Bucking God’s covenant code and moral law was ever-present in Israel’s history. And yet…

The Lord remained the same: Faithful and true. Furthermore, God stubbornly showed steadfast divine love and covenant loyalty to the people, despite their herky-jerky commitment and fickle faith.

Manna from heaven

Although the theme of human failure runs throughout the psalm, the dominant idea points to God’s gracious mercy, eternal faithfulness, and steadfast love. Most of all, the psalmist wanted his readers to remember the goodness and grace of God.

The people’s unbelief in no way stymied the promises of God. That’s because salvation and deliverance, faith and hope, do not originate and are not sustained by humans, but by the Lord God almighty who created heaven and earth.

Even though the people were faithless, and thus, had no trust in God’s power; nevertheless, the Lord opened the doors of heaven in order to meet the needs of people who did not deserve divine help.

The verses for today remember the story of God’s provision of manna and quail in the desert (Exodus 16). The Lord was gracious, merciful, and kind to the Israelites, despite their incessant grumbling. God responded to them because of their sheer need, and not because of any righteousness coming from them.

God not only provided food, but gave the manna in abundance, and the quail in superabundance. The contrast could not be any more glaring: Israel murmured, grumbled, complained, and demonstrated a lack of faith; God granted the Israelites a ridiculous amount of food, and evidenced steadfast faithfulness to the covenant.

The supreme goodness of God brings out, in stark relief, the incredible foolishness of Israel’s attitude. In the Exodus account, while the meat was still in their mouths, God’s anger flared because of the people’s recalcitrance.

On the surface, the divine response of judgment may appear out of sorts to the divine grace shown to Israel. Yet, the Lord cares about the holistic needs of people, and not only in giving sustenance.

God wants faithful and obedient people. The Lord desires goodness, righteousness, and justice to be the hallmark of the community.

To have your belly full and your spirit empty is an affront to God – because the Lord is good, right, and just, and does not tolerate impertinence, impudence, and impetuousness. Vice and ingratitude only makes a person an imbecile who is worthless to their fellow humanity.

Divine punishment – anywhere you find it in Holy Scripture – is meant to draw people back into relationship with God. Another way of phrasing this, is that God delivers people and grants them freedom, so that they will have no obstacles toward living a good, right, and just life.

No matter the response of God – whether it is by miraculous provision or by divine punishment – it’s always a response of grace; the Lord consistently acts from a place of compassion and commitment to doing what is best for the community.

Whereas the Israelites repeatedly cycled themselves through spirals of faith and unbelief, gratitude and grumbling, obedience and disobedience; God, however, constantly demonstrated the presence of grace and mercy, righteousness and justice, holiness and love.

The only reason the Israelites (and the entire human race, for that matter) are not wiped out is because God forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. What’s more, the Lord didn’t even let them destroy themselves, unwittingly by their own unawareness and foolishness. (Psalm 78:36-39)

I am profoundly glad that God is the bigger person in the relationship with humanity. The Lord is continually mindful of who we are, as well as God’s own divine essence and power.

Yet he, being compassionate,
    forgave their iniquity
    and did not destroy them;
often he restrained his anger
    and did not stir up all his wrath.
He remembered that they were but flesh,
    a wind that passes and does not come again. (Psalm 78:38-39, NRSV)

As people created in the image and likeness of God, we find our highest joy and greatest fulfillment in receiving the good things from God with gratitude; and of giving goodness to others in a spirit of love – no matter what.

Gracious and almighty God: Open wide the eyes of my soul that I may see the good in all things. Grant me today a new vision of your truth. Inspire me with the spirit of joy and gladness. Make me a cup of strength to suffering souls. Amen.