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Deutsche Version | Wiki Start | Topics Collection ii

What about God's anger and punishment? ...

Thursday, Jan 14, 2010. The biblical book of Jeremiah is full of severe words of judgment. It is also full of heavy words of encouragement and restoration. Both judgment and restoration are central themes of the Old Testament prophecy.

Often, today we are confused by the judgment part of the Old Testament. The cruelty of the wars and events scars us and repels us. We ask: how can a loving God do this? Some even think that the God of the Old Testament is a different God from the God of the New Testament. It is a key point to realize God's purity, his anger, and his love, which all are there at the same time in the prophetic books from Isaiah to Malachi.

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30 The people of Israel and Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth; indeed, the people of Israel have done nothing but provoke me with what their hands have made, declares the Lord. 31

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From the day it was built until now, this city has so aroused my anger and wrath that I must remove it from my sight.

32 The people of Israel and Judah have provoked me by all the evil they have done - they, their kings and officials, their priests and prophets, the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem. 33 They turned their backs to me and not their faces; though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline. 34 They set up their abominable idols in the house that bears my Name and defiled it. 35 They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin.

36 You are saying about this city, By the sword, famine and plague it will be handed over to the king of Babylon; but this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 37 I will surely gather them from all the lands where I banish them in my furious anger and great wrath; I will bring them back to this place and let them live in safety. 38 They will be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. 41 I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul. (Jeremiah 32: 30 - 41)

Even in his most severe punishment God has thoughts of love and restoration. That is an important observation. God's sense for justice and his wish to forgive are at a balance, but his wish to forgive will prevail in the end. In fact, this is what we then find in Jesus, where he combines judgment and love. At the cross, judgment is carried out, but he takes it onto himself in the person of Jesus, the Christ, his son.

God's purity, his justice and solidarity, his sense for reality, are important features for us. What would the world be, if we did not have a just creator? If we face injustice and ignorance by our fellow humans, how lucky we are that there is a just creator, that the injustice of our own systems and the global world situation will be judged and changed by the Lord! ... more texts

jn_en_2010_01_14.txt · Last modified: 2017/06/18 16:48 by 127.0.0.1