This is part 2 of 2 of Lesson 2. Click here to go back to the introduction to Lesson 2.
Let’s consider a challenging text cited in the quarterly this week, from Jer. 9:7-16. Here is an excerpt below, but the full text is worth reading through:
Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts:
“Behold, I will refine them and try them;
For how shall I deal with the daughter of My people?
Their tongue is an arrow shot out;
It speaks deceit;
One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth,
But in his heart he lies in wait.
Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the LORD.“ Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?”
I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains…“ I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a den of jackals.
I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant…And the LORD said, “Because they have forsaken
My law which I set before them,
and have not obeyed My voice,
nor walked according to it…
I will scatter them also among the Gentiles,
whom neither they nor their fathers have known.
And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them.”
How do we explain texts like these? There are various observations and explanations. Different people may find different ones of use…
A plain reading of the text would say that God is jealous and is within His rights to punish those who have disobeyed Him.
On the other hand I’ve heard an interesting analogy about these type of texts and parents. The question is asked “Have you ever threatened your children with some dire consequences to save them from a worse fate?” For instance “If you don’t stop doing blah blah blah, I’m gonna blah blah blah to you” In other words God threatens these things to get our attention and to turn us away from eternally destructive behaviours.
Jonathan Gallagher poses the following question:
Recognizing that both in the Old Testament, and still occasionally in the New, God has ascribed to him qualities and actions that relate to his overall sovereignty rather than specific cause—such as the usual example given regarding the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. But here God specifically does make threats, ones which are indeed carried out to some degree. So what to make of this “pain-causing” God?
To balance things up, let’s consider the following thoughts from Ellen White (as cited by Jonathan Gallagher http://www.sabbathschoolstudy.org/study/show/406):
The Lord permits suffering and calamity to come upon men and women to call us out of our selfishness, to awaken in us the attributes of his character,–compassion, tenderness, and love.” {RH, October 10, 1899}
It was generally believed by the Jews that sin is punished in this life. Every affliction was regarded as the penalty of some wrongdoing, either of the sufferer himself or of his parents. It is true that all suffering results from the transgression of God’s law, but this truth had become perverted. Satan, the author of sin and all its results, had led men to look upon disease and death as proceeding from God,–as punishment arbitrarily inflicted on account of sin. Hence one upon whom some great affliction or calamity had fallen had the additional burden of being regarded as a great sinner. Thus the way was prepared for the Jews to reject Jesus. He who “hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows” was looked upon by the Jews as “stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted;” and they hid their faces from Him. Isa. 53:4, 3. {DA 471}
I’d be interested in your thoughts…
That’s it for this week’s lesson – see you next week!
