There are many times in the Bible where God has sent calamity to a nation.
Some people wonder how a loving God can be so cruel, but is it really cruelty, or an attempt at adjustment?
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Punishment by a human being is the result of doing something you have been told not to do, or not doing something you were told to do. In any event, the aim is to get you to do as ordered. Obedience to human rules generally results in not getting punished.
God punishes for pretty much the same reason: he has told you what you should do (in the Torah) and you are punished when you don’t obey. However, with God, obedience will get you more blessings than you could ever count (Deuteronomy 28).
The one highly significant difference between when God punishes and when human beings punish is this: humans (not all, of course, but I believe most) punish more out of prideful anger because the one being punished didn’t do as they wanted, so they feel insulted and ignored, and punish in order to teach someone to be obedient.
When we sin, which is disobeying God, he also feels ignored and insulted, even angry, but he punishes in order to save us from eternal torture.
Humans punish in order to be obeyed, and God punishes in order to save us from ourselves.
Human history, especially in the Bible, has proven that, as a species, we have an inherent desire to disobey. That must be because of the little guy with a pitchfork and horns on our shoulder shouting louder than the little guy with the wings and a harp on the other shoulder.
That is why David wrote how the rod and staff of God comfort him (Psalm 23). As a shepherd, David knew how those two tools worked: if a sheep began to stray from the herd, the shepherd would gently lead it back with the hook at the end of his staff.
However, when the sheep resisted the staff, the rod was then used to whack the obstinate ovine upside its head to get it to obey.
The Bible is rife with warnings from God, through his prophets, to get back on track and obey the Torah because when they do they will receive blessings and to keep anyone from having to die, which God says he did not want anyone to suffer (Ezekiel 18:23).
But, as you probably already know, most every single one of those warnings was ignored, resulting in God leaving his staff (i.e., the Prophets) alone, and using his rod to get our attention.
And what was his rod? Well, there were the Philistines, the Ninevites, the Hittites, the Egyptians, the Ethiopians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Amorites, the Edomites, and all those other -mites.
And let’s not forget the ever-popular usage of famine and plague.
So God’s “cruelty” was (indeed) hard to endure, but the purpose was not to be cruel: it was to get their attention in a way that they will return to obedience and save themselves from further destruction.
When we read Isaiah 9:13, God shows how disappointed he was in the people because despite how often and how much worse he would cause them to suffer, they still refused to turn back to him. This same stubborn refusal to submit to God is repeated in the Book of Revelation.
And the obedience God wanted was not to make God feel superior or better about himself, but to ensure that the people would be blessed and able to be with God throughout eternity.
Let’s face it, humans want you to obey them and it is often because it is better for you, but just as often it is in order to demonstrate their superior authority and to make them feel better. If you have children who obey you, don’t you feel better about yourself when they obey?
And be honest: is it because you know that when they obey it is good for them, or because you feel better that they obeyed you?
So, the next time you read about how God has sent plague or armies against his people, remember that he didn’t do it from pride, or to teach them a lesson, or to get back at them. No, he did it to prevent them from doing more harm to themselves by ignoring his instructions, which he gave to everyone who worships him so that we can be in his presence, forever.
God does things to us for one reason, and one reason only- for our own good!
Thank you for being here and please remember to comment and share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!