Old Sandals

Come, and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight.

He has torn only because it was necessary.  As a last resort. He took no delight in it.  He takes delight in healing us, in binding us up.

The princes of Judah are like those who remove a landmark; I will pour out My wrath on them like water. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment…Therefore I will be to Ephraim like a moth, and to the house of Judah like rottenness….I, even I, will tear them and go away; I will take them away, and no one shall rescue. I will return again to My place till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.

The Lord has determined to “pour out [His] wrath” on His people.  To what end?  “Then they will earnestly seek Me.”  This is God’s ultimate purpose in judgment. In a way, it is a mercy.  The prophet Habakkuk prays, “In wrath, remember mercy”.  And the Apostle Paul will write, “The wrath of God is poured out on the ungodliness of men”.  It is poured out, not because God’s honor has been offended, but because His good creation has been terribly marred by sin.

 

There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint.

This is Israel!  These are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  These are those to whom it was promised that through them—through them—all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

 

Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans….For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.

The entire Old Testament is a story of failure, yet there is God’s promise of success. Israel’s failure.  Turning away to idols.  God’s going after them.  Pursuing them.  Putting up with them.  Love never fails.

And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy. Then I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’

I am His and He is mine.  You are my God.  This day, tomorrow, for all the days you give me…

Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah. I will save them…not…by bow, nor by sword or battle, by horses or horsemen.

The Lord is merciful.  Humble.  A God who judges when He has to, but who delights in showing mercy.

He who kills a bull  is as if he slays a man.  He who sacrifices a lamb,  as if  he breaks a dogs neck.  He who offers a grain offering,  as if he offers  swines blood. He who burns incense,  as if he blesses an idol. Just as they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations,  so will I choose their delusions, and bring their fears on them. Because, when I called, no one answered. When I spoke they did not hear; but they did evil before My eyes, and chose that  in which I do not delight.

The words of a little tune I used to sing as a child come to mind: “How about your heart? Is it right with God? That’s the thing that counts today. People often see you, as you are outside.  Jesus really knows you, for He sees inside…”

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together. The lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust  shall be  the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, says the Lord.

In that day, all will be redeemed, even creation itself.

From the liturgical prayer,  “Welcome Christ, the True Light”:

And grant that the rest of this day and the remainder of our lives may pass in peace and without sin.

As I reflected on this, I thought of the woman caught in the act of adultery who was brought to Jesus. He said to her, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” None of us can go long without sinning in some way, for we are sinners. But we are also redeemed sinners, by grace, through faith. It really ought to be our highest ambition, our most fervent desire and prayer, to pass the rest of this day, and all our days, without sin, as much as possible.  For isn’t our salvation a deliverance from the power of sin, the penalty of sin, and eventually the presence of sin? Praise God, now and forever, to the ages of ages.

Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence.

From a recent series of posts on OrthodoxChristianity.net:

AE: How does the Eastern Orthodox faith understand the wrath of God, and His punishment for sin?  The following is from an Eastern Orthodox  liturgical prayer, “Welcome Christ, the True Light”:  O Lord, physician and healer of our souls, do not rebuke us in your displeasure nor punish us in your wrath, but deal with us according to your mercy. Does this not imply that God will indeed punish the wicked in His wrath, according to the Orthodox faith?

EO: God is incapable of punishing anyone, since He is the Creator and any form of destruction would be a negation of His Pure and Positive Love.  The only reason God is presented in a certain way in that prayer, as well as in the Old Testament, is because it is the only way people can understand the consequences of their sins.  Man himself causes his own destruction, when he refuses the loving power of a Creator God, and thereby gives way to the ‘destroyer’.

AE: But if it is true that God cannot punish anyone because He is totally loving, and that we, in effect, “punish ourselves”, it would seem that the liturgical prayer to which I referred needs modified.  A plain reading of the prayer—a plain reading of various texts in Holy Scripture—seems at odds with such an interpretation. Is not the Orthodox tradition all about a balance, a holding together of revealed truths that are at times difficult to reconcile?  God is a loving Father, yet we are advised that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  The beloved apostle leaned on Jesus’ breast at the last supper, but then fell at his feet as one dead in the book of the Revelation.

EO: God’s justice and holiness and faithfulness do not contradict his love.

AE: But neither does His love contradict His justice, righteousness, etc.  I don’t believe that God is conflicted.  His love and His justice are in perfect harmony.  I am just trying (prayerfully trying) to more clearly understand how He is loving, yet wrathful.  “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry…”

EO: God does not desire to hurt anybody. Even when He is forced to punish, He does not love doing it and He will avoid punishing for as much as He can. The only reason for punishment would be if those who hate Him get in His way and provoke Him to act back in such a way that if He doesn’t act, He would not be able to protect those who love Him. God is Love and does not punish based on the logic, “You’ve done Me wrong, now you must give me something back”, but “You are in My way, get out or I will remove you”; needless to say, if you don’t comply, you will be removed without remorse on God’s part, and sadly, many do provoke God to such a degree (stupid). It is serious, though, because no sin is small enough to not get God’s attention because all sin causes Him a certain kind of unnecessary difficulty. So, permanent lack of repentance is sufficient for God to allow one to fall in the axis of evil. If you hate God permanently, yet, you never really sinned much outwardly, God is still going to consider that you are a pest on His territory.

EO: I think the quality of being holy is determined by justice. God’s punishing wrath is revealing his inmost being which is Holy. It is because of this that Jesus died on the cross and it is because he is holiness and desires holiness that he has “a punishing wrath”.  But as someone else said this should not be understood so much in human terms.

EO: It is true wrath, in the sense that God is capable of manifesting as wrath and destruction (and yes, this means that God Himself works wrath; it is not just some passive thing programmed into creation). But God’s wrath is unlike ours, in that His wrath does not come from some need to equalize injustices committed against Him; instead, His wrath is directed towards the same salvific purpose as His mercy, justice, life, power, and all other manifestations of the divine in the cosmos.

AE: From all the Orthodox material I have read/heard—here and elsewhere—there doesn’t seem to be a “tidy” answer to the question of God’s wrath, although there is much that is thought-provoking.  There is much I do not know, but my desire is to be faithful to the Biblical witness, which at times is not always as clear as I would like.  I have benefited from this exchange.  I will continue to prayerfully read the Scriptures and to give consideration to the writings of the holy fathers, by God’s grace. Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.

The early church fathers interpreted these verses differently from John Calvin.

John Calvin said, “This chapter has been violently distorted by Christians, as if what is said here related to Christ, whereas the prophet speaks simply of God himself; and they have imagined that here Christ is red, because he was wet with his own blood which he shed on the cross. But the prophet meant nothing of the sort.”  

But Gregory of Nazianzus said, in responding to the Docetists who claimed that Jesus did not really have a human body, “How can the garments of the bloodless and bodiless be red as of one that treadeth in the wine fat? Urge in reply the beauty of the garment of the body [of Christ] which suffered and was made beautiful in suffering.”