Rejoicing Over the Evil Step-Mother's Demise

Suggested Reading: Isaiah 8:5-10

I have always been amazed at the number of Cinderella type movies that come out every year. One of the things that nearly all of these movies have in common is that the evil step-mother character gets what's coming to her in the end. Usually, the step-mother experiences some kind of humiliation, often forced to spend the rest of her life doing the kind of back-breaking labor that she had previously forced Cinderella to do. Just as often, the step-mother loses her fortune to Cinderella because it really belonged to her all along. On rare occasions these movies kill off the step-mother character at the end. The reason we always see the step-mother "get what's coming to her" is simple: we enjoy seeing people paid back what they deserve. It's human nature.

Unfortunately, our joy at seeing another person experience well-deserved pain is not something our Heavenly Father is proud of. In the book of Isaiah, God had promised delivery and judgment against the northern kingdoms of Israel and Syria for teaming up to attack Judah. But instead of simply being grateful that God was protecting and avenging them, the people of Judah began to rejoice that Israel and Syria would get what was coming to them. So God sent this message through Isaiah: "My care for the people of Judah is like the gently flowing waters of Shiloah, but they have rejected it. They are rejoicing over what will happen to King Rezin and King Pekah. Therefore, the Lord will overwhelm them with a mighty flood from the Euphrates River- the king of Assyria and all his glory. This flood will overflow all its channels and sweep into Judah until it is chin deep. It will spread its wings, submerging your land from one end to the other, O Immanuel" (Isaiah 8:6-8, NLT).

Justice is important to God, but mercy is just as important, and God's desire is that we crave mercy for our enemies because we ourselves have received mercy. Rejoicing in another's pain or misfortune earns God's discipline in our own lives, no matter how much the other person deserves what's coming to them. When God sees us do things like rejoicing over the death of Osama Bin Laden, or celebrating that a murderer was executed, or gloating that our back-stabbing co-worker had her heart broken, we demonstrate that we do not value justice or mercy the way God does, that we are only interested in payback, and we earn God's judgment ourselves.

If we are truly children of the God who sent His Son to die for a world that rejected Him, our prayer would be for mercy; we would long to see the wrong-doer changed by the Spirit of God and transformed by the power of the Gospel; we would find ways to reach out to them just like our Father reached out to us. Even if they deserve it, we should never rejoice that someone gets what is coming to them.

Batman, the Righteous Prostitute

Suggested Reading: Genesis 38

One of the compelling elements of superhero stories is the contradiction inherent in a person who illegally acts as a vigilante in order to fight crime and seek justice. Batman is a great example. Often chased by the police for his vigilante activity, Batman is also the only means of defeating many of the super-villains who attack Gotham City. In some tellings, Batman works with the police but it is often a secret relationship because Batman's work is technically illegal. Technically, Batman is breaking the law but he is trying to do the best he can in a desperate world.

In Genesis 38, Judah, one of the twelve sons of Israel, has three sons. His oldest marries a woman named Tamar but then dies. In accordance with the Old Testament laws of levirite marriage, Judah's second son also marries Tamar. But when the second son dies, Judah puts off giving his youngest son to Tamar, afraid the woman is a jinx. When Tamar realizes Judah is not going to follow through with his obligations of providing his youngest son as her husband, she dresses up as a prostitute and positions herself where she knows Judah will pass. Judah encounters her, propositions her, seals the deal, and then goes on his way, never realizing that he slept with his daughter-in-law. When Tamar shows up pregnant, Judah is furious and wants to have her executed for adultery. But when she provides evidence that she is pregnant with Judah's child, he changes his tone. He proclaims, "She is more righteous than I am, because I didn't arrange for her to marry my son Shelah" (Genesis 38:26, NLT).

At times, we see people in their sin and we want to pass judgment on them. A man leaves his wife and we want to judge him for infidelity or for giving up on his marriage. We see a young woman get pregnant out of wedlock and we want to label her as easy or promiscuous. Our child comes home from school with a note about the disturbance they created in P.E. and we want to jump all over them for being a problem child. And while the things these people have done are wrong, we rarely know when they are only doing something wrong because they don't know how to make a bad situation any better otherwise. Maybe that man is leaving because his wife is abusive. Maybe that young woman was trying to avoid losing the only man who ever showed her any positive attention. Maybe that child was defending himself from kids who know how to strike when the teacher isn't looking. Maybe they're all just being selfish. But maybe they have reasons.

The point is that we never know why people make the decisions they do. We never know if we would do the same thing - or something worse - if we were put in their place. So we should avoid judging people just because they do something wrong. Maybe they are just making bad choices. But maybe they are just desperate and need our help and prayers more than our condemnation. Their reasons never make the actions right but we should take a look at their circumstances before we start bringing the hammer down on people who mess up. After all, we can all wind up desperate.

Not Having a Child With Your Brother's Wife

Suggested Reading: Genesis 38:1-10

There is an odd story in the Old Testament that I have pondered since I was a child. The story is located in Genesis, during a section that tells us about Jacob's twelve sons and how they conducted themselves. Judah had two grown sons. One of them married but died without children. According to the Old Testament laws of levirite marriage, his brother, Onan, was supposed to marry the dead brother's wife and have a child with her that would then be considered the child of the dead brother. But Onan was not willing to have a child who would not be his own heir. So whenever he had intercourse with his brother’s wife, he spilled the semen on the ground. This prevented her from having a child who would belong to his brother (Genesis 38:9, NLT).

I've often wondered what the moral of the story was, what exactly was the rationale for Levirite marriage (the Old Testament does explain it to a degree), and how in the world a story about a man who refused to have a child for his brother applies to people who don't practice Levirite marriage. But this last time I read the passage, I noticed something I've never caught before. Something that was so obvious you almost don't consider it. Read that verse again. So whenever he had intercourse with his brother's wife... Now, if Onan wasn't going to have children for his brother, wouldn't it have been simpler to just not sleep with the woman?

But Onan was like most of us. He was willing to use the law for his own benefit (pleasure through his brother's wife) but he didn't want the law to apply when it demanded something he didn't want to give. How often do we insist on following the letter of the law in church business meetings or in local elections or in our community when it benefits us, only to turn around and take the law much less seriously when it requires something of us? We like a progressive tax code when we get money from it but when we have money taken from us, it's suddenly not so appealing. We think codes of conduct are great for those other people who need them because they have to behave the way we want. But when following those codes is inconvenient for us, the codes suddenly become just a suggestion. "No cutting in line" is the law of the land when it keeps us from having to wait longer but just a guideline when the rule makes us wait longer.

Do you use rules differently based on whether they benefit or hinder you? Are you legalistic when the rules keep other people in line but "under grace" when those same rules suddenly apply to you?  Being children of God means we live consistent, holy lives. Hypocrites only like rules when they benefit themselves. Let's avoid the hypocrisy.