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.

Who Wants a Safe Lion?

Suggested Reading: Exodus 33:12-23

In C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when Peter, Susan, Edmond, and Lucy meet the talking Beavers upon entering Narnia together for the first time, Mrs. Beaver begins to tell them about Aslan, the great Lion, the Son of the Great Emperor across the sea. When the children ask if Aslan is safe, Mr. Beaver responds, "Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you." Though the Beavers knew that Aslan was not "safe" they longed for his return anyway. Not because he was safe, or even because he was powerful enough to save them from the wicked White Witch, but because he was good.

In Exodus 33, Moses had just returned from the mountain where he had received God's law to discover that the people had already built themselves an idol and begun to worship it. Moses was rather harsh with the people, killing many of them in retribution for their betrayal and idolatry. After a time of uncertainty, Moses was reassured by God that God would continue to accompany them to the Promised Land, but then Moses made a request of God: "Please, let me see your glory." To which God responded, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name Yahweh before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." (Exodus 33:18-19, HCSB).

I don't know what Moses had in mind when he asked God to show him God's glory but the opportunity allowed God to teach Moses something very important. God's most magnificent attribute, God's glory, is not God's miraculous power, God's might, God's wisdom, God's sovereignty, or even God's perfect justice. God's most magnificent attribute -- God's glory -- is God's goodness, God's capacity for being gracious and compassionate.

As followers of Christ, we are called to be perfect, just as our Heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48), but even this command of Jesus is given in the context of loving enemies and tax collectors. Our call to be like Jesus, to imitate our Father in Heaven, is not just a call to be holy and just. Our call is to imitate God in all God's glory -- to be good and gracious and compassionate, to love the enemy and the sinner. We are to follow the example of Jesus from John 8 who, confronted with a woman caught in the act of adultery, did not condemn her, but saved her from the self-righteous and scheming mobs and then told her, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore" (John 8:11, HCSB).

If you want to be like Jesus, if you truly want to be conformed to the image of Christ, then do not be satisfied with being wise, or just, or even having Spirit-enabled abilities to heal and prophesy. Strive to be good. Then, maybe when the world sees us, they will know that we don't condone the sin they live in, that being around us is not "safe" because their world may be turned upside down, but they will also yearn for the Presence that comes with us because they can tell, through us, that God is good.

The LORD is an Avenger (Black Holes Included)

Suggested Reading: 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12

One of the places where the 2009 Star Trek movie diverged from the original Star Trek Television series was in the role of the planet Vulcan. In the 2009 movie, the villain, Nero, traveled back in time and destroyed Vulcan, murdering billions of people in the process. At the climax of the movie, Captain Kirk and his Vulcan first officer, Spock, have Nero's ship trapped at the edge of a black hole. Kirk contacts Nero and offers to render assistance but the villain is so consumed by his hate of Vulcans that he refuses. When Nero refuses his help, Kirk opens fire. When Kirk explains his offer of assistance to Spock, assuming that Spock would appreciate the non-violent gesture, Spock's understated, "Not in this circumstance, Captain," reminds the audience that Nero was an unrepentant genocidal murderer. In this particular instance, Spock did not want non-violence. Spock wanted the murder of billions of his fellow Vulcans avenged. The audience understood that, in this case, mercy was far too good for the genocidal Nero. The blood of all his victims cried out for justice.

We often think of God being represented through Jesus as a God of undying love and inexhaustible mercy, and we are right in that regard. But God cares as much about the victims as God cares about being merciful to the victimizer.  1 Thessalonians 4:6 reads, "This means one must not transgress against and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you" (HCSB). 2 Thessalonians 1:6-8 tells us, "It is righteous for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you...taking vengeance with flaming fire on those who don’t know God and on those who don’t obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus" (HCSB).  We often focus on God's forgiveness for the sinner because we view ourselves as the transgressors and want mercy extended to us. But what if we are the victim like Spock? Suddenly justice sounds a lot better than mercy, right?

God is a God of both justice and mercy. Yes, God extends forgiveness to the repentant. But, caring for the victim, God extends justice to those who reject his mercy through unrepentance . God does not extend his justice because God is callous to the sinner's cries but because God is sensitive to the cries of the victim. God avenges the suffering of his people when the guilty party refuses to repent. This should comfort us because we know that God will bring us justice if those who cause us pain do not change their ways. But it should also give us pause when we refuse to acknowledge and rectify the hurt we have caused others. How will God mete out justice to us if we refuse to change our ways?

Yes, the Lord is merciful and loving, but the LORD is also an Avenger.