“It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” (Lam. 3:22) Wrath is different from vengeance, we are not to exercise vengeance, but righteous indignation, anger.
In Deuteronomy 21:18-21 we are told to kill the violent man so that others would fear and not follow in his sinful footstep, but that brings me back to our first verse in this letter to you, and just a quick question, why doesn’t God do that for us? Why leave that up to us who are sinful natured in ourselves, where corruption and greed can be manipulated by those who commit evil acts upon the weak, why doesn’t God just kill them when the event occurs.
Many of the events in the life of a mature Christian focus on reaching the lost, reproving in love those that are in error towards the Scriptures, and like it or not, being grieved by the lost world around him. Now of course, we could just let them go along their merry way, the saved to fewer rewards and treasures, the lost to an eternity of hopelessness and pain, we could be as Jeremiah was and just say as he did in the first part of Jeremiah 20:9, but the last half of that verse compels us. But why does the Lord leave us to attempt to recompence the evil, why not just end that man or woman’s existence in this life when a grievous sin is committed against another human being?
Laws in most nations become harsher with what is seen as the severity of the crime, and they are always based around the moral construct that the ruling class at that particular time have determined them to be by the severity of sin, if you will, that they themselves adhere to.
Running a stop sign does not require the death penalty, neither does killing babies though, if they are still in the womb.
All judges are bound by the laws of their nations, yet they are given some discretion as to the needed punishment according to the crime. God has left that in the hands of man. The born-again believer fully understands that “in the end,” when these wicked people die, they will be punished, but that has led so far down the wrong path today that even among those who would consider themselves Evangelicals, judging has become a sin in their eyes, even the fulfillment of John 7:24, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” And so along with that righteous indignation has flown away from them.
We know that all sin is the same in the eyes of the Lord, it is direct rebellion against Him, and will be punished, yet a man in a lifetime, a wicked rebellious individual, can accumulate much sin in this life, can harm many, and yet live to an old age and die peacefully, for the Lord, for His own reasons, does not interfere in that evil man’s life. I mean this in no offense, I say it without full understanding, but what the Lord has said is “Handle these matters yourself,” He does not step in and strike with lightening the rapist, the murderer, or even those who kill the unborn, but if He did, how then would we think of Him if He did so to all sins.
The little child who steals a candy bar, the man who strikes his wife, a person who speaks a lie, all killed by the Almighty at the moment the sin happens. How would we look upon the Almighty then? As loving and compassionate, as full of long suffering, mercy and grace? “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.”
