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“That Troublesome Old Testament God - V”
Depending on where you are coming from, you may or may not have a problem thinking about a God of judgment. This may be a theological difference, a generational difference, or something else altogether. Some struggle with a God who judges, others do not.
Fretheim defines judgment as “The divine mediation of the consequences of sin.” I believe that is a good working definition. Sin is a disruption of the moral order created by God, which calls for a response from God. In other words, sin has consequences.
Consider some of the major points I heard Fretheim make about the judgment of God below:
*God created the moral order to begin with.
*God remains involved in this created order by watching over it or tending to it
*God sometimes uses already-existing judgmental effects to administer his judgment.
*Human sin affects not only the sinner but others as well. On this point, think about the terrible destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC. The prophets preached about this for many decades before it took place, and then looked back on it for many decades after it was rendered. It is one of the primary historical foci of the Old Testament. The reasons it happened are spelled out in stark terms. However, the fact is that many innocents died in Jerusalem and Judah during this event (children, the faithful few, etc). They died not because of their own sin, but because of the sin of the majority.
*Non-human creations suffer from the effects of the sin of humans. This is a point I would like to consider some more and think through. Fretheim points to a passage like Hosea 4:1-3 where the prophet laments the sin of the people, and then, in poetic fashion, describes its effects on the land, the animals of the field, the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea.
*God is not a cool and detached judge, but rather he is personally caught up in what is happening. Again, the example of this is from the prophet Hosea, in chapter 6. Remember the pathos of these words? “What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning mist, like the dew that goes away early.”
Despite all our attempts to explain God’s judgment, and perhaps even to soften it so as to make it more palatable, the Old Testament text will not allow us to make it something that your typical post-modernist will want to embrace. Consider a few final examples: Ezekiel 22:31; Jeremiah 14:16; and Jeremiah 21:14.