#3 – Holiness and Justice
In the 18th century in the American frontier, a recurring motif in the Great Awakening was: man is very, very, very bad, and God is
very, very, very mad. Emphasis on sinfulness of man and wrath of God. 19th
century had a dramatic reaction: well, man is not quite so bad and God really
isn’t quite so mad, focused on the goodness of man and love of God. Beginning
of 20th century a response to that reaction: crisis theology because
it borrowed the term from the Latin word cresis: judgment.
If we are to take seriously the biblical portrait of God, we must take
into consideration the wrath of God.
In the Old Testament there are certain times and places where people felt there was an irrational expression in the character of God
Himself. His holiness and righteousness were present, but there was a defect in His character. The "shadow side" of Yahweh. Some even referred to it as an element of the
demonic. They felt it displays itself by sudden unprovoked manifestations of whimsical, capricious, arbitrary anger.
Passages come to mind such as the beginning of Leviticus 10 when Aaron’s sons added incense and offered
unauthorized fire. The fire consumed them and they died before the Lord. How did Aaron react? Here he was, a high priest who had a ceremony into the priesthood, wearing garments for glory and beauty, and then his own sons were also consecrated for
the priesthood. They were young clergy who tried a
little adolescent type prank, result of immaturity, and without warning or rebuke, God
strikes them dead instantly. Aaron goes to
Moses, "What’s going on? Are these the thanks I get for my service? It's a small
transgression – what kind of God does this?"
Moses said to Aaron: “This is what the Lord spoke of when he said among
those who approach me I will be regarded as holy, and in the sight of all the
people I will be honored.” And Aaron held his peace. God said, "Do you remember when I established the
priesthood, consecrated you for these holy tasks? It is not negotiable that before the people I will be
treated with reverence." When God spoke
Aaron shut up.
Another example was Uzza the Coathite. The ark of the covenant was kept in safe keeping
until it would be restored in its place in the sanctuary. There was a celebration as they transferred it in the city, and
people lined the streets, danced and sang. The ark of the covenant was placed
in an ox cart. As it was moving down the road, one of the oxen stumbled, and
the cart tilted and it looked like it would slide into the mud and be
desecrated. Instinctively, involuntarily Uzza stretched forth his hand to protect
the throne of God from falling in the mud. God didn’t open up the heavens and
say, “Thank you, Uzza!” No, as soon as his hand touched it, God struck him
dead. To give some background, the tribe of Levi was set apart by God
to care for the temple. Each family within the tribe of Levi was given a particular task. Coath was one of Levi’s sons. Their task or life’s vocation
was to take care of the sacred vessels. They were trained on how to treat it. Never, ever, EVER were they to touch the throne of God (the ark of the covenant) – one of the
things they had to know. God said, If you touch it, you will die. Why was it transported on an oxcart? Loops
were there so they could carry it with sticks on foot. Here was the problem: he assumed that his hands were less polluted than the dirt. The earth was being dirt, obeying God’s laws,
doing what dirt is supposed to do. The
hand of man was what God said “I don’t want that on this throne.”
List of capital
crimes – over 30 offenses for which God commanded the death penalties, for
homosexual acts, adultery, child being unruly in public, capital crime for a Jewish
person to go to a fortune teller. How
blood thirsty, we might think! The New Testament has a spirit of mercy and love.
Here is the key to the whole matter: the real mystery of iniquity is not that a
holy, righteous God should exercise justice, to punish willfully disobedient
creatures. The real mystery is why this God
through generations tolerates rebellious creatures who commit cosmic treason
against His authority. Even though there are 30-something capital offenses in the Old Testament, that doesn’t represent a cruel and
unusual form of justice at the hand of God but already a massive reduction in
capital crime. Remember the rules at
Creation: God breathed into dirt the breath of life, put man in the highest status on the planet,
the greatest blessing and gift of life, and stamped his holy image on that
piece of dirt. But the law was: The soul that sins it
shall die. All sin is a capital offense. Not just death after 70 yrs. old. Adam and Eve were told about the forbidden fruit: "the day you eat of it you shall surely
die." Not spiritual death alone the day they transgressed the law of God. The day
that you eat you die biologically; it’s over.
Who can convict a holy, perfectly righteous Creator? Out of sheer mercy He is giving blessing. Is there anything wrong with God extinguishing a creature who has the
audacity to challenge His authority to rule His creation?
What is involved in the slightest sin? We in essence say, "My will has a right that is higher than the
rights of God." It is terrifying that people think committing abortion is a moral right. God never has given the moral right to do that. What will happen when
someone stands before God and says I had the right to do that? Where did you get
that right? They are saying, "I defy the authority of God, insult the majesty of God, and challenge
the justice of God." We are so accustomed
to doing that and so careful to justify our disobedience that our consciences have been seared. We disobey and think it’s
no serious matter. God, instead of destroying mankind in that act of revolt, instead reached out and extended mercy. Instead of justice He poured out His
grace.
There is a history of repeated episodes
of manifestations of God’s gracious forbearance and merciful forgiveness to people
disobeying Him day in and day out. The swift
and sudden exercise of justice we see is perhaps because God finds it necessary to interrupt His
normal pattern of forbearing his grace and mercy to remind us of His justice. Gives us time to repent, but instead of
repenting we exploit it and think God doesn’t care if we sin, or if He cares
there is nothing He can do about it. We are challenging the Almighty! We become so accustomed to God’s normal
pattern of grace and mercy that we not only take it for granted but we begin to
assume it, demand it, and if we don’t get it we are furious! We say, "It's not fair!"
Understand the difference between justice and
mercy. The moment you think God owes you mercy, remember by definition mercy is
voluntary. He is never obligated to be
merciful to a rebellious creature. He doesn’t owe you mercy. He said, "I will have
mercy upon whom I will have mercy." A
holy God is both just and merciful, never unjust. There is never an occasion when God punishes an innocent
person. He doesn’t know how to be
unjust. Thank Him that He knows how to be nonjust. Mercy is nonjustice, not
injustice. Don’t pray for justice; He
might do it. If He deals with us with justice, we would perish as swiftly as
those in the Bible, like Uzza, Aaron’s sons, and Ananias and Sapphira, Lot’s wife, etc. We
live by His grace and mercy, and let’s never forget it.
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