Does God Punish People or Nations Today?

Happy Super Bowl Sunday to everyone. This is a day I have feared for a month now. The Packers are in the Super Bowl, and are actually favored to win. Nooooo! Besides the dread I am experiencing because of the Super Bowl, I am also recovering from a bout of strep throat, as is Elijah. Olivia is at a Holy Spirit retreat this weekend, and I cannot wait to see what she takes away from this experience.

For today's topic, I thought I would write about the topic of whether God punishes people or nations in today's world. Clearly in the Old Testament, we see that God is described as being 'Sovereign', meaning He is the responsible agent for all blessings and all adversity as well. As one example among many we have Ecclesiastes 7:14 which says: "In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other." In dealing with Israel, God's chosen people we also see in the Old Testament that God is the author of blessings upon both Israel and Individuals when they are faithful, while also punishing wickedness for their lack of faith. Again there are many examples, but I will provide two: first, as an example in the Old Testament of God punishing an individual, we have the example of King Saul, the King of Israel before the famous King David. In 1 Chronicles 10:13-14, we see that Saul "died because he was unfaithful to the Lord" (NLT). So God was the agent of Saul's death because of his unfaithfulness to the Lord.

And as an example in the Old Testament of God punishing a nation, we again see many examples of God's sovereign punishment. The example I have chosen is God's punishment of Israel in 2 Kings 17, where God "removed Israel from His sight" (v. 18). They feared other gods (v. 7), they served idols (v. 12). They did secretly what was not right (v. 9). They did wicked things (v. 10-11). But here is the real clincher of the reason for God punishing Israel: they did not believe in the Lord their God (v. 13-14). This was shown by their ignoring the prophets sent by God. They despised His statutes and His covenant (v. 15). And they abandoned all of the 10 Commandments (v. 15). But the key for God's punishment is found in verses 13-14, where Israel did not believe anymore in their God.

Thus, in the Old Testament God was responsible for punishing both individuals and nations for their lack of faith. But can we draw the conclusion that God still does this in the age after Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, in the age of the New Testament? Let me give a quick reason why this is not necessarily so. First, the Old Testament has the focus of God's relationship with Israel. God made a Covenant with Moses and Israel and this is found in Exodus 19:5 - Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be ^wmy treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine". As you can see from the wording this is a conditional agreement. If Israel obeys and keeps the Commandments, then it will be God's treasured possession. But if it was not faithful…

But today, we do not have this sort of Covenant with God. And so, God's reason for punishing his people or nations is not the same as it is in the Old Testament.

The example of an event that some preachers have attributed as an action of God is the recent Haiti earthquake. But does this make sense to say God punished Haiti, and not other nations of the world? For example, the claim is that Haiti made some sort of pact with the devil, involving voodoo practices. Why are we so quick to judge others as being worthy of judgment? I know little about this, or even the claim, but don't you think that if there is another nation that unjustifiably slaughtered millions of unborn, innocent children, that this might be a better reason for God's punishment? I'm just saying that America likewise deserves God's punishment. As does Russia. And China. And England, and every other nation on the planet. And so, should we really say the Haitian earthquake is from God, when there was no direct fingerprints of God having acted. It looks like a "natural" tragedy, right? This lack of clarity is a good reason for believing that this was not God using His Sovereign judgment. If we cannot see that God judged Haiti, than this earthquake judgment does not glorify God. We all deserve punishment from God, and we should not so quickly attribute an isolated tragedy as being God's wrath or judgment.

The New Testament story that helps me to draw this conclusion is found in Luke 13. In this chapter, there is a recent tragedy of a tower falling resulting in 18 deaths which was discussed by people asking Jesus the simple question – did they deserve this tragedy because they were terrible sinners? Here is Jesus' response:

"Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? ³ No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. ⁴ Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? ⁵ No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:2-5)

 

So Jesus reminds us that we are all miserable sinners in God's eyes, deserving punishment. And when we see tragedies likes earthquakes or tidal waves, etc. we should not be so quick to judge these people as making a "pact with the devil". Or judging them for not being the right religion. Instead, we need to see our own need for a Savior, and repent. Isn't it that a simple application for today? May God bless you this week.