Don’t Mess With Me
A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; the LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies. Nahum 1:2 NASB
Avenging – Liberal theologians and atheists point to verses like this to draw a hard distinction between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New. The God of the Old Testament is tribal, jealous, avenging and angry. The God of the New is just the opposite (of course), filled with love, mercy, forgiveness, kindness and compassion. Despite passages in both testaments that paint different pictures, the Church in general has adopted the same bifurcation. The Old Testament Jewish God was a god to be feared, a god who punished disobedience and required strict compliance. The New Testament God, best exemplified in God the Son, seeks the lost, would never turn anyone away, forgives to the point of self-sacrifice and wants nothing more than abundant life for all who follow Him. The evangelical church might reject the caricature of God in need of anger management, but it still retains the division between the strict and demanding God of the Jews and the forgiving and gracious God of the Christians. All of this is capsulated in the objection of Christians to Torah living, “You’re putting yourself under the Law again,” as if the God of Torah cannot possibly be the God of grace.
Since our Western tradition commonly asserts the truth of this separation, it becomes necessary to examine passages like this one in Nahum; one that appears to portray YHVH as a power-hungry, demanding, begrudging divine tyrant, ready to wreak disaster on anyone who challenges Him. Before you object that Nahum’s picture is purposefully stern because he is addressing serious social evils, let’s consider the actual vocabulary and see if it justifies the common claim.
We’ll pass over qannôʾ quickly (“jealous”) since we have examined this word in the past. Briefly, this word “expresses a very strong emotion whereby some quality or possession of the object is desired by the subject.”[1] We have a tendency to think of jealousy as morally defective, but that need not be true. Jealousy is the emotion we feel when something that is rightfully ours is threatened. It is zeal for ownership. It is not the same as envy. Envy expresses a desire to have something that is not rightfully mine. The fact that YHVH is qannôʾ about His children is a very good thing. He willingly protects, nourishes and instructs what is rightfully His, and He defends what is His against all intruders.
With this in mind, nāqam (to take revenge) takes on a different flavor. Consider the comments by Smick:
Although this root, including its derivatives, is only used about seventy times in the ot, it expresses a truth that is theologically important, but greatly misunderstood. Vengeance and revenge are ideas that would appear to have no good ethical validity whether coming from God or man. But such is not the case when the use of this root is properly understood in its ot setting and nt application.
Most of the uses of nāqam involve God as the source of vengeance. The classical passage is Deut 32:35, 41, “Vengeance is mine … I will recompense them who hate me.” God cannot be true to his character of holiness and justice if he allows sin and rebellion to go unpunished. The prophets stressed “the day of the Lord’s vengeance” (Isa 38:8; 61:2; 63:4) as times in history when the Lord sets the record straight.
The Bible balances the fury of God’s vengeance against the sinner with greatness of his mercy on those whom he redeems from sin. God’s vengeance must never be viewed apart from his purpose to show mercy. He is not only the God of wrath, but must be the God of wrath in order for his mercy to have meaning. Apart from God himself the focus of the ot is not on the objects of his vengeance but on the objects of his mercy, his special possession (sĕgûlâ), his very own people with whom he has an eternal covenant.
The ancient Hebrews, like many modern Christians, misapplied the doctrine of divine vengeance and used it as an excuse for harboring vengeful feelings against each other. In Mt 5:43ff. Jesus was rebuking this misapplication and in such places as Mt 19:19 (cf. Mk 12:31) he is really quoting Lev 19:18. “You shall not avenge or bear a grudge against the children of your people but love your neighbor as yourself, I am the lord.”[2]
The point is this: holiness requires nāqam. Forgiveness has no meaning without the possibility of nāqam. If you are inclined to desire a God who is incapable of wrath, then you are worshipping Santa Claus. Ah, but even he sees who’s bad and who’s good.
Topical Index: nāqam, to take revenge, avenge, holiness, jealous, qannôʾ, Nahum 1:2
[1] Coppes, L. J. (1999). 2038 קָנָא. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (802). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Smick, E. B. (1999). 1413 נָקַם. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (599). Chicago: Moody Press.
Have we not had these feelings of complete anger. How about when we see the extreme sin of cruelty too man and animals. What does it do to a believer. It causes them to act to eleviate it just like Yeshua did. Not out of revenge but empathy.We have become quite desensitized to it even as believers We are bombarded with it daily in real time . Can you imagine how God must feel ? he is continually and Always sensitive too it and revenge is solely his option,after all he is the Almighty , no other like him.. mankind has pushed his butttons too often.Just like Moses at Sinai, I’m going to destroy all of Israel and start all over with you Moses. He will put a permanent end to button pushing because he loves. I often say Its a good thing I wasn’t Moses, i would of said yes Go for it God,let’s start over. Boy I am grateful to God and Moses for that great love and mercy!!
Humans are hardwired for justice. The desire to seek justice motivates the bottom of us: that desire lies at the very bottom of our need for love, which is our need to be validated and nurtured and recompensed, even. A sense for justice motivates even a worm to turn when it is stepped on. Injustice is what fractures, crushes, steals and murders. Justice is about reversing that chaos. Of course we need justice!
The most depraved person on the planet still desires justice. That desire cannot be beaten out of us because without it we die. The desire for justice is the basis for all hope. What do we hope for? Is it not justice? We know we have been lied to, stolen from and pushed aside. Justice is what negates the disconnect and restores the free flow of love. Justice, in fact, IS the mechanism of love in a broken world. We all want the problem to be fixed. Even the ones who are participating in the problem wish someone would stop them and fix it! We are made this way.
A God who cannot fix the problems is no god. Justice is about reversing disorder and decay. Vengeance is the name of the motivation for justice. My hope is that my God is properly motivated to justify (return to justice) all the problems – including me! The gift of His Son guarantees that, no matter how much a part of the problem I have been, He has provided the Way for me to be included in the answer (justification) of the problem, for I am the one who HAS the problem. Therefore, I need the justice most of all!
The first action of salvation is the reversal of injustice (justification) in my life because that is my most urgent need. My God, through His hatred for and vengeance of sin, saved even me. That vengeance sent His Son to the cross: that vengeance motivated Him to take the blow for me. Vengeance for me! How sweet it is! Halleluah!
There are so many good docuseries that have been getting put out lately! Sorry for the late intro, but this one is very good; I had to share again. It’s called the Human Longevity Project. Here is the time sensitive address for the second part of the series: humanlongevityfilm dot com/episode-tgai2/
watching now
Reminds me of an article written by Maoz Israel titled: Of Tragedy and Punishment: Why Japan? Christians I have shared this with don’t like this article. Haven’t shared it a lot but not accepted. Scoffed at. Your opinion?
Jeanette, Thank you for the reference to an article I needed to read this morning.
I happen to agree with the general assessment in this article, although I would say that a number of the specifics should be looked at a bit closer. This weeks Torah portion included Lev. 26 (specifically vs. 16-17) which speaks of these very things, and although some would say that this applies only to the nation of Israel in covenant, it would seem that it applies to the nations as well for the same reasons mentioned in regards to the Amorites and Sodom. Perhaps that’s the very reason some Christians would scoff, because if taken to heart, it determines responsibility.
I just did a short study on this section for a weekly “thoughtcast” and it’s interesting that the translation of “consumption and fever” literally speaks of driving one insane and burning up inside in regards to what’s occurring in their society, and it’s a fact that are children are being eaten up by our enemies. (another “sign” of the curse) Our children’s hearts and minds are systematically being separated from any and all biblical influence.
I said all that to say this, it’s because we’ve been convinced through reformation theology that the “law” isn’t relevant to us as Christians (much less the world at large) that we are unable to see or discern the issue at hand. Yet, this passage in Leviticus describes the current state of affairs exactly. Our response is in error because we refuse the cause. As Paul said. what advantage has the Jew? One of the advantages is that the oracles of God were given to them and therefore they should understand these things and therefore be able to respond appropriately.
YHWH bless you and keep you……..
Ezekiel 16:49-50