Sermon Illustrations on Divine Judgment — page 2

Discerning Divine Judgment: Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

Joel 3:12

On March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office for the second time as president of the only partially United States of America. On that late winter’s day, Honest Abe spoke hard truths to his audience, words that continue to speak to us today. That this speech and the Gettysburg Address, given just 15 months before, often both end up on lists of the “Greatest American Speeches” testifies to the rhetorical power of this semi-secular prophet.

Lincoln’s faith remains a matter of ongoing debate, but his words were unquestionably drawn from biblical imagery and principle. Though this speech was over double in length as the Gettysburg speech, it wasn’t long, clocking in at fewer than 800 words. Despite its Spartan simplicity, it still speaks volumes:

Fondly do we hope ~ fervently do we pray ~ that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword as was said three thousand years ago so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

It is nearly impossible to imagine the reaction to a contemporary American politician presuming to know, much less invoke, God’s judgment. It is safe to say it would not elicit the same response as in Lincoln’s day. Yet, somehow that speech, which alternated between sorrowful self-examination and hopeful pleas for mercy to a defeated foe, still rings true. We still face moments, as humans always have, when our maudlin assumptions about human nature are shown to be naïve, when “live and let live” platitudes are no longer a viable option, and when we, like Lincoln, invoke Divine judgment.

There are even times when we, like Lincoln, realize that God’s judgment is not just due to “them” but also to “us.” These moments remind us that there is a higher order to life and that evil not only exists but also deserves judgment that will eventually come. In the last half century, over 60 million Americans have been sacrificed on the altar of absolute autonomy. In the last half decade, the surgical scarring of young bodies has become a national gnostic nightmare. “We” have done this.

As squeamish as we are about identifying which calamities, diseases, and disasters are God’s judgments for which sin, throughout the Bible, prophets, apostles, and even Christ Himself speak of judgment owed and paid out for national sins. Sometimes His judgment is portrayed as an act; other times it is portrayed as turning us over to the natural consequences of bad ideas and behavior. Either way, biblically speaking, if there is no place for divine judgment in our theology, there is something unchristian about our worldview.

Hope is not found in concluding that the dividing line of good and evil falls only within the hearts of others, nor is it found in the destruction of what God has made. After all, it was the same Christ who warned that “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” who also promised to make all things new and to be with His people until the end of the age. It is the One whose judgment is always right who has promised a New Heaven and New Earth.

Lincoln seemed to have some sense of this, which is why he spoke hard truths about his nation’s sins while also looking in hope to a time when those sins would be removed: 

With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

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Is God Guilty of Genocide?

1 Samuel 15:3

In 1 Samuel 15:3 God commands King Saul: “Now go and attack the Amalekites and completely destroy everything they have. Do not spare them. Kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.”

Bible stories like this are fodder for atheists like Richard Dawkins, who writes in “The God Delusion,” “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

Though less strident than Dawkins, other cynics struggle to see God as loving and merciful in light of such Scriptures. So we must ask, “Is God a genocidal maniac?”

Hardly. God’s love and wrath are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they are complementary qualities of His divine nature and His plan to rescue humanity.

God orders the destruction of the Amalekites and certain other groups for two primary reasons: to punish their accumulated sins, and to prevent their wicked influence from spreading.

The measure of sin

Scripture indicates that people and groups have a limit to the sins they commit unrepentantly before the Lord brings judgment upon them. For example, in Matthew 23 Jesus tells Israel’s religious leaders they are filling up the measure of their fathers’ sins; 40 years later, the temple is destroyed, Jerusalem is sacked and the Jews are scattered.

The Apostle Paul has a similar message for his fellow countrymen who prevent Christians from spreading the Gospel to the Gentiles. “As a result, they are always completing the number of their sins, and wrath has overtaken them at last,” he writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:16.

In the Old Testament, God tells Abraham that his descendants will be exiled and abused for 400 years before God leads them into the Promised Land. The reason for the long delay is that the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure (Genesis 15:13-16). In other words, God plans to wait centuries while the Canaanite groups (including the Amalekites) slowly fill up their own cups of destruction. God never acts hastily or capriciously against them; His grace and mercy are longsuffering.

Walter Kaiser Jr. comments: “These nations are cut off to prevent the corruption of Israel and the rest of the world (Deuteronomy 20:16-18). When a nation starts burning children as a gift to the gods (Leviticus 18:21) and practices sodomy, bestiality and all sorts of loathsome vices (Leviticus 18:25, 27-80), the day of God’s grace and mercy has begun to run out.”

Unintended consequences

But why, specifically, the Amalekites? When the weary Israelites pass through the desert toward Canaan, the Amalekites pick off their weak, sickly and elderly and brutally murder them. Moses reminds the Hebrews, “Remember what the Amalekites did to you on the journey after you left Egypt. They met you along the way and attacked all your stragglers from behind when you were tired and weary. They did not fear God,” (Deuteronomy 25:17-18).

Saul disobeys God by sparing some of the Amalekites, as well as their choice animals. As a result, there are consequences. Some commentators believe that Haman, who in the Book of Esther seeks the extermination of the Jews throughout the Persian Empire, is an Amalekite.

Alright, but why punish “innocent” women and children? Individuals share in the life of their families and nations, participating in their rewards and punishments. But there is another consideration. If women and children bathed in idolatry and wickedness are spared, how long before a new generation of adults emerges like their pagan predecessors?

Finally, why kill the livestock? God does not want the Israelites to go to war in order to enrich themselves. Their solemn task is to carry out a death penalty, not to line their pockets.

It is God’s sovereign duty to determine when people or groups have filled up their “measure of sin.” When He decides that severe judgment must fall, we may rest assured that He is not forfeiting His grace and mercy; rather, the sinning party has rejected God and passed beyond the point of no return.

Secular Commentary On Falwell's Blame For Terror Attack

Commentary By CBSNews.com’s Dick Meyer

CBS/AP (CBS)

There wasn't much not to be proud of in America this week. But Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson found a way to offend us all, in the name of religion. In his latest Against the Grain commentary, CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer examines their take on our tragedy.

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The Rev. Jerry Falwell said the terrorist attacks on the U.S. were "probably what we deserve."

You heard right.

Falwell made his remarks on "The 700 Club," the popular religious show on the Christian Broadcasting Network hosted by Pat Robertson. Robertson immediately said, "Jerry, that's my feeling. I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror."

These aren't quotes taken out of context. Falwell and Robertson did not misspeak. These are their considered beliefs. Falwell said, "I fear ... that this is only the beginning." He said what happened Tuesday would turn out to be "minuscule...if in fact God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve."

Specifically, Falwell pointed to "the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians ... the ACLU, the People for the American Way" and other "Christ-haters."

"The ACLU's got to take a lot of the blame for this," said Falwell. "All of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say, "You helped this happen,'" Falwell said.

Robertson's instant response was, "I totally concur. The problem is that we've adopted that agenda at the highest levels of government."

Falwell stuck to his guns well after the show. He told The New York Times, "I sincerely believe that the collective efforts of many secularists during the past generation, resulting in the expulsion from our schools and from the public square, has left us vulnerable."

Robertson put his thinking down in writing in an essay distributed by his cable network.

He wrote, "We have insulted God at the highest level of our government. Then, we say, "Why does this happen?" It is happening because God Almighty is lifting His protection from us."

"But I want to say as surely as I am sitting here today, this is only a foretaste, a little warning, of what is going to happen," Robertson continued.

It almost seems in poor taste even to respond to these offensive pronouncements. They are profoundly disrespectful of tragic losses and they are insulting.

Falwell and Robertson tell us that God "lifted the curtain of protection" from America. I'm sure Osama bin Laden would agree.

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Refuges Of Sin

Wild animals hiding in caves illustrate how sinners try to hide but are ultimately caught.

Caves are found along the sides of the banks of the Jordan that are at first one story high, then two stories and, as the river increases in depth, three-story caves are found.

At certain periods of the year the river overflows its banks. The wild animals native to that country seek a refuge in the one-story caves for a time. As the river swells and grows more turbid, the wild creatures seek shelter in the two-story caves. When the river attains to high-water mark, the animals run for their life to the third-story caves. When these overflow, then these beasts at bay are caught and killed.

How many men are hiding away from God in the caves and strongholds of their transgressions. But when the high tides of misfortune come, their sin will find them out.