THE RETRIBUTION OF GOD AND COMBATTING INJUSTICE – RETRIBUTION BOTH SWIFT AND DELAYED – PART 2
This series deals with Justice and Injustice and the vengeance of God, and covers a lot of ground. Today we are going to look at swift and delayed retribution, and the decision rests with the Lord God who is an avenging God when it comes to His own people.
[A]. RETRIBUTION - SWIFT AND DELAYED
(a). SWIFT RETRIBUTION. It was a reign of terror and any act of non-conformity to the accepted practices of the day meant possible death, and if one dared speak out against the system, that one would incur the fullest wrath upon him and it would be sanctioned by the ruling monarch. These were the days of Elijah and the sinful nation engaged to the fullest in the idolatrous worship of the wicked Baals. That meant all the associated practices which accompanied that worship - sacrifice of children, prostitution, etc. The followers of Baal had persecuted and killed the righteous children of God until only seven thousand of them remained.
The text does not specify that the righteous had suffered under the hand of these false prophets, or under the hand of Ahab or Jezebel directly, but when we appreciate the desire of the devil’s forces to oppose and persecute, even exterminate the saints of the living God, I think we can safely conclude that these false prophets had perpetrated some terrible deeds against the true saints of God. The nation had groaned for three and a half years under the judgment of a famine but had not repented.
The events about which we speak are found in 1Kings 18:7-40. Now the day of reckoning had arrived on Mt Carmel and on that decisive day the defeated prophets of Baal were rounded up and not one of them escaped. Under the divine hand, the retribution from God was executed upon these evil ones through His servant, Elijah. Every one of them was put to death. Idolatry is an abomination in the sight of God, but precious above anything in this world, are His saints, and when they suffer because of the hatred of the evil one, God sees, though His silence throughout the severe trial may not be understood.
God’s avenging hand was stayed for a few years but the atrocities suffered by the saints in Israel had been kept on the heavenly account and when the day of retribution arrived, the sun had not set before Elijah had accounted for all those evil prophets. THE RETRIBUTION WAS SWIFT, AND FELL WITH A PHENOMENAL SUDDENNESS FROM WHICH THERE WAS NO ESCAPE.
Elijah saw this judgment come from God in his contest with the idol worshippers only a few years after his arrival on the scene in the divine record, and therefore we can say that in this case retribution was swift. In God’s divine will, it may be swift or there may be no evidence of it in one’s lifetime. Exactly the same principle applies to judgment, of which retribution is a specific aspect. The unrighteous conclude they can keep on sinning because God seemingly does nothing about it, but they fail to comprehend the grace of God that would desire their repentance and salvation, not their damnation.
As said, retribution may be swift. In one Old Testament incident rarely considered, Elisha was subjected to the mocking of a group of lads one day. They insulted and probably ridiculed the man of God as they followed behind. “Go up, you bald head; Go up you bald head!” was their taunt to this godly man who had double Elijah’s spirit. {{2Kings 2:23 “Then he went up from there to Bethel and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead. Go up, you baldhead!”}} Elisha’s response was to curse them in the name of the Lord. Forty-two of those lads died the same day, mauled by two obviously ferocious female bears. Some aspects of this story we don’t know and therefore we can not appreciate the apparent severity of the resultant punishment. This we do know: they paid the penalty of a swift retribution for their behaviour against the chosen man of God.
(b). DELAYED RETRIBUTION. Now we shall see where there is a delayed retributive judgment in God’s word. After the Exodus from Egypt, the griping Jewish congregation eventually came to Kadesh where the waters flowed from the rock, after it was indiscreetly struck by Moses. From Kadesh, Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom. His request was that the whole of the congregation of Israel might be permitted to pass through the land of Edom, thus shortening the journey. Moses was careful to spell out the conditions that would place not even the slightest burden on the Edomites’ land. The basis for this special request was the word “brother” used in {{Numbers 20:14, “Thus your brother has said.” There was a common ancestry linking the two peoples which can be read of in Genesis 25 and 27, the account of the two brothers, Jacob and Esau.
{{Numbers 20:19-21 Again, the sons of Israel said to him, “We shall go up by the highway, and if I and my livestock do drink any of your water, then I will pay its price. Let me only pass through on my feet, nothing else,” but he said, “You shall not pass through,” and Edom came out against him with a heavy force and with a strong hand. Thus Edom refused to allow Israel to pass through his territory, so Israel turned away from him.”}}
Nevertheless the Edomites not only refused the request but also threatened physical violence against them. {{Numbers 20:18 “Edom however said to him, “You shall not pass through us, lest I come out with the sword against you.”}} It did not take them long to make good their threat and after Moses’ second reasonable request we read, {{“But he [king of Edom] said, “You shall not pass through.” And Edom came out against him with a heavy force, and with a strong hand.}} BUT GOD HAD NOT FORGOTTEN! We now see retribution delayed, for nothing that could be said to be the judgment of God came upon Edom at that time.
The above passage showed Edom’s true attitude but what was the attitude of Israel to them. Just a few decades passed and before the entry into the Promised Land, not long before the nation crossed the Jordan, the Law was spelled out to the people again. (Deuteronomy – second Law; the Law twice). A remarkable verse is found in the restatement of the commands and instructions to the nation. {{Deuteronomy 23:7 says, “YOU SHALL NOT DETEST AN EDOMITE, FOR HE IS YOUR BROTHER; YOU SHALL NOT DETEST AN EGYPTIAN, BECAUSE YOU WERE AN ALIEN IN HIS LAND.”}} Here we have clearly spelled out to the nation what their attitude to the Edomites was to be. Yes, they had been wronged, insulted, shamefully treated by the Edomites when they needed relief but God is commanding that there be no detesting or implied revenge against Edom. What a suggestion of forgiveness demanded by God of the people. But God had not forgotten the event with Edom.
The Israelites did not take vengeance against the Edomites. Vengeance belongs to God alone. You know, I think half the movies would not exist if you took out the theme of vengeance from them. Movies just reinforce the validity of vengeance I think.
Around another 550 years pass and because of its perpetual sin, Judah is taken into captivity by the Babylonians headed by Nebuchadnezzar. Edom, though, had a sinister part in this and the prophet Obadiah writes of the wicked role Edom played in the overthrow of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. {{Obadiah 1:10-14 “Because of violence to your brother Jacob, YOU WILL BE COVERED WITH SHAME, and you will be cut off forever. On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth, and foreigners entered his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem - YOU TOO WERE AS ONE OF THEM. Do not gloat over your brother’s day, the day of his misfortune, and do not rejoice over the sons of Judah in the day of their destruction; yes, do not BOAST in the day of their distress. Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their disaster. Yes, you, do not GLOAT over their calamity in the day of their disaster; and do not LOOT their wealth in the day of their disaster; and do not stand at THE FORK OF THE ROAD TO CUT DOWN THEIR FUGITIVES; and do not IMPRISON THEIR SURVIVORS in the day of their distress.”}}
Obadiah condemns Edom for a number of things but the part they played in the time of great distress for the Jews was reprehensible. They looted, gloated, but above all else, they murdered the ones escaping the Babylonian terror. GOD HAD NOT MISSED ANY OF IT AND THEIR CRIMES ONLY AGGREGATED THOSE ALREADY ON RECORD. Those who were captured, the Edomites imprisoned. It was true that Judah was a rebellious nation under God’s fierce discipline yet that gave no one the right to lift up a hand against them.
For their hatred of God’s chosen people, and the despicable acts done to them, Edom will fall heavily under the just retribution of God. Note carefully how the Spirit of God adds the details in {{Isaiah 34:5-15 “FOR MY SWORD IS SATIATED IN HEAVEN. Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom, and upon the people whom I have devoted to destruction. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood. It is sated with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams, for the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. Wild oxen shall also fall with them, and young bulls with strong ones. Thus their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust become greasy with fat, FOR THE LORD HAS A DAY OF VENGEANCE, A YEAR OF RECOMPENSE FOR THE CAUSE OF ZION.
And its streams shall be turned into pitch, and its loose earth into brimstone, and its land shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night or day. ITS SMOKE SHALL GO UP FOREVER. From generation to generation it shall be desolate. None shall pass through it forever and ever. But pelican and hedgehog shall possess it, and owl and raven shall dwell in it and He SHALL STRETCH OVER IT THE LINE OF DESOLATION AND THE PLUMB LINE OF EMPTINESS. Its nobles - there is no one there whom they may proclaim king - and all its princes shall be nothing. Thorns shall come up in its fortified towers, nettles and thistles in its fortified cities. It shall also be a haunt of jackals and an abode of ostriches, and the desert creatures shall meet with the wolves. The hairy goat also shall cry to its kind. Yes, the night monster shall settle there and find herself a resting place. The tree snake shall make its nest and lay eggs there, and it will hatch and gather them under its protection. Yes, the hawks shall be gathered there, everyone with its kind.”}}
The language of what Obadiah and Isaiah wrote is very graphic, and disastrous for Edom. The time of God’s retribution and vengeance was coming.
The prophet Ezekiel also prophesied against Edom and that is found in Ezekiel 35:1-15. Only selections are made which show some parallel prophesies. {{“Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, and say to it, “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you, and will make you a desolation and a waste. BECAUSE YOU HAVE HAD EVERLASTING ENMITY AND HAVE DELIVERED THE SONS OF ISRAEL TO THE POWER OF THE SWORD AT THE TIME OF THEIR CALAMITY, at the time of the punishment of the end, therefore as I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘I will give you over to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you. Since you have not hated bloodshed, therefore bloodshed will pursue you, and I will make Mount Seir a waste and a desolation, and I will cut off from it the one who passes through it and returns. AS YOU REJOICED OVER THE INHERITANCE OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL BECAUSE IT WAS DESOLATE, SO I WILL DO TO YOU. You will be a desolation, O Mount Seir, and all Edom, all of it. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’”}}
The passages cited, along with many others, speak of Edom’s punishment. Truly a partial judgment has fallen on the Edomites and reference is often made to Petra, but the entire prophesies have not seen complete fulfilment. When the king of the north in a future day invades Palestine and overthrows countries as far as Egypt, “Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon” will escape, being reserved to be subdued by Israel. Dan 11 v 41; Isa 11 v 13,14; Oba 18,19. It is from “Edom” that the Lord Jesus is represented as coming “with dyed garments” because of His having executed judgments (Isa 63 v 1-6.) Its destruction will be complete.
I am now quoting these passages -
[1]. Daniel 11:40-42 “At the end time the king of the South will collide with him, and the king of the North will storm against him with chariots, with horsemen, and with many ships and he will enter countries, overflow them, and pass through. He will also enter the Beautiful Land, and many countries will fall, BUT THESE WILL BE RESCUED OUT OF HIS HAND: EDOM, Moab and the foremost of the sons of Ammon. Then he will stretch out his hand against other countries and the land of Egypt will not escape”}}
{{Isaiah 11:12-14 “and He will lift up a standard for the nations and will assemble the banished ones of Israel and WILL GATHER THE DISPERSED OF JUDAH FROM THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE EARTH. Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart and those who harass Judah will be cut off. Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah and Judah will not harass Ephraim. They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west and together they will plunder the sons of the east. THEY WILL POSSESS EDOM and Moab and the sons of Ammon will be subject to them.”}}
That passage refers to the time at the end of the Tribulation and the Second Coming. The old territory of Edom becomes part of Israel. The passage underneath is also set in the end times.
{{Obadiah 1:18-21 THEN THE HOUSE OF JACOB WILL BE A FIRE, AND THE HOUSE OF JOSEPH, A FLAME, BUT THE HOUSE OF ESAU WILL BE AS STUBBLE. They will set them on fire and consume them, so that THERE WILL BE NO SURVIVOR OF THE HOUSE OF ESAU,” for the LORD has spoken. Then those of the Negev will possess the mountain of Esau, and those of the Shephelah, the Philistine plain. Also, they will possess the territory of Ephraim and the territory of Samaria, and Benjamin will possess Gilead. The exiles of this host of the sons of Israel who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad, will possess the cities of the Negev. The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau, and the kingdom will be the LORD’S.”}}
{{Isaiah 63:1-6 WHO IS THIS WHO COMES FROM EDOM WITH GARMENTS OF GLOWING COLOURS FROM BOZRAH, this One who is majestic in His apparel, marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” Why is Your apparel red, and Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press? “I HAVE TRODDEN THE WINE TROUGH ALONE, and from the peoples there was no man with Me. I also trod them in My anger and trampled them in My wrath, and their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, and I stained all My raiment, FOR THE DAY OF VENGEANCE WAS IN MY HEART, AND MY YEAR OF REDEMPTION HAS COME. I looked, and there was no one to help, and I was astonished and there was no one to uphold, so My own arm brought salvation to Me, and My wrath upheld Me. I TROD DOWN THE PEOPLES IN MY ANGER AND MADE THEM DRUNK IN MY WRATH, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”}}
That is a graphic passage and is connected with the vengeance the Lord Jesus Christ will execute when He comes at the Second Coming to Armageddon. The great day of His wrath in retribution has come because the world’s armies are ravishing Israel. Look at it further in Zechariah 12 and 14.
Ezekiel declared how Edom has had a perpetual hatred towards Israel, but now God will make Edom a perpetual desolation. Then when Christ is reigning from Jerusalem, while the whole earth is beautified and rejoicing, Edom itself will be a perpetual desolation (along with the city of Babylon). Because Edom rejoiced over the desolation of Israel, then when Israel is restored, Edom and Mount Seir will become desolate, and for them there will be no future restoration. The land will be as burning pitch with the ascending smoke of its judgment witnessing against it day and night.
While the whole earth is enjoying its beautification during the Messianic age, Edom - that is, present day JORDAN (that part of Jordan) - is to lie a continual desolation which will suffer a continuous burning smoke to be seen throughout the one thousand year reign of Christ. The land will be characterized by perpetual and continual burning from generation to generation so that no human will ever think of passing through.
Thus God’s retribution will surely come in decisive finality against Edom as the passages of scripture clearly indicate. The ultimate stroke of God’s sword will fall at least 3450 years after Edom’s first great sin against God’s people. This surely must be one of the longest examples of delayed retribution in the word of God.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
