The Retribution Of God And Combatting Injustice – Retribution Both Swift And Delayed – Part 2 Series

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.