Does God Punish

Featured Image Upsplash.com

I have another Series Story for you. For many years I published teachings on my other site which were essentially spiritual and for the most part, Bible based. Owing to budget constraints I have had to discontinue the spiritual site. So from time to time I will publish spiritual material on this site as well. I hope you will not only enjoy the reading, but also be heartened by the content.

Jonah 3:1-10; 4:1-10

Does God punish? The question begs an answer which we must thoroughly research. When humans attribute characteristics to God’s person, we tread on sacred and unexplored ground. I say unexplored because which of us could define the infinite attributes of The Spirit?

Our God, the creator of the heavens and the Earth, has a mysterious character. Mysterious because although the Bible speaks about God in many ways, there are insufficient details to help us define this powerful, all-knowing Spirit. Neither could we decide how God will or will not react in any given situation. At our best, we could search the scriptures and pronounce an educated guess.

The scriptures tell us that God is a Spirit[i] and must be worshipped in Spirit and truth. I found one of the best and simplest descriptions of God the Spirit in Benson’s Commentary:

“God is a Spirit, for he is an infinite and eternal mind; an intelligent being, yea, the supreme Intelligence, who by one act sees the thoughts of all other intelligences whatever, and so may be worshipped in every place; he is incorporeal, immaterial, invisible, and incorruptible.” [ii]

Of course, while we will agree that the description is brilliant, it is but a speck of dust on the surface of Mars in its effort to describe the creator of the universe.

Bearing all this in mind, how could we get at least some idea of how our God deals with human behaviour? My offer is Jesus; He is my idea of the closest human example of God. Jesus did say, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works.”[iii]

So, for me, it’s quite plain; if you want to get the best human impression of God’s character, check the red letters in the four gospels.

At this point, you might ask, ‘What about the rest of the Bible?’ My response is, “I did say the BEST impression.” In any event, Jesus also said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.”[iv] 

Okay, let’s do a little summary in case we lose our way here:

We are looking at the character of God. And have accepted that God is a Spirit, and we cannot attribute human qualities to The Spirit. The closest human characteristics to God are found in Jesus and recorded in the four Gospels. Jesus is one with God, who lives within Him.

If you accept this summary, then you will also agree that:

His primary purpose was to fulfil the law on this Earth. Jesus achieved this by doing God’s will on Earth, dying on the cross to free humankind from the law; all of which established the coming-in of the New Testament (or The Kingdom of God on the Earth. [v]) He established the Kingdom of God within us. Jesus didn’t just ‘die for my sins’; He fulfilled the law so God could forgive us and place his Kingdom in us!

Jesus prayed to God, telling God that He “…finished the work you have given me to do.”[vi] And His last words on the cross, “It is finished.”[vii] Words that signify the law[viii]had been fulfilled, and his purpose on this Earth accomplished – Amen!

It would follow then that if we walk in the shoes of Jesus, we are walking with God inside us – right? We have no mandate to punish others in our life on Earth – right? Jesus never punished anyone in his earthly life – right?

Now you are all clear on all the above, we are ready to talk about ‘Does God Punish?’

We will use the scriptures from the book of Jonah 3:1-10; 4:1-10. As I will not be doing a commentary on the story of Jonah, I have decided to start at the point where Jonah is making his way to Nineveh after his soirée in the belly of a whale.

I chose this scripture because it is an excellent dialogue of how God is ready to forgive and how God deals with the human attitude toward compassion and punishment—lastly, God’s response to Jonah’s view.

It would be advantageous for the reader to read through this teaching without following the references. After the initial read, read again and follow up on the references.

As a Bible teacher for over 20 years, I always provided scriptures to support my teachings and to ease the fear of the wary.

Until Part Two.

Blessings

Peter-James

---

[i] John 4:24

[ii] Benson Commentary

[iii] World English Bible John 14:10

[iv] Matthew 5:17-20 ESV – Christ Came to Fulfill the Law – “Do – Bible Gateway

[v] Luke 17:20-21

[vi] John 17:4

[vii] John 19:30

[viii] I will discuss more on the law in Part Two of this series.