In the aftermath of 9/11, church attendance spiked – and then quickly settled back to pre-disaster levels.  At this time, some prominent preachers pronounced the attacks God’s will, a curse on a nation that had turned its back on Him.  Many condemned them for mischaracterizing God, who must surely be a benevolent Being who would never bring harm to His creation.  This line of thinking arises from a fundamental misunderstanding of who God is and what is His purpose in history.  Many went to church seeking a Sugar Daddy God whose only concern is blessing us and bailing us out.  The One who meets His people there – in the pages of His self-revelation if not in every place called a church – is the Covenant God, whose purpose in redemptive history is to create a people for His name, One who says in Lev 11:44, “you shall be holy for I am holy.”

                Did the preachers go too far?  The debate raged in a dense fog.  A biblically illiterate media reported the story to a biblically illiterate public, the former taking no recourse to God’s word and the latter seeking none.  The data involved not who God reveals Himself to be but who some would like Him to be and the pooling of ignorance continued apace.

                For those interested in the biblical data, a summary:

Only the willfully blind deny that God chastises His people.

Amos 3:6: If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will not the LORD have done it?

God rules by covenant.  He makes His expectations known.

Ex 19:1-9: In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai. ² For they had departed from Rephidim, had come to the Wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain. ³ And Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: ⁴ `You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. <sup>5</sup> `Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. ⁶ `And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel." ⁷ So Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these words which the LORD commanded him. ⁸ Then all the people answered together and said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do." So Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD. ⁹ And the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever." So Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.

The making of the covenant was followed immediately by the people’s disobedience in making the golden calf and God’s forgiveness at the urging of His prophet Moses, an expression of His love.  God relented from His anger and agreed to accompany His people on their sojourn.  Over and over again in the pages of the Old Testament, we see His patience with His people that demonstrates His great love for them.
 

The covenant contains both blessings and curses, which are restated as Israel prepares to enter the land of promise.

Deut 28:1-6: "Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. ² "And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God: ³ "Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. ⁴ "Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. ⁵ "Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. ⁶ "Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

9-10: "The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. ¹⁰ "Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you.

15-20: "But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: ¹⁶ "Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. ¹⁷ "Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. ¹⁸ "Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. ¹⁹ "Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. ²⁰ "The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me.

25: "The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth.

33: "A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually.

41: "You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity.

Deuteronomy 29.  The covenant is renewed before the people enter the land.

At the dedication of the temple, the people are reminded of the conditional nature of the promised blessings.

2 Chron 7:14: "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

God never promised blessing regardless of how His people acted.  When the people were faithful, they were God’s servants and His witnesses to the nations in accordance with His design.  The rulers of the pagan nations sought out the human ruler of God’s kingdom because Solomon’s wisdom became known throughout the world.  God’s kingdom expanded to its greatest extent and pagans came to see the glory of Israel and her God.

1 Kings 10:1-10: Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions. ² She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels that bore spices, very much gold, and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was in her heart. ³ So Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing so difficult for the king that he could not explain it to her. ⁴ And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, ⁵ the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel, his cupbearers, and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the LORD, there was no more spirit in her. ⁶ Then she said to the king: "It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. ⁷ "However I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes; and indeed the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard. ⁸ "Happy are your men and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom! ⁹ "Blessed be the LORD your God, who delighted in you, setting you on the throne of Israel! Because the LORD has loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness." ¹⁰ Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, spices in great quantity, and precious stones. There never again came such abundance of spices as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

23-25: So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. ²⁴ Now all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. ²⁵ Each man brought his present: articles of silver and gold, garments, armor, spices, horses, and mules, at a set rate year by year.

1 Kings 11: Solomon abandons the Lord, multiplying wives . . . and gods. The wisest of men became enchanted with wealth, using his newfound influence to enrich himself.  Marrying foreign women to expand his territory through political alliances, he invites their gods into Israel.  After his death, the kingdom is divided and an unbroken string of evil kings accelerate idolatry in the Northern kingdom of Israel.  In the Southern kingdom of Judah, a few faithful men are interspersed among a number of evil kings.  Even they, however, do not tear down the altars to idols called the “high places.”

Beginning in the eighth century B.C., covenant unfaithfulness is punished by exile.

A.      Amos and Hosea prophesy against the Northern Kingdom, which will be carried into captivity by Assyria in 722.

B.      Isaiah prophesies against the Southern Kingdom, which will be attacked by Assyria and later fall into captivity in Babylon in 586.

C.      God deals with His people on a covenant basis.  When Judah goes into captivity, righteous Daniel and his faithful friends are exiled with the rest.

D.      God’s purposes are never frustrated.  His people are distributed among the pagan nations.  Disobedient Israel become God’s messengers to the nations despite their unfaithfulness as Jews establish synagogues in pagan lands.  The righteous are allowed to suffer for the sake of the unfaithful among their own people as well as the pagans.

E.       God cannot deny Himself.  If He is to create a people for His name, who are “holy as I am holy,” He must condemn sin and punish disobedience.  If to purge His people He must scourge His people, that is what He will do.

The disobedience of His people has brought the cursing He promised in Deuteronomy.

God makes a new covenant.

Jer 31:31-34: "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-- ³² "not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. ³³ "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ³⁴ "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,`Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

The Mediator of this new covenant will be our Lord Jesus Christ, the greatest manifestation of the Father’s love the world will ever know.  He will restore sight to the blind, heal the sick, raise the dead.

1 John 4:8: He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

But God’s love never erases the conditional nature of the covenant promises.  In God’s economy, obedience never passes out of fashion.

1 John 1:9:  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This Jesus, Mediator of the new covenant, does not abandon judgment.  He is at once the greatest expression of the love of a Father who sacrificed His only begotten Son to redeem the world and the final arbiter of God’s judgment.

John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Matt 25:31-34:  "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. ³² "All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. ³³ "And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. ³⁴ "Then the King will say to those on His right hand,`Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world . . .

41: "Then He will also say to those on the left hand,`Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels . . .

Summary

A.      The OT God of judgment loves.

B.      The NT God of love judges.

C.      They are One, without distinction of essence, will or purpose.

D.      God is ever true to Himself and He will achieve His purpose in redemptive history of making a people for His name.

E.       It was essential that Israel and the pagan nations understand that God was acting affirmatively when foreigners attacked Israel.  Otherwise, the pagan gods would have been seen as more powerful than Israel’s God Yahweh.  It is hardly different today.  If Islam overcomes Europe and America, Muslims will deem Allah superior to the God of the Christian West (as they still see us).  Many in the West will fall away from the faith.

F.       To suppose a nation can continue in such heinous sins as abortion and can celebrate sexual practices God calls abomination without experience cursing for disobedience misunderstands God’s character.

Conclusion

The famous preachers got their message right but their medium wrong.  God’s covenant is impossible to reduce to sound bites.  He meant it to be.