Compassion or Wrath: You Might Want To Rethink That Rock In Your Hand Before You Cast It…

 

Currently, I am reading a book by Warren Wiersbe, Be Amazed: Restoring An Attitude Of Wonder And Worship, a study of the Minor Prophets. Currently I am in the study of Nahum and his prophecy against, and the fulfillment of this prophecy against Nineveh.

As you may remember, years earlier, Jonah had gone and preached against Nineveh and they had repented; thus, God spared them. Now, many years later, that nation had returned to their wicked ways and once again, God was ready to deal with them. Rather than go into a lengthy discussion here, you can read this book yourself, I want to focus on a few questions at the end of this chapter that I feel led to share with you.

 

1.       How do you understand God’s pity and compassion alongside His jealousy, anger, and wrath?

2.       As you observe your neighbors or relatives, would you say they deserve God’s judgement? Why or why not? How does God see them?

3.       According to Wiersbe, what are the three reasons Nahum gives why Nineveh deserves to be judged?

4.       Wiersbe states that “people become like the god that they worship (Ps. 115:8), for what we believe determines how we behave.” If you look at the behavior of non-Christians around you, what would you say they worship? What about the behavior of people who attend your church?   

 

How do you understand God’s pity and compassion alongside His jealousy, anger, and wrath?

I think that we clearly see a perfect example here in the book of Nahum, especially when compared to the book of Jonah. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria and a very wicked city/nation; their cruelty was unimaginable. God had sent Jonah to Nineveh to warn them about His coming judgement, but they repented and God spared them. I would say that the book of Jonah is more about Jonah and his rebellion against God because of his hatred for the Ninevites and God’s love and mercy than it is about Nineveh’s repentance. God’s love for this wicked people is greater than His anger against them; this is Jonah’s main concern. While some argue that Jonah was afraid of the people because of their cruelty, I believe, based on Jonah’s own wording, that he wasn’t afraid of the people, but rather he knew if they repented, God would spare them and Jonah did not want them spared, he wanted them dead.

Jump ahead to Nahum’s time and we see Nineveh had returned to their old and wicked ways. This time, they did not repent and God delivered His hand of justice. He used the armies of the Medes and Babylonians to destroy them and destroy them they did. God could have used Israel to subdue the Assyrians or He could have done it supernaturally, as He had done in times past, but this time He chose to use another foe that was just as cruel.

I hear people talk about God being an angry tyrant in the sky, or they may argue that the God of the Old Testament is not the same as the God of the New Testament; I would argue that they are one and the same and, in all cases, He is loving and merciful but a righteous judge at the same time. I think the story of Nineveh demonstrates this sufficiently.

 

As you observe your neighbors or relatives, would you say they deserve God’s judgement? Why or why not? How does God see them?

It is easy to see this through our own eyes, with our own biases, and through our own emotions but that is simply a flawed way of viewing things. We tend to view people by whether we like/love them or by comparing them to ourselves. We love our children and parents so we might extend more grace to them, overlooking the wrong they have done but in contrast, we might judge more harshly our neighbor, if we don’t like them, for doing the same things we overlook in our family members.

We also tend to judge others based on how good or bad we see them, especially in comparison to ourselves. You might say, “Look at that, I can’t believe they did that. I would never do that!” On the other hand, we might exalt others, say a preacher or humanitarian, and think, “I wish I was more like them.” We tend to put some on pedestals while condemning others to hell.

Remember, “What would Jesus do?” Well, the Bible tells us what He would do in these circumstances. He would reach out in love and offer forgiveness to the one who humbles himself, but He would judge the one who is outwardly good but inwardly corrupt. Remember the story of the two men who went into the temple to pray, one a priest and the other a tax collector? If you don’t know the story, I won’t ruin it for you, you can find it in Luke 18:9-14.

The Bible says that we all fall short and deserve God’s judgement (Romans 3:23) so I would say we, our relatives, friends, and neighbors deserve judgement; however, God is willing to forgive and heal us. Isn’t that beautiful?

 

According to Wiersbe, what are the three reasons Nahum gives why Nineveh deserves to be judged?

The three reasons given are: ruthless bloodshed, idolatry, and pride. The Ninevites/Assyrians were notorious for their ruthlessness and disregard for human life. One of the many cruelties was skinning people alive where they would die a slow and agonizing death. They murdered men, women, and children.

They did not worship the one true God, they worshipped idols. According to Wiersbe, there primary deity was Ishtar, the goddess of sexual passion, fertility, and war. Jehovah, the God of the Bible, is a jealous God. I remember years ago, Oprah Winfrey stated that she had a problem with a God who was jealous of us. Oprah, Oprah, Oprah, how little you know or understand. Instead of researching this, she chose to walk away from her faith. How sad. Not all jealousy is bad. Wiersbe writes, “Jealousy is a sin if it means being envious of what others have and wanting to possess it, but it’s a virtue if it means cherishing what we have and wanting to protect it.” He further illustrates by giving the example of marriage and how spouses want to protect and defend each other and keep their marriage exclusive. If only Oprah had done a little research…

“For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world.”  - 1 John 2:16, NKJV

Pride. The Bible speaks often about the subject. I won’t go into details but suffice it to say, pride is evil and leads to destruction. The pride of Nineveh was in their might. They thought no army could defeat theirs or capture their city. They were wrong!    

 

Wiersbe states that “people become like the god that they worship (Ps. 115:8), for what we believe determines how we behave.” If you look at the behavior of non-Christians around you, what would you say they worship? What about the behavior of people who attend your church?   

I have written about world views before, a Christian world view vs. a secular world view, and how that affects what and why we do what we do or think the way we think. As Christians, our desires should align with God’s desires. How we think and act should align with what God thinks and how He acts (look at the life of Jesus while on earth). Everything we are, should be based on God, as found in His Word, but is only able to be lived out as we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we cannot do it in our own strength. This is not to say an unbeliever cannot live a good and moral life, they can, but they cannot live a holy life as we are commanded to do.

If you look at our society today, what god does it look like we worship? I would say the god of this age.   Going back to the three sins that caused God to pour out His judgement on Nineveh, let’s look at ourselves in comparison:

Ruthless Bloodshed. The violence and corruption today is staggering. The amount of murders and physical assaults is unthinkable. The suicide rate seems to go up every year and yes, suicide is murder, but the biggest murder rate is from abortion. Hands down, abortion kills more than all other murders put together. When a nation butchers it’s most defenseless and vulnerable, it is not the God of heaven that we worship but the God of this age. Over and over, the Bible speaks of the judgement to come for taking human life but no judgement so severe as the murder of children. Strange how little this is mentioned in most churches…

Idolatry. Do we know more about the Bible or what goes on in Hollywood? Do we know more about the Bible or the television lineup? Do we know more about the Bible or who’s dating who or whose marriage is on the rocks? Do we know more about the Bible or what sports teams are heading to the playoffs? I could go on, but I think you get the picture. I once heard a man say, “What we run to in our time of need is our god.” Do we run for alcohol, pills, or something else when we are hurting or afraid? Is food our go-to for comfort or facing problems? What about cutting or other forms of self-harm? Does shopping fix things for you? I think we see many things people turn to instead of God and this is idolatry.

Pride. I deserve free education. I deserve to be happy. I deserve… My teams better than yours. My family has more money than yours. My house is nicer… Get the idea? You know, it’s funny how those who hate former President Donald Trump attack his ideas of patriotism and national pride, like those are bad things. He stated that as he would look out for what was best for America, others should look out for what was best for them, but that than we could sit down and negotiate deals that would be mutually beneficial. Call me stupid but I can’t see how he was wrong for saying this. I mean, if your car is nicer than mine and you live in a better neighborhood…. I do see something wrong with this, it is prideful and hurtful. You offer me nothing in the way of a benefit.

I’m not sure how good of an argument that was but the idea is that we are so prideful, we demean others for being prideful but can’t see our own pride that is so much worse. We tend to think that what we have, we deserve or that we earned it. How many believe they will go to heaven because they are good? More than you think. I’ve even talked to Sunday School teachers, deacons, and pastors that believe this way. How prideful! That we can earn God’s favor, especially in light of His Word, is extremely prideful.

Another act of pride is to judge God. “God is a tyrant and a killjoy.” “God is so mean, I don’t want to live with Him in heaven.” “If God really cared about us then why so much pain and suffering?” These are common questions, or better put, statements, and are the highest form of pride. How dare we sit and judge our Creator! However, if we struggle with these as questions but are willing to seek the answers in truth, God will give us the answers and do so in love. He can handle our questions but He expects us to not stop at the question mark but look for the truth.       

In addressing the last part of the question, “What about the behavior of people who attend your church?” Is there any real difference? Not so much that I can see and it breaks my heart. So many in the church today look just like their unbelieving friends and neighbors. In regard to Christian living and the church, many are more concerned with activities: who’s here, are donuts and coffee available, ending the sermon on time so as to beat others to the buffet line, etc. Sure, there is talk about missions and supporting the church’s work and all, but what about the family next door that just lost their business? Our child’s friend at school that’s struggling? The garbage man that just lost his wife? Oh, you didn’t know about those things? What shows come on tonight and what channel? Bet you knew that! 

I am not trying to sit in judgement but rather hold up a mirror for all of us to look at.

Does what we know matter?

Do we really know what matters?

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Broken...

 

Mirriam-Webster’s dictionary has multiple definitions and applications for the word “broken.” I will list a few here:

 “Violently separated into parts: shattered;”“damaged or altered by or as if by breaking;” "made weak or infirm;” “subdued completely: crushed, sorrowful;” "cut off: disconnected;" “not complete or full;” “disunited by divorce, separation, or desertion of one parent.”                                                                   -Mirriam-Webster.com/dictionary/broken

While each of these, if applied with the given example, mean different things, in quite different applications, I think they all sum up nicely how many of us feel.  

Judging by many songs of late, it seems brokenness is more common today. You Broke Me by Maria Mena, Broken by lovelytheband, Broken by Anson Seabra, as well as many others, describe brokenness in one way or another. When listening to these songs, you can’t help but feel a sense of pain. I realize some artists play songs they didn’t write but you sense some emotional pain nonetheless.   

Many years ago, a band named Radiohead had a huge hit called Creep. I won’t go into detail but the lead singer wrote it describing a period of his life and how he saw himself. To say the least, the name tells you it was not very good and dare I say, he was broken. For years, the band refused to play it at concerts but eventually begin to appreciate its value and begin playing it again.                                  

One song that really carries great meaning for me and speaks to my heart is Matthew West’s, Truth Be Told. He describes how he tells people he is fine when in reality he is torn up inside or broken. In one part of the song, he writes:

 

There’s a sign on the door saying “come as you are” but I doubt it. If we lived like it was true, every Sunday morning pew would be crowded. But didn’t you say the church should look more like a hospital? A safe place for the sick, the sinner, and the scarred, and the prodigals, like me. Truth be told, the truth is rarely told, am I the only one who says… I say, “I’m fine, yeah I’m fine oh I’m fine, hey I’m fine” but I’m not, I’m broken. And when it’s out of control I say it’s under control but it’s not, and you know it. I don’t know why it’s so hard to admit it, when being honest is the only way to fix it. There’s no failure, no fall, there’s no sin you don’t know already know. So let the truth be told.

 

I suspect many can relate to these lyrics; I know I can. How many of us have had to muster up the courage to walk through the church doors looking for healing only to be shunned?

Week after week, pastors stand in the pulpit and talk about those who don’t come to church. Have they ever taken an honest look at why so many don’t come? Do they really even care?

How many times do you stick your hand out when you only get bitten?

Business can cause one to justify shunning others, but I think in reality, it boils down more to a lack of empathy, caring, and love. Are we not called to love one another? Jesus said the two greatest commands were to love God and love our fellow man (Mat. 22:34-40).

So how are we doing?

Only Jesus Christ can heal the brokenness. But I am not willing to give a pass to those who use this as a cop-out. Did He not say that we are to love one another? Did He not also say that we are to visit the sick, the poor, the incarcerated, etc? (Mat. 25:31-46). Some of the most hateful and uncaring people are well respected members of the church. Jesus constantly used the Scribes, Pharisees, and others in His examples of the worst kind of sinner, boastful, proud, uncaring, and unrepentant. The people He seemed to speak positively about were those whose sins were great, but they admitted their sin and fell on their faces and turned from their sins.

In his book, Be Amazed: Restoring an Attitude of Wonder and Worship, Warren Wiersbe writes, “Wordly and ignorant spiritual leaders produce worldly and ignorant people, and this brings destruction to the land.” He continues, “As goes spiritual leadership, so goes the church, so goes morality; and as goes morality, so goes the nation. God’s people are both salt and light in society (Mat. 5:13-16); when they are corrupt, society becomes corrupt” (pg. 31).

If you are hurting friend, do not despise the church or, more importantly, God. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest…” (Mat. 11:27-30, NKJV). Jesus loves you so much, He knows the number of hairs on your head. He loves you so much, He walked away from His heavenly throne where He was seated next to the Father and came to earth, not as a king in a palace, but as a servant, lowly and poor. Then He went to the cross to pay for your sins and mine. He didn’t have too, He chose too.

I know many in the church have caused great harm, but they don’t represent Jesus. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing (Acts 20:25-31).

I urge you to seek out a good, bible believing church and who knows, maybe you will be that friend you were looking for to someone else who walks through the doors that is hurting.

May our Lord give you His peace, His strength, and His joy~

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