Destroyed

” You shall not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed.”  Deuteronomy 4:26

Destroyed – This is a verse you don’t see on hand-held signs at football games.  We see John 3:16.  We have become use to the “forgiving God machine”.  Make a moral mistake?  God forgives.  Refuse to acknowledge Him?  God forgives.  Blame your disasters on Him?  God forgives.  In a world that loves entitlement and irresponsibility, a God of love usually means a God Who doesn’t hold me accountable.  But that’s not the God of the Bible.  That’s the god of my selfish imagination.

The God of the Bible has a side that is quite uncomfortable.  Wrath.  That side leads to verses like this one, where the word shamad means, “to utterly exterminate, to completely destroy.”  Unless you are going to ignore large portions of Scripture, you just can’t escape the fact that God judges those who oppose Him. 

Did you ever wonder why there is such brutality in Scripture?  Entire cultures slaughtered.  Empires ground to dust.  It seems barbaric.  But that’s because we don’t have a deep appreciation for holiness.  We have forgotten that God created the world perfect.  His character was reflected in that incredible triumph of creative thought.  He owns the result.  And He is determined that it will once again reflect what He intended.

Would you make a fabulous dessert and put just a pinch of poison in it?  Would you build a great business on just a tiny lie?  Would you claim marital fidelity but exclude just an occasional affair?  No.  You would throw out the dessert, tear down the business and get rid of the spouse.  Purity matters.  Whatever infects must be removed.  We see the clarity of the thinking when it affects us negatively.  We just don’t like it when God makes the same decision.

There are thirty-eight Hebrew words translated “destroy” in the Old Testament.  This one means “gone completely”.  It is usually a sudden catastrophe.  Evil takes a long time to grow but a very short time to eradicate when God makes the move.  Yes, I’m glad to read John 3:16 in the stands.  It reminds me that God’s love holds His wrath in check.  But it doesn’t erase that wrath.  Holiness is the standard.  Everything else will be subsumed under shamad.

Today I live under grace.  Once I lived under wrath, but God waited for me.  His patience saved my life.