Ever Pet a Porcupine?

Scripture:

2 A jealous and avenging God is the Lord,

the Lord is avenging and wrathful;

the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries

and rages against his enemies.

3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power,

and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

Observation:

A lot of well intentioned ink has been spilled trying to apologize for parts of scripture that testify to God as anything other than gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

I can identify with that impulse. I know God to be gracious and merciful. I also know that I have been and continue to be in need of Divine grace on a daily (o.k. lets get real ... hourly) basis.

Part of me would like to pretend that I am morally offended by any God who is "avenging" or "wrathful" and that is why I don't like passages such as Nahum 1. That part of me nods along with the sentiment, "if that is who God is, I can do better without God."

What strikes me today most clearly is this small detail:

"the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries..."

Note: the LORD is not a hired gun who is sent to deal harshly with my adversaries.

This distinction helps me clarify two things:

1) It is not so much the idea that God "rages agains [God's] enemies that I cannot abide as the all too human temptation to assume that my enemies are God's enemies too. In fact, I yearn for God's justice - we pray for it each time we say the Lord's prayer, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven..." The full and final arrival of the Reign of God on earth is going to come as a great and comforting joy to those who are allied with God, but as a crisis for those who's character and actions defy God.

2) A domesticated God, who defers to my notions of what is or is not nice is no God at all.  

If we are going to confess and worship the one true God - creator, redeemer and sanctifier of all, then we must accept God's terms for relationship not the other way around.  

A god who's character and actions are subject to my approval is about as misguided as a porcupine in a petting zoo: 

in either case one goes looking for comfort 

only to end up stuck.

Application:

Today I am learning to let go of my cowardly and idolatrous desire to hold a petting-zoo god of my own making. Instead of worrying about the wrath due to the enemies of God, I choose to lean into the promise that, through Christ Jesus, I am not adversary to God, but companion to the Lord; not scornful enemy, but (hopefully) obedient child of God. Finally, I am mindful of the temptation to paint my enemies as God's enemies.

Prayer:

Holy One, You are both merciful and just. You are wrathful and loving. That freaks me out a bit. Maybe that's because You are God and I am not. Thanks be to God! Grant me the grace to accept how you decide to deal with your enemies even as you grant me the grace to pray for my own enemies. Amen.