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Monday, February 6, 2012

God loves murderers?! WHUCK?!?!?

Does God love murderers? Yes he does! There is anyone He doesn't love. God often doesn't make sense because He's God and we're not! Does He condone murder absolutely not. But He doesn't want anyone to perish without Him. But murderers?! Personally, I am generally a very compassionate guy. (Somebody please vouch for me.) But murder?! I am pretty eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth about that. I believe that there is nothing someone has that can pay for murder except their own life. Self defense is one thing. Causing death accidentally is another. But taking life in a premeditated fashion there is no amount of freedom that you can have taken from you that can make up for that.

But look at the bible. There are a few of murderers that are power people in the bible.

Moses: a revolutionary, the deliverer of a nation AND a cold blooded killer. (Maybe more of a hot blooded killer.) He saw injustice in action and he took the law in his own hands and hid the body.  Yet he got to talk to God up close and deliver the 10 Commandments and lead an entire nation to independence.

King David: a man after God's own heart, chosen to replace a failed ruler, ancestor of Christ Himself, mighty warrior for God and Israel AND polygamist, adulterer and murderer. Forgets to do the king/general leader of men thing and finds himself on the palace roof being a voyeur... (Whether or not Bathsheba was trying to get upwardly mobile is another blog for another day... But I think ... I'm going to wait another day like I said...) David sends for Bathsheba, takes her to bed, finds out she's pregnant with his child and decides to abort... Bathsheba's husband Uriah. David calls Uriah's CO, grants Uriah leave to come home in order try to cover up his affair with Bathsheba. David then finds out that Uriah is too dedicated a soldier to sleep with his own wife while his comrades in arms are still out in the trenches. (Did they have trenches back then?) Plan B: Send Uriah to the most vulnerable spot on the battlefield and have the rest of the troops withdraw from him. NICE GUY! Talk about a hostile work environment. As if soldier is not a dangerous enough job! (And I DO salute and thank those who decide we are worth fighting for.)

Saul/Paul: devout religious man, hard worker, writer of most the New Testament and basically a role model for the Gestapo. Persecuted Christians in his early career, witnessed (orchestrated, condoned, collaborated towards) the execution of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. After which he began going through Jerusalem and destroying the church. That would seem to imply a lot more blood on his hands. Yet God gave him a new name and turned him into the aforementioned evangelist/author that became most  responsible (or if you are against Christianity, to blame) for people coming to know Christ that anyone other than Jesus Himself.

I think God has done this to prove that He can and will use anyone He deems fit for His purposes. And He can and will redeem anyone, any life, any willing heart if they will believe in and receive HIM.  He can forgive anything. And while that is really hard to stomach sometimes, His will be done! He doesn't want ANYONE to perish. We (certainly I) can't or won't forgive everything. (Though Christians are called to do so.) But we also can't change the heart of a cold blooded killer into that of a statesman.  And while I believe that every criminal and certainly every murderer, child molester, rapist etc especially should be made to pay their debt to society, their eternity is between them and God. We are supposed to uphold the law and mete out punishment as a society. (Even better rehabilitation for those who are willing to change..) But that is on earth.

Luke 12:3-5 says

4 "I tell you , my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.
5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has the power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.

He is God and we are NOT. (Every time I just try to remember everyone I told I would pray for them I THANK GOD that I am not in His eternal shoes. WAY TOO MUCH RESPONSIBILITY!!!!)

God loves us all! Even those most of us could never relate to on any level, sympathize with, understand or forgive. God wants to forgive us all and that is His prerogative. Every once in a while, God plays what I lovingly/painfully call... THE GOD CARD. Even for the worst of us. Even murderers. And grudgingly, I am ultimately glad that He does.


1 comment:

  1. Well said! Sin is sin to God, and I'm glad He forgives mine every day, so who am I to withhold forgiveness from another. Now, have I personally been faced with needing to forgive something as deep as murder? No - so I don't want to be ignorant and say that would be easy, but with God's powerful grace, I pray, and pray, and pray I would find forgiveness in my heart.

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