Shalom everyone,
I empathise deeply when I hear individuals who are basically good and decent people, as they recount the terrible things that have happened to them. It then saddens me when they think that every single one of their misfortunes are all punishments from God.
The Prophet Yeshua taught us to follow a God of love and compassion: our Heavenly Father who cares for us, accepts us, comforts us and gives us strength in times of trouble. The God whom Yeshua worshipped was a God who lifts up the weak, the broken-hearted and the poor, and defends us against the malicious avarice of the cruel and the greedy.
Our God was always different to the gods of pagan religions. The gods of the ancient Greeks and the Romans, for example, were gods of capricious whim. They plagued the human race with misfortunes and punishments, and could only be appeased with sacrifices and bribes.
So then, when someone looks at all their misfortunes, bad luck and unhappy experiences in life, and believes that they must all be punishments from God, I often think that the personality of that god is such that they might as well be worshipping a false, pagan god, not the God of Yeshua! Because that is not what YHVH is like. Very often, misfortune is just misfortune – it has natural causes, and not sent as a punishment from God.
The stern god of punishment is only being used to control you
YHVH is different to the pagan gods. It is true that YHVH is our Judge. Just as a responsible and loving parent still corrects a wayward child when they do wrong, so also YHVH does chastise us when we merit chastisement, and certainly holds the wicked to account. However, YHVH is a just Judge, who does not punish people for sins they have not committed; God’s chastisements are in proportion to the sin. So if, for example, someone has spoken an unkindness in anger, or simply believed something about God that is wrong, then if their house burns down and their whole family dies, the accidents are not punishments from God, because to view them as such would be to think that God is an unjust Judge, and habitually goes overboard with harsh punishment. Instead, if we experience terrible tragedies in spite of having committed only minor infringements, it is wiser (and psychologically healthier) to view the accidents as tragic misfortunes, which would have happened even if the person had never sinned at all. Our God is not a harsh deity who wields a cruel stick over our lives to beat us at every single wrong turn or misstep. YHVH is slow to anger, and quick to comfort.
Fundamentalist forms of religion teach you that every single one of your misfortunes are all chastisements and punishments from God, no matter how disproportionate they are, because they want to control you and manipulate you. You have to realise that’s what they’re doing, otherwise you will develop a poisonous, ugly, unhealthy and distorted view of what God is. God becomes an unjust and abusive parent, not a loving and nurturing God. Why would anyone want to follow or love such an abusive God?
Some people have even been taught to believe that only if they have firm faith in Christ, will they never experience bad things. And if they still experience bad things, it’s because their faith isn’t strong enough, or they have done something wrong; only if they obey what their pastor tells them to do, will they find happiness again. If this is the type of god people follow, they are worshipping a tiny, capricious godling created by corrupt pastors, not YHVH.
These teachers have also given people a false idea of what a wicked person is. To them, a wicked person is someone who isn’t perfect enough, or obedient enough. But did the father of the prodigal son expect his son to be perfect? Our God, YHVH, knows we are imperfect; YHVH knows our every weakness and our innermost heart, and accepts that we are trying our best. The Yahwist concept of ‘the wicked’, is of people who do terrible things, such as hurting or oppressing others, even when they know they shouldn’t, and the crucial point is that they like doing it. The wicked are people who don’t care about what is good or righteous; they do harmful things anyway. I am sure that you are not one of these!
The God of Abraham, Moses and Yeshua
In the original Israelite religion, we were told to seek YHVH, in order to know YHVH (Hos 2:20, 6:3; cf Jer 31:34, 1Chron 22:19). That is, to seek out YHVH in the right experiences of life, in order to learn to know YHVH as a real and living God.
YHVH is a God of compassion and justice. YHVH is the Voice of the oppressed, the poor, the lost and yes, even of the doubter. Good people, who are simply trying to do their best, do not need to think that their misfortune is a punishment from God. If you know that you are basically a good person, then any misfortune that happens to you is simply that – misfortune, as a consequence of the natural processes of life.
People who have been brought up in certain religions have a particular view of God which is not helpful – quite the opposite in fact: it is grievously harmful. If a person views God as a pain-giver – someone who punishes them at every turn, and is responsible for everything unhappy that has ever happened to them, they are not worshipping YHVH. They are worshipping the concocted personality of a cruel, pagan god.
For most good people, misfortune has two causes: it’s either natural, and it just happens, or it is caused by wicked people. Most evil comes from the thoughts, words and actions of human beings, not from the mind of God.
Where not to look for God
If you only see dark forces around every corner, you will always have difficulty finding the true Presence of God in life. Ancient peoples saw disease, accidents and natural tragedies as something supernatural, and therefore that God must have caused all of them. They then wrote their accounts of tragic histories, with God has the sole cause of everything bad that ever happens in life. However, what they were doing is portraying God as a psychopathic and abusive villain and the source of evil, not as the heroic source of good. Imagine how our compassionate YHVH must have felt at being mis-portrayed in such a terrible way!
YHVH is not in the rage of the storm, YHVH is in the peace that comes afterwards. YHVH is not in earthquakes, fires, floods or other disasters; YHVH is in the aid and assistance that comes through God’s sons and daughters who rush to help. God is not in the death of loved ones; YHVH is in the consolation that comforts you in your grief.
When someone close to you dies a natural death, that is not a punishment; it is simply their time, and they return to YHVH in heaven. When someone dies an unnatural death – for example, at the hands of another human being – then God is not in the hand that kills; YHVH is in the great Presence that consoles you in your sorrow, and the victim’s soul is taken speedily into YHVH’s loving embrace.
Where to find YHVH
YHVH is in all the good that happens to you; YHVH is in the consolations, the happinesses, the good times, and the wins in life. Even in the downsides and tragedies of life, YHVH is there to comfort you, not beat you when you are down. If a person sees their god in their unhappiness and misfortunes, they will never be able to know YHVH. YHVH is there to give you the courage and strength to endure and survive your bad times – the Jewish people would never have been able to survive this long, if that wasn’t something that YHVH does.
YHVH gives you strength, courage, wisdom, comfort, consolation, and love. If instead someone only sees God as the source of their misfortunes, sorrows and disasters, they are walking away from God, and creating their own god out of the artificial personalities of the ancient pagan gods.
Abandon therefore, the miserable and stern god of unhappiness, and turn instead to YHVH, the living God of compassion and consolation.
Peace and blessings in YHVH’s Holy Name
Your brother
Shmuliq