The Conversation

Ray tackles a large issue in his treatment of the slaughter of the Midianites, and I agree with his key premises as follows:

A. What we can or can't believe about God is irrelevant - He is what He reveals He is, and asks for no assent from us as created beings
B. God hates sin
C. God hates those who cause others to sin - nice work here, by the way, bringing the scriptures together
D. God is justified in punishing sin

I think the biggest gap here in trying to understand God’s dealing with the Midianites lies in trying to understand how it is that sometimes God chooses to be merciful and sometimes he doesn’t. This question often manifests itself as a perceived disconnect between the God of the OT v God of the NT. This is where the passage becomes difficult, and also where I think it becomes very important to articulate what we know and what we cannot know.

First of all, we must all agree that God is not capable of injustice. Sin MUST be punished for justice to be satisfied. I would also contend that justice is two-fold: Justice on Earth and Justice in Eternity. The easier one to deal with from a biblical perspective is justice in eternity. Either we accept Jesus as the sacrifice and propitiation of our sins, or we don’t. Either we accept and embrace the Gospel, or we don’t. It’s relatively cut and dried. Heaven or hell, Jesus or Not Jesus.

On the other hand, justice and punishment in the temporal world is much less clear. I’m sure we all can note someone who is willfully sinning and hasn’t been struck with a divine punishment. Does God need to do something to them in order for justice to be satisfied, or is the eternal component of justice sufficient? Or, alternatively, is Death the ultimate arbiter of temporal justice, reckoning the deeds of men settled with respect to life on this earth (“The wages of sin is death”). Or alternatively, are the natural consequences of sin (bitterness, unhappiness, etc) the earthly punishment for sin ("...they received in themselves the due punishment for their sin...)?

Furthermore, even if God chooses to inflict divine punishment on sinners in this earthly realm, He deals with sin in different ways. In the case of the Midianites, he wipes them out. In the case of the Ninevites, he invites them to repent. In the case of David, he gives him multiple choices for punishment (one of which being that God actually kills other people), in the case of Moses, he is not able to enter the Promised Land.

My conclusion is that God is not a being that we can define with formulae. As Piper rightly notes, we can only know what He reveals to us about Him, and I would contend that He has not revealed to us his "Decision Framework", if you will, for how he chooses to deal with sin within the space of our physical life. We can categorically assert that he is justified in executing punishment, but we will always be able to question why God dealt with a given situation with immediate vengeance/justice rather than some other way, such as mercy or forebearance since many methods are clearly within His purvey. And He will alway be able to ask "Who are you, oh man, to question Me?"