Article May 31, 1982 Issue

Deliverance without vengeance

JON GIB HARDER

Some of the most beautiful and comforting passages in the Old Testament seem curiously marred by the words "vengeance" or "revenge" associated with God or God's action. In Isaiah 61, for instance, verse 2 includes the phrase "the day of vengeance of our God." This thought hardly fits the mood of healing, tenderness, and sure deliverance in the rest of the verse and the surrounding verses. It's no wonder, then, that this verse is often bypassed when the passage as a whole is read.

The questions are, How can this vengeful and punishing concept be reconciled with the Bible's evolving view of God as universal Father of all, pouring out His mercy and love on all nations? Shall we simply dismiss such verses? Or may they have unsuspected meaning and value?

What Mrs. Eddy writes about Old Testament concepts of God is especially pertinent to our thinking these questions through. For example: "The term Lord, as used in our version of the Old Testament, is often synonymous with Jehovah, and expresses the Jewish concept, not yet elevated to deific apprehension through spiritual transfiguration. Yet the word gradually approaches a higher meaning. This human sense of Deity yields to the divine sense, even as the material sense of personality yields to the incorporeal sense of God and man as the infinite Principle and infinite idea,— as one Father with His universal family, held in the gospel of Love."^{Science and Health, pp. 576–577.}

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