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.}

It's certainly clear that we cannot expect to see the pure New Testament concept of God expressed in fullest form in the Old. Were this so, it would not have been so radical an advance for Christ Jesus to present and prove the saving truth or gospel of divine Love, whose law blesses all. Deliverance and salvation of humanity, its healing and strengthening, are always the effects of the divine Principle, Love.

Wrathful human concepts of Deity must disappear from our thought in order that a more spiritual view of God and man may be recognized. This true idea of God is as essential to healing today as it was in the days of Mrs. Eddy's childhood. A fever induced by disturbance over the Calvinist doctrine of God's wrath and punishment, as urged by her father, was immediately relieved through devout prayer and her mother's comforting words about God's love and the restful release He would give through prayer. ^{See Mary Baker Eddy, Retrospection and Introspection, p. 13 .}

In the name of divine vengeance, theocratic governments today often impose harshest punishment, including execution, on their opponents. But the unbending, unmerciful thought about God has neither divine reality nor intelligence behind it. No matter how stubbornly entrenched such beliefs about God are, they must yield up any supposed power to harm or weaken humanity just as soon as they are recognized as wholly fraudulent projections of mortal mind. Even now we can deny them place or power. They are false theology, hastening to its own destruction.

Recent studies of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament in the light of solid linguistic research—studies carried on in particular by Professor George E. Mendenhall—point to the need to examine the use of the words "vengeance" and "revenge" with great care. They may in very many cases be a mistranslation of the root nqm. J. E. Lindsey writes in an illuminating article in the supplementary volume of The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, "Comparison of biblical and prebiblical sources shows that the root is used in nearly identical constructions in both, with meanings quite contrary to and incompatible with the idea of vengeance or revenge, or with the ancient notion of blood feud with which it was formerly assumed that [nqm] was associated."

A more adequate meaning of the word may be conveyed by "deliverance" or "redemption." Lindsey adds near the end of his article: "It is perhaps in Second Isaiah [those portions of the book, chapters 40 to 55 and some others, ascribed by scholars to an unknown prophet-poet of the Babylonian exile] that the root is used in ways which most completely contrast with the notion of vengeance. The 'day of vengeance' of Isa. 61:1–4 is rather a day of relief and salvation having nothing to do with punitive action of any sort." ^{The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, Supp. Vol. (Nashville: Abingdon, 1976), pp. 932–933 .}

Such research can be immensely helpful in our prayerful study of the Bible. It supports us in our confrontation of the false theological belief in the punishing wrath of God. For instance, Isaiah 35:4 now takes on fresh and wholly saving meaning in our thought and practice: "Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance [deliverance], even God with a recompence; he will come and save you."

Christ Jesus' teachings and actions clearly show that revenge is no part of divinity. He regarded his own mission as fulfilling the promise of deliverance and healing in Isaiah 61 (see Luke 4:16–21). When the adulterous woman was brought to him by the scribes and Pharisees, he refused to condemn her. ^{See John 8:1–11 .} He saw that deliverance from sin, not the death of a badly frightened woman, would fulfill the divine purpose.

Before forgiving the woman and telling her never to sin again, Jesus brought her accusers face to face with their own undestroyed sin. Here was a dramatic illustration of the healing method of blotting out sin by causing it to be forsaken—the truest fulfillment of the law of Moses. Jesus himself said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." ^{Matt. 5:17.}

Christian Science actively carries out in its teachings and healing practice the forgiving and reforming Christly love that brings humanity its just deliverance from the ravages of sin.

Vengeance is seen to be only a mistaken mechanism of mortal mind in its original sinfulness, lashing out wildly as it is forced to yield to divine Love's all-loving harmony. But yield it does! In Mrs. Eddy's words in the third tenet of Christian Science: "We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts." ^{Science and Health, p. 497.}

Rightly understood, God's purpose is always to deliver from bondage of any kind. Only sin is punished—and in order that it may be forsaken. The punishment aspect of our deliverance should not confuse and trouble us. Punishment is going on only in the realm of mortal belief. It is never spiritual fact. So the wrathfulness of some Old Testament narratives and prophecies can be understood as the experience of sinful belief dissolving in the light of the pure allness of divine mercy.

Sin's self-punishment can have no effects on man, the idea of divine Love. Real being is forever safe, untouched by the passing falsities of the most bitter hate and injustice. Therefore no murderous purpose, however deeply entrenched or justified by authoritarian governments or realms of personal domination, is ever beyond the reach of Love's corrective power. Christ Jesus proved this in the glory of the resurrection. This was the culmination of his sublime teaching that the living God is a God of infinite Love— unchanging, tender, a God of redemption for humanity, not of vengeance and cruelty. In the light of this revealed truth, one can ask, What is the chaff of mortal malice to the wheat of truth in human consciousness? Only a temporary error to be purged and burned out—nothingness. Divine Love is fully able to save and protect the individual human consciousness as this purifying process goes on.

To realize that justice, with righteous deliverance, is the Lord's—instead of vengeance—opens up a new view of God's eternal goodness and just government. "The power of God brings deliverance to the captive," Mrs. Eddy assures us. "No power can withstand divine Love." ^{Ibid., p. 224 .}

People everywhere do reach out for—and often understand to a surprising degree—the universal nature of divine Love. They see and express the touches of Christly love in small and large ways. No matter how oppressive governments may be or how pervasive the materialism may seem, there will still be those who glimpse the better way of spirituality. This way must often be kept quietly. In the words of Mrs. Eddy, "Christians rejoice in secret beauty and bounty, hidden from the world, but known to God." ^{Ibid., p. 15 .}

The secret discipline and treasure of such spiritually-minded ones do not keep them from being part of the light of the world, but protect the tender seed of Truth from chill winds, that it may grow in God's time. Understood and loved—whether by Christians in totalitarian societies, by individuals emerging from tribalism, or by people anywhere oppressed by the cruelty that comes from ancient beliefs about God—the divine power does heal and save. God works not with vengeance but with pure cleansing fire that burns out hate, aggression, and the urge of human will to control for good or ill. It is His pure purpose to bring full deliverance!