God's Problem

How do you think God will react to those who ignore him?  

Your answer:  ____________

There was a leader of an army in the wilderness in the winter.  In those days families of the soldiers traveled with the army.  There wasn't enough food so food was rationed.  To enforce food rationing the leader announced that anyone caught stealing food would be publicly whipped.

Food was stolen and the leader told the second in command to find the person and whip that person publicly.  The second in command found that the thief was the leader's mother.

When it came time for the leader's mother to be beaten, the leader had a choice.  Don't beat her as she was old and frail and could die while at the same time making his orders invalid and losing all respect, or he could have her whipped as he would have any food thief which would be hard on him since he loved her.  Everyone was watching.  The leader surprised all when he took his own coat and shirt off and asked to be whipped in her place.  This way he could not only still love her as a son should, but also maintain discipline and the validity of his orders which were necessary to keep them all alive.  Justice was done as he took her punishment since someone had to take it. 

God's problem is that he is loving but at the same time he is also just.  He solved the tension between his love and his justice, when we ourselves could do nothing, by sending his son Jesus to die for us.

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."  (Romans 6:23, the New Testament, the Bible)

We get to feel like the army leader's mother must have felt.  She did not have to experience the punishment, but her son did. 

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