“See, I am going to rouse them out of the places to which you sold them, and I will return on your own heads what you have done. I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away.” The Lord has spoken. Joel 3:7-8
We get the consequences of our sins. Yes, the Lord forgives all our sins. All of them. But He also gracefully allows us to own the consequences of them. Murder someone and Jesus will willingly forgive you of the sin, but you’re still subject to criminal prosecution. Sleep around in your marriage and you’ll likely catch an STI, maybe one you can’t cure, and it will result in both marital agony and health problems. Lie and that lie will manifest in ways we can’t even predict. Pick your pet sin: the results are the same.
BUT BUT BUT if God loves me He wouldn’t let this happen. No. If you and I love God, WE wouldn’t let these things happen. It isn’t God’s fault we get ourselves into messes. It’s ours.
In today’s verses, The Lord is talking about Tyre and Sidon being repaid for the injustices they did on God’s chosen people, Israel. When one country betrays another, is disloyal to another, terrible consequences result. For Tyre and Sidon, it meant being conquered, being overrun. The temporal glory those places had known was replaced by humiliation, weeping, and great loss. This has happened to every great empire of the past, including Israel (because Israel forgot who had installed them as a great kingdom).
Why?
You know why. It’s because God is graceful. When God wants to rouse us out of our hubris and arrogance, He removes His hand of protection, letting nature run its course. The older I get, the more I believe that this is how God rouses us, brings calamity on us, punishes us. He doesn’t cause the disease and war and hurtful emotions: He removes His protection around us to let those things happen as they would if He hadn’t been protecting us.
Again, why?
And, again, you know why. It’s because God is graceful. He is merciful, not wanting any of us to perish but to come to repentance. We shouldn’t ever forget that one person of the Trinity is the Father, who is our natural parent, who loves us as a father does and wants us to learn and prosper. When kids are stubborn, that usually happens when the lessons are painful. It is our fault when we put ourselves in situations that result in pain. God our Father uses those situations as teachable moments, providing mercy and provision so we might turn back to Him. Like us, Tyre and Sidon should have known that.
For more reading: Genesis 10:7, Isaiah 43:5-6, Isaiah 60:14, Jeremiah 23:8, 2 Peter 3:9, Joel 3:9
Father, all praise to You for Your holy grace, and mercy, and teaching, and forgiveness.
Practical Proverbs 