"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps
what he sows." Galatians 6:7. Johnson defines retribution to be a return
suitable to the action. Its general import is requital or recompense. Foster
says, "Retribution is one of the grand principles in the divine
administration of human affairs; a requital is imperceptible only to the
willfully unobservant. There is everywhere the working of the everlasting
law of requital—man always gets as he gives." Although God's government is
perfect in principle and in conduct, yet the work of requital, because
unfinished, is not perfect in time. Augustine, "If no sin were punished
here, no providence would be believed; if every sin were punished here, no
judgment would be expected."
Retribution results from all the principles of the divine
government already considered. There is no flaw in it. There is no injustice
in it. God will not clear the guilty. He will not condemn the innocent. He
will not slay the righteous with the wicked. He never confounds things that
are different. He will not permit the righteous to be punished as the
wicked. For a season his procedure may be inexplicable—but in the end God
will abase the proud and exalt the humble; rebuke the sinner and encourage
the saint.
To a remarkable degree men are made to reap what they
have sown, to gather what they have strewed, and to eat the fruit of their
own doings. Like for like is an all-pervading principle of God's
government. Retribution in kind is seen in all his finished dispensations.
In its operation this principle extends to both good and
bad acts. They who sow to the Spirit, shall from the Spirit reap life
everlasting. They who sow to the flesh, shall from the flesh reap
corruption. Covetousness heaps treasure together as fire and fuel against
the last day. Christian charity transports it to Paradise to be enjoyed
after death.
Requital extends to the actions of both saints and
sinners. God does not overlook wrong in any of his children. In their case
wastefulness brings poverty, even as with the wicked. On the other hand,
industry and frugality in worldly men are commonly followed by thrift and
plenty, even as with the righteous. The doctrine of retribution is
essentially connected with that of accountability. It is often stated in the
word of God. In the law of Moses it is laid down as the rule by which
magistrates shall award punishments to wrong-doers in Israel. This proves
that the thing is in itself right. "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for
hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for
stripe." "Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth—as he has caused
an injury in a man, so shall it be done to him again." "Life shall go for
life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." Ex.
21:24, 25; Levit. 24:20; Deut. 19:21.
Our Lord warned against two abuses of this principle. The
first was that men applied it to matters of private revenge. The other was
that some cruelly insisted upon the literal application of the principle in
judicature when it would have been more benevolent to waive the right to
demand a punishment, which, if insisted on, the magistrate was bound to
inflict. The same law of Moses ordained that a false witness should be
punished by being made to suffer the ill which he sought to bring on his
brother. Deut. 19:19. The same law says that God "repays those who hate him
to their face." Deut. 7:10. This very phrase probably implies the great
principle here contended for. It is repeated, "The Lord will not be slack to
him who hates him, he will repay him to his face." Deut. 7:10.
Retribution in kind is often categorically taught in
Scripture. "With the faithful You prove Yourself faithful; with the
blameless man You prove Yourself blameless; with the pure You prove Yourself
pure, but with the crooked You prove Yourself shrewd." 2 Sam. 22:26, 27. In
Psalm 18:25, 26, we have almost the same words repeated. In both cases God
teaches, says Clarke, that "he will deal with men as they deal with each
other. . . . The merciful, the upright, the pure will ever have the God of
mercy, uprightness and purity to defend them. And he will follow the wicked
through all his windings, trace him through all his crooked ways, untwist
him in all his cunning wiles, and defeat all his schemes of stubbornness,
fraud and deceit. . . . If you perversely oppose your Maker, he will oppose
you. No work or project shall prosper, which is not begun in his name and
conducted in his fear." Poole, "Man's perverseness is moral and sinful—but
God's shrewdness is judicial and penal."
At the dedication of the temple Solomon prayed that in
coming generations the Lord would "condemn the wicked to bring his way upon
his head, and justify the righteous to give him according to his
righteousness." 1 Kings 8:22. So that this very principle is inwoven with
the devotions of the true Israel.
In the sermon on the mount, our Lord twice asserts the
same doctrine, "Blessed are the merciful—for they shall obtain mercy;" and
"For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the
measure you use, it will be measured to you." Matt. 5:7; 7:2. So in Psalm
7:15, 16, of the wicked it is said, "He who digs a hole and scoops it out
falls into the pit he has made. The trouble he causes recoils on himself;
his violence comes down on his own head." Compare Psalm 109:17. No less
clearly does Solomon assert the same thing, "Surely the Lord scorns the
scorners," Proverbs 3:34; and one of the Apostles says, "He shall have
judgment without mercy that has showed no mercy." James 2:13.
The same law of requital prevails respecting the good
deeds of men. "Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers
him in times of trouble. The Lord will protect him and preserve his life; he
will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes.
The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of
illness." Psalm 41:1-3.
Thus frequently does the Scripture assert this principle
in express terms. It also gives us many examples. Jehovah has often "written
the cause of the judgment in the forehead of the judgment itself." The
builders of Babel form a league, binding themselves together forever. The
Lord dissolves the league by confounding their language, and making them a
torment to each other. The Egyptians destroy the infants of the Israelites
by drowning them in the Nile. In God's anger the waters of their great river
are turned into blood, and finally their king and his army are drowned in
the Red Sea. They delighted in drowning, so God let them have their fill of
it. They delighted in overtasking the Hebrews, and exposing them to the
intense heat of the brickyards. So the dust from the furnaces, where the
bricks had been burned, being scattered in the air, the Egyptians were
covered with boils and with blisters. Thus they were made to smart as they
had made others to smart.
By fraud and deception Jacob supplants his brother. Time
rolls on. Jacob leaves his native land. Far from home he often finds his
wages changed. Worse than all, in the matter of marriage he is miserably
deceived. He loves Rachel and cheerfully serves seven years for her; and in
the hour of his rejoicing finds that Leah has been palmed off on him. Thus
he is made to feel in the tenderest possible manner the nature of his own
wickedness to his brother. "If men deal treacherously with others, by and by
others will deal treacherously with them."
When the Israelites took Bezek, its cruel prince, "Adoni-Bezek
fled, but they chased him and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big
toes." Then this guilty man began to reason on the moral government that is
executed in this world, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut
off have picked up scraps under my table. Now God has paid me back for what
I did to them." Judges 1:5, 6.
The ninth chapter of Judges contains fifty-seven verses,
and gives the history of the crimes and end of Abimelech, the son of
Jerubbaal, who conspired with the men of Shechem for the destruction of all
the children of his father, being seventy people, one only, Jotham,
escaping. The awful deed was done. The rivals for power were put out of the
way. For a season things seemed to prosper. Still there were difficulties.
By the Spirit of God Jotham had uttered a fearful prediction respecting his
bloody brother and his accomplices. Before long Abimelech himself in a cruel
manner destroyed the men of Shechem. Not long after "a woman on the roof
threw down a millstone that landed on Abimelech's head and crushed his
skull." The conclusion of the inspired record is solemn, "Thus, God punished
Abimelech for the evil he had done against his father by murdering his
seventy brothers. God also punished the men of Shechem for all their evil.
So the curse of Jotham son of Gideon came true." Judges 9:56-57. Fuller, "If
our backslidings have consisted in unfaithfulness towards one another, God
will oftentimes punish this sin by so ordering it that others shall be
unfaithful to us in return."
Dreadful was the course of divine judgment towards Agag,
the king of the Amalekites. By God's direction Samuel said to him, "As your
sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be made childless among
women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal." 1 Sam.
15:33.
In like manner for lying to Naaman the leper of Assyria,
and for lying to his master, the leprosy of Naaman cleaved unto Gehazi and
unto his seed forever, and he went out from the presence of Elisha, as a
leper. 2 Kings 5:20-27. Dreadful was the sin, and dreadful the punishment.
Shame and misery follow a man and all his posterity through all their
generations for this willful, deliberate falsehood.
History tells of horrible sufferings coming on those who
delighted in inflicting horrible sufferings on others. Nero, who
loved to shed blood, the blood of his best subjects, and especially of
Christians—was condemned to be punished according to the custom of the
ancient Romans. He turned executioner of their sentence, slew himself; and
left the world exclaiming, "I have lived shamefully, I die more shamefully."
Domitian first trained himself and then his minions to acts of
tormenting cruelty. He was in the end murdered by his own servants. Dogs
licked up the blood of Ahab, where he had caused them to lick up the
blood of the conscientious Naboth. The same cruel prince had trained a set
of men addicted to bloody deeds. So soon as he was gone, these very men rid
the land of his posterity. In Cilicia A. D. 117 died Trajan, the
persecutor. His joints were loosed. His life was drowned out by the waters
of dropsy, while thirst was burning him up. His successor, Adrian,
departed this life A. D. 139 by a disease, which took most of the blood from
his body. He, who had shed innocent blood, now reluctantly and in agony shed
his own blood. Maximin and his little son were both put to death by
the servants and soldiers, whom he had educated to deeds of carnage. As they
slew his child, they said, "Not a whelp of so cursed a stock shall be left."
Diocletian became a madman. His palace was consumed by fire from
heaven. His end was fearful.
Lucian derided the Christians by barking at them like
a dog. His death was in this way. He was torn to pieces by the dogs. A
modern tyrant and murderer prepared two cups of wine, one for himself and
one for his guest. He gave special direction to his servant as to the
disposition of the cups. Yet in carelessness his servant gave him the cup of
poison. He drank it all, and expired in convulsions.
Charles IX of France caused the shedding of the blood
of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's day. Voltaire tells us that the blood
of that cruel prince burst through the pores of his skin. His nature was at
war with itself. Several writers tell us of the old man, whose son dragged
him by his gray locks to the threshold of his door, when looking up he said,
"Stop, my son; this is as far as I dragged my father by his hair." For a
while cruel and bloody men may seem to have it all their own way; but before
long God's hand will lay hold on vengeance. They may mock and afflict the
innocent. But among such, who ever lived and died happily? Sooner or later a
pitiless storm beats them down.
This arrangement of Providence enables us to see and feel
the justice of many things in the orderings of the Lord. Were our sufferings
something foreign from our own conduct, we might often be perplexed with
occurrences that happen to us. But when sorrow comes to us in the Spirit of
the wrong we have committed, we say, Righteous are you, Lord God Almighty.
In the same way we learn to study the book of Providence.
Its lessons are made easy and forcible. Thus also we see how just is God in
his dealings. He who gets what he gives, cannot complain of wrong. It is
right the murderer should feel in his own person, the pangs of the death he
has inflicted on another.
In like manner God teaches us that it is an evil and a
bitter thing to sin against the Lord. There is no evil so great as sin.
By this arrangement of his providence, he makes us feel that sin is
horrible.
So also we learn the folly of sin. O what shame and
confusion, running perhaps through life, come on us for one wicked deed.
Before long no doubt every sin will appear as foolish as the most silly
conduct is sometimes made now to appear.
Let every man honestly and earnestly inquire in the day
of adversity, Why, O Lord, do you contend with me? It is a rational and
proper inquiry. He, who will not make it, must expect to be hardened under
judgments.
In applying this principle of God's government to
ourselves, we may be strict and even severe. Our self-love will hold us back
from excess. If we are innocent, conscience will shield us. Few men are
harsh in their judgments of themselves. It is far otherwise in judging of
our fellow-men. We must give them the benefit of any doubt in their case. In
passing the conduct of others under review we must be lenient. A charitable
judgment of godly men is more apt to be true than one that is harsh.
Whenever our sin is brought to view, let us repent of it,
abhor it, ask forgiveness for it and forsake it. Newton says, "If a man will
make his nest below, God will put a thorn in it; and if that will not do, he
will set it on fire." Beware, O man, how you behave towards God in the day
of chastisement for your sins. "Get up, go away! For this is not your
resting place, because it is defiled, it is ruined, beyond all remedy."
Micah 2:10
Let every man be warned and deterred from courses of
conduct, which by this great law of requital must yet involve him in
trouble, perhaps even down to old age. Some sixty years ago there lived on
the borders of civilization a man who had an aged, infirm, and blind father.
The old man frequently broke the plate on which his food was served. His
son's wife complained of it, and the son at last determined to take a block
of wood and hew out a tray on which to feed his father. Accordingly he took
his axe and went to the forest, followed by his little son. He found a
poplar, that looked as if it would suit his purpose, and began to cut out a
block of the desired size. Having swung his axe a few moments, he became
weary, and his son said, "Father, what are you going to make?" The father
replied, "I am going to make a tray for your grandfather, to eat out of."
The little boy loved his grandfather very much, and supposed it all very
kind, and said, "I am so glad; won't it be nice? Father, when you get to be
old and blind, I will make a tray for you." The father, conscience-stricken,
and fearing sorrow for himself, took up his axe, returned home, and ever
after seemed to treat his aged parent kindly.
God's people are safe though his enemies are not. "For
the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like
wool—but my righteousness," says God, "shall be forever, and my salvation
from generation to generation." Isaiah 51:8. Temptations may assail them;
enemies may revile them, and persecute them. But God says, "Hear me, you who
know what is right, you people who have my law in your hearts: Do not fear
the reproach of men or be terrified by their insults." Isaiah 51:7.
Let us, however, beware of the error into which Job's
friends fell. "They maintained that God governed the world upon the
principle of minute retribution, rendering to every man in the present life
according to his works;" and that this requital was perfect in this world.
Against this theory Job argued irrefragably, and God himself condemned them
and approved Job, saying unto Eliphaz, "My wrath is kindled against you, and
against your two friends—for you have not spoken of me the thing that is
right, as my servant Job has." Job 42:7.