Is God just a Whimsical Judge or a Merciful Judge?

The question is, whether God is a tyrannical, capricious and whimsical Judge or is He a reasonable and merciful Judge? Does He kill and destroy on flimsy grounds, depending on His moods and for His pleasure or is He a loving Father, who is just and merciful, but at the same time does not condone wrong doings on the part of humankind? 

Bible, through the length and breadth of Old Testament and elsewhere, talks about a God, who is righteous and just. Righteousness and justice rule all His decisions, especially while dealing with humankind. For example,

“He is the Rock, His work is perfect;

For all His ways are justice,

A God of truth and without injustice;

Righteous and upright is He.”   Deuteronomy 32:4

That is His character and one can depend on His character to do the right thing and that too after weighing His decisions to do what is just and right. Bible portrays Him as a God of mercy and love. Lord reveals Himself at Mt. Sinai to Moses, while He was shepherding the people of Israel from Egypt,  

“And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but no means clearing the guilty,…” Exodus 34: 6,7

Does it sound like a tyrannical and whimsical God? No, not at all. Since beginning He has been slow to anger, warns human beings, gives them lot of chances to correct their behavior and when it falls on deaf ears and for too long, only then does He bring down the judgment on them. Even then we are not punished as per the severity of our crimes, but always tempered with kindness and mercy.

“He has not dealt with us according to our sins,

Nor punished us according to our iniquities.”   Psalm 103:10

Let us see some examples from the Biblical narrative itself.

At the Garden of Eden, God warned the first human pair not to touch the forbidden fruit, but when they listened rather to the enemy, Lucifer or Satan and disobeyed God, still God did not curse them; He punished them, by throwing them out of the Garden and letting them suffer the consequences of their action, of facing sin, sickness, suffering and finally death. Even so, God still planned for the redemption of the fallen mankind and send His son, Jesus Christ to be born on earth as human being, to suffer like us, to die like us, but rescue us from death by raising him from death, thus redeeming us. In New Testament it is said,

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Cain was warned by God not to get upset, but to do well, so that his offering will also be accepted. He was told to overcome sin, but Cain let himself be overcome by sin and murdered his brother Abel. God punished Cain, but tempered it, by putting a mark on him so that no one will kill him, as feared by him. Genesis 4:7, 15. Was God being just and merciful or outright tyrannical?

Let us look at the narrative of Noah’s flood and the destruction in its wake. God saw that wickedness of humans was greatly increased on earth and He was sorry that He created man on earth. Looking at the sin committed by men and women, God’s heart grieved. Then He decided to destroy man and the beast from earth. Still He gave humankind a long rope, almost 100 years to repent and repair their behavior. Not that they would. Then came the judgment of God in the form of flood and the destruction.

“The earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence… and God said)  behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Genesis 6:11,13.

God directs Noah, whom he found to be righteous in his generation, to build an ark to save Noah’s family and animals, a pair of different species. Noah was 500 years old when God spoke to him thus. When he completed the construction of the ark and went in and God sent the 40 days’ of rain, Noah was 600 years old. Genesis 5:32 & Genesis 7:11. All these 100 years, when Noah was building the ark on dry ground, people of his day mocked him and of course did not believe that a flood will come and wash them all away. I am sure Noah warned them, explained to them why he was building the ark, for he is called the ‘preacher of righteousness,’ in 2 Peter 2:5, but who was interested in listening to him? It was only when the flood came they realized the truth, but it was too late for them to save themselves.

Are we not sailing in the same boat? Do we listen to the warnings that are being issued even today? 

Jesus Christ said,

“And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:

They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the days that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.”

Even in Noah’s time, God destroyed the earth with flood only when sin and wickedness increased greatly on earth and that too not without warning. It is the same warning that Jesus Christ gave when he was living on earth, which is repeated today also by many of his faithful followers. But who wants to listen to these warnings or who is even interested in reading these? Are they not just ridiculed by a generation that is too much in a hurry to stop and listen to these warnings?

Take any other major tragedy or punishment written about in the Bible; each one came with plenty of warnings and that too only because in spite of the warnings, human kind did not correct themselves, but went on indulging in their sinful ways when punishment became necessary. Can we turn and blame God for that? Is that reasonable? A God who is just and righteous cannot forever turn a blind eye to the evil on earth. One day He will act and we will have to pay the price for all our disobedience and willfulness. God, in His mercy, will save those who are obedient to Him. Let us not be found wanting then.