God was robbed! He was robbed of something precious and important to Him. He was robbed of something that belonged exclusively to Him. He made that which was His. His possession existed because He made it. His possession never belonged to anyone else because it did not exist before He made it. He did not acquire this possession from someone or some place elsewhere. He created His precious, important possession. He brought into existence something that did not exist prior to His creative act. It was His and no one else's.
How do you react when something is stolen from you? What are your feelings when someone takes something from you that belonged exclusively and uniquely to you? Name something that is yours that is extremely important to you. How would you react if it was stolen? What would be your feelings if it was taken from you?
When something important to us is stolen, we feel anger. The thief ignored us. He [she] declared we are unimportant and insignificant. He [she] treated us unjustly, and that injustice angers us. When something important to us is stolen, we want it back! Our desire to have back that which was [and is] rightfully ours is intense. It is not unusual for our anger to grow as our awareness of the injustice grows. As our awareness grows, our desire to recover our stolen possession intensifies.
The Bible begins by introducing us to God Who creates (Genesis 1, 2). He brought the physical creation into existence. The crowning jewel of His creation was human life. His creative act brought human life into existence. He liked everything that He made! Without reservation, He liked His creation (Genesis 1:31)! He had a special relationship with the crowning jewel of His creation--human life. He placed the people He made in a garden He made. Everyday He visited with them (Genesis 3:8). For a while the people He made communicated with Him without shame, fear, or guilt.
Then evil robbed God. Through deception, evil took from God that which exclusively was God's. Evil destroyed God's relationship with His people. However, evil did not stop there. Evil corrupted God's entire physical creation. Paul said in Romans 8:20,21 that this physical creation longs for a time of renewal when death and decay are destroyed. Evil diverted the entire creation from its original purpose. Creation longs to be set free from its corruption and fulfill its intended purpose--God's glorification.
When God was robbed of that which He created [that which belonged exclusively to Him], how did He feel? What did He want? He felt angry. He wanted what had belonged to Him back. God did not want, does not want, and never shall want that which is not His. God passionately wants what is His. He wants it with such intensity and determination that even the angels could not understand His determination to get back what had been His (1 Peter 1:10-12).
Evil's theft placed two aspects of God's nature in conflict: His anger was in conflict with His love. His anger wanted to impose just consequences on evil, but He deeply, passionately loved people. Because evil enslaved people, destroying evil also meant destroying people. Evil's slavery so contaminated people that evil controlled people. People enslaved to evil no longer belonged to God. People must be rescued from evil before He destroyed evil! Yet, it was impossible for people to rescue themselves from evil's slavery. People could not escape evil exclusively through their own wills and actions. Only God could rescue them! But how? He could rescue them only if He redeemed them. God could not resort to practicing evil to destroy evil's slavery. His just nature demanded that evil be allowed to destroy the slavery evil imposed on people. That could happen, but only if God allowed evil to attack a part of Himself. Redemption could occur, but only if God paid the ransom. God loved people enough to pay their ransom (John 3:16-21).
God's dilemma: how could divine anger be appeased, people be redeemed from evil's slavery, and God remain just? If divine love expressed divine mercy and grace, divine justice demanded that divine anger be appeased. God could not function unjustly in the redemption He offered people. That is the core concept of propitiation. Propitiation was God's act of justly appeasing divine anger at the same moment He justly redeemed people. God allowed a part of His pure self to endure the penalty that belonged to evil and to people enslaved to evil. God paid the price of redemption for people enslaved to evil. Remember: people exist because of God's creative act! Jesus' death was God's act of propitiation. Evil motivated God's people to kill God's son. At the moment evil killed Jesus, evil also destroyed its stranglehold on people. By killing Jesus, evil destroyed its power to enslave people (see Hebrews 2:14-18).
God of necessity propitiated because evil's theft through deception provoked the just wrath of God. To realize divine wrath is a part of God's character and nature [just as is mercy], consider Exodus 32:1-14 [with the plagues in Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, God's physical nurturing in the wilderness, and Sinai's events as a background]; Ephesians 2:1-3; 5:3-6; and Colossians 3:5-11.
Some simple statements containing profound truths must be noted. Understanding these simple statements requires a lot of thought. Truth one: evil is the total, exact opposite of God. Consider something you find extremely detestable. The mere thought of this detestable situation repulses you. God detests evil beyond any form of repulsion you experience. Truth two: evil is God's avowed enemy. Evil despises God as much as God despises evil. It is impossible for the two to coexist. Evil's ultimate objective in human life is simple: eliminate every godly influence in a person's life. God's ultimate objective in human life is simple: eliminate every evil influence in a person's life. Truth three: evil acquires by theft. Evil defrauds. It steals by lying and deceiving (consider John 8:34-47). Truth four: God acquires by creating (consider Genesis 1:31; Exodus 19:3-6; Ephesians 4:20-24; Colossians 3:8-11; Titus 2:11-14). While Satan covets things that God creates, God wants only what is His. Truth five: God's anger and wrath have neither evil nor injustice in them. Human anger commonly contains injustice. Human anger commonly offers some form of opportunity to evil. (Consider Genesis 4:6,7 and Ephesians 4:26,27). God's anger never uses evil or provides opportunity for evil. God's anger expresses itself because evil acts before His anger is stirred. God's wrath never is motivated by injustice. God is wrathful because justice is violated.
State your understanding of how each of these texts in today's lesson relate to the divine act of propitiation.
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Link to Teacher's Guide
Lesson 4