Mar 12 2009
A Threatening God – I
The following three posts in my “An Almighty Alpha” series may strike some as bit tedious, but a person with a scientific mind tends to keep collecting data, even when it may appear overkill. And so in “A Threatening God,” parts I – III, you will encounter Bible verse after Bible verse reflecting the theme of the threat display as an integral part of the primate’s repertoire for attaining and maintaining status: whether that primate be a real chimp or an imagined deity.
One could say that there are three components or phases to the threat display. The first consists of gestures hinting at a fear-inducing display of power to come. In a chimp this consists of the piloerection (bristled fur/hair) and swagger. Look out, he’s going to go off! Among humans this stage is accompanied by, or has been replaced by, verbal swagger and hints of impending violence and/or the ability to do harm.
The second component is a fright-inducing ruckus. There is clamor and clash, there is damage done. To other people or things. See, you better stay in line, or this could be you.
The third component is acknowledged subordination: the bowing down and/or backing off of the lesser to the greater. Sometimes it follows after the first component, thus sparing the fright the second tends to elicit. Sometimes the second. Oh great one — I know my place! If the second component fails to precipitate the third . . . that social group has trouble. Upheaval is in the works.
Today we will take a look at a number of Bible verses illustrating the first component. The threat before the display. Notice the use of the words “if” and “will.” If you don’t get in line (behind/beneath me), there will be hell to pay. Pure verbal threat.
So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. (Exodus 3:20) [underline mine]
Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. (Exodus 34:10)
[T]hen I will do this to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away your life. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. (Leviticus 26:16)
Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. (Deuteronomy 28:26-27)
If you fear the LORD and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the LORD your God-good! But if you do not obey the LORD, and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you, as it was against your fathers. (1 Samuel 12:15)
But if they do not listen, they will perish by the sword and die without knowledge. (Job 36:12)
God who expresses his wrath every day. If he does not relent, he will sharpen his sword; he will bend and string his bow. (Psalms 7:11-12)
On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur; a scorching wind will be their lot. (Psalms 11-6)
If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah 1:19-20)
They will flee to caverns in the rocks and to the overhanging crags from dread of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth. (Isaiah 2:21)
Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over all the glory will be a canopy. (Isaiah 4:5)
But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath. (Jeremiah 10:10)
I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the LORD, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. (Jeremiah 25:9)
The peaceful meadows will be laid waste because of the fierce anger of the LORD. (Jeremiah 25:37)
“I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you off the cliffs, and make you a burned-out mountain. (Jeremiah 51:25)
Rain will come in torrents, and I will send hailstones hurtling down, and violent winds will burst forth. (Ezekiel 13:11)
I will pour out my wrath upon you and breathe out my fiery anger against you; I will hand you over to brutal men, men skilled in destruction. (Ezekiel 21:31)
This is what will happen in that day: When God attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign LORD. In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. (Ezekiel 38:18-19)
I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. (Ezekiel 38:22)
But I will send fire upon their cities that will consume their fortresses.” (Hosea 8:14)
I will uproot from among you your Asherah poles and demolish your cities. (Micah 5:14)
“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. (Haggai 2:6)
His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:12)
This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power. (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9)
Can one make a case that the god of the Bible made a number of threats to establish/maintain his status as top alpha? I think so.
