Scripture Daily

Context No. 1901 of 4322 · Wisdom

Context · Reflection

Wisdom 12:17-27: in context

17For when men don’t believe that you are perfect in power, you show your strength, and in dealing with those who think this, you confuse their boldness. 18But you, being sovereign in strength, judge in gentleness, and with great forbearance you govern us; for the power is yours whenever you desire it. 19But you taught your people by such works as these, how the righteous must be kind. You made your sons to have good hope, because you give repentance when men have sinned. 20For if on those who were enemies of your servants and deserving of death, you took vengeance with so great deliberation and indulgence, giving them times and opportunities when they might escape from their wickedness, 21with how great care you judged your sons, to whose fathers you gave oaths and covenants of good promises! 22Therefore while you chasten us, you scourge our enemies ten thousand times more, to the intent that we may ponder your goodness when we judge, and when we are judged may look for mercy. 23Therefore also the unrighteous that lived in a life of folly, you tormented through their own abominations. 24For truly they went astray very far in the ways of error, Taking as gods those animals which even among their enemies were held in dishonor, deceived like foolish babes. 25Therefore, as to unreasoning children, you sent your judgment to mock them. 26But those who would not be admonished by mild correction will experience the deserved judgment of God. 27For through the sufferings they were indignant of, being punished in these creatures which they supposed to be gods, they saw and recognized as the true God him whom they previously refused to know. Therefore also the result of extreme condemnation came upon them.

Wisdom reflects on how God, who holds all power, exercises it: you, being sovereign in strength, judge with gentleness, and govern us with great forbearance. Even toward those who deserved judgment, God gave times and opportunities to turn from their wickedness. And by dealing so, Wisdom says, God taught his people a lesson: that the righteous must be kind, and that those who judge should ponder God's goodness, and those who are judged may hope for mercy, for God gives repentance when people have sinned.

The striking thing Wisdom observes is the way God uses his power: sovereign in strength, he judges with gentleness and governs with great forbearance. God has all power; he could judge instantly, crush the guilty at once, exercise his strength without restraint. And instead he judges with gentleness, with patience, giving even those who deserve judgment time and opportunity to repent. His power is exercised with forbearance, not with the swift severity it could permit. This reveals something about God, and it teaches something to us. About God, it shows that his patience with sinners, ourselves included, is not weakness or indifference, but the gentle forbearance of a God who, though he could judge at once, gives room and time for repentance, because he desires that we turn and live. The goodness of God, Paul says, leads you to repentance; his patience is a mercy, an opening, time granted for us to turn. And Wisdom draws out the lesson God means us to learn from this: that the righteous must be kind. God's own way of exercising his power, with gentleness and forbearance rather than harsh severity, is meant to teach his people how to exercise whatever power or judgment falls to us. Those who have received God's forbearance are to extend forbearance; those who hope for his mercy are to be merciful; the way God deals with us is the pattern for how we are to deal with others. When we have power over others, when we are in a position to judge, punish, or press an advantage, God's example calls us to gentleness and forbearance, to give room for repentance and change, to temper our strength with kindness, as God tempers his. Sovereign in strength, he judges in gentleness; and those who would be his are to do likewise, remembering the forbearance we ourselves have received.

When I have power over others, or am in a position to judge or press an advantage, do I exercise it with harsh severity, or can I learn from God, who though sovereign in strength judges with gentleness and forbearance, giving room for repentance, and temper my own strength with kindness, remembering the patience God has shown to me?

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