But My people heard not My voice, and Israel gave no heed unto Me. And I let them go according to the ways of their hearts; they shall walk in their own ways. If My people had heard of Me, if Israel had walked in My ways, Quickly would I have humbled their enemies, and upon their oppressors would I have laid My hand. The enemies of the Lord have lied unto Him, but in that age their time shall come. And He fed them with the fat of the wheat, and with honey out of the rock He satisfied them.
Today has been a day of rough readings. This morning in Matins was the gospel reading from Luke 12, (what follows is but a portion)
Then He also said to the multitudes, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time? “Yes, and why, even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right? When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you shall not depart from there till you have paid the very last mite.”
These two passages of readings for the day go together to form a beautiful image of God, but also present something of a fearful possibility. We see God in both passages as a loving Father, patient to utmost. The Psalm covers the actual transgression of Israel, the Gospel covers the possibility of a grievance being settled between two countryment, and in both God does not appear angry, heavy handed, ready to condemn, or even desirous that anyone be condemned in His sight. In fact, coupled together it does not appear that it is God that does the condemning.
I have understood this gospel passage in the past to refer to being thrown in Hell to pay God back for my offenses, where in the world I came up with that interpretation only God knows (and knows it wasn’t Him). The passage is very clear that we are responsible to one another to forgive one another and to work toward forgiveness for these things. On the last day, we will either accuse or excuse one another. And if we have injured our brother, and not settled the matter, the judge will give us over to the officer. But, the Psalm explains this in more simple terms as God says, ” I let them go according to the ways of their hearts.” It is not that Hell is a place where we pay God back for our offenses against Him, but the end result of a heart that chooses its own way, the unforgiving way, and God fulfills its final desire.
The passage is no less frightening however. In fact it could be dreadfully worse! God will judge us according to our own standard of forgiveness. He is not egotistical and is not stuck on how we have hurt him from time to time. He is interested in the state of our soul and whether we are communing with Him as He is present in the least of His creations, or whether we desire to disintegrate into complete and total abandonment of personhood. The threat is not that He will throw our sorry soul in Hell, it is that He would give us what we have wanted all along. It is the fear that he would leave us to harbor resentment, to destroy ourselves within ourselves, to please our own perversities. God would not desire this, but His children do oddly enough.
These passages present to us a God who loves us, who will not let us go, unless we want to go. In this case, to His own pain, he permits us to be who we want to be. What a beautiful Father we have! He tells us how to be everything He intends for us to be, and carries us along by His grace. But the threat of beauty remains. Will we walk away so as to never behold the beauty again. Cameras and the fine arts are man’s means of keeping the beauty of a thing before his or her own eyes, lest the beauty escape and not be realized, appreciated, or indwelt in the future. These photos allow us to avoid the threat of beauty, and to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation. There is also a means of doing this spiritually so that where ever we may go, and what ever we may do, we might always behold the beauty, but how many of us seek this tool as much as we seek that tool which captures the physical? How many of us truly seek the pure heart that shall see God? And if we will not, then God speaks this of us, “I let them go according to the ways of their hearts,” and the beauty of God goes unrealized, unappreciated, and distant by own choice.
