‘Zijn woede duurt een oogwenk, zijn liefde een leven lang’ (Ps. 30:6). Over de ‘straffende’ God van het Oude Testament

Samenvatting

Questions about the ‘punishing’ God of the Old Testament are many: How do we engage the emotions that modern Bible readers experience when they are confronted with the dangerous presence of YHWH? Do God’s anger and punishment reflect a different culture or a previous stage in divine revelation? Even in the context of Reformed theology these questions do not receive a definitive answer. A close reading of the story about the prophet Elisha and the death of the children in Bethel (2 Kgs. 2:23-25), however, shows that the understanding of the placement of the stories in their literary and cultural context, are helpful in answering aspects of these questions, especially because these texts are realistic. They depict the truth about the nature of reality. Finally, God’s anger is felt most deeply when his compassion and redeeming presence in this reality are violated.