The Orlando Shooting and the Avenger Who Matters

What are we to make of the horrible shooting in Orlando?

While there are many layers to consider in this travesty, a key one which cannot be overlooked is how wickedness in a nation provokes God to anger.

Several weeks ago, I wrote an article (that can be read here) in which I argued that “Political turmoil is often God’s rod of correction for His people.”

My analysis was taken from the Scripture’s account of the reign of King Rehoboam whose rebellion against God, along with that of his father Solomon, prompted the Almighty to rend the nation of Israel into two kingdoms through a tumultuous uprising led by Jeroboam. The author of this biblical narrative makes plain that “the cause was from the LORD” (1 Kings 12:15).

A point I didn’t bring out in this piece that’s worth noting now is that sodomites had gained prominence during King Rehoboam’s reign, and this sexual sin is listed alongside idolatry as a national blight that angered God at this time. 1 Kings 14:22-24 records:

“And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done. For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree. And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.”

Just as in Chapter 12 of 1 Kings, we learn in Chapter 14 that God ordained a shocking event to shake the children of Israel out of their self-absorbed and false sense of peace. Verses 25-26 states:

“And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem: And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house; he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.”

We as Americans did not lose our high-dollar missile defense “shields” in Orlando on Sunday morning, but we did experience another stunning strike that demonstrates our vulnerability as a sinful people. No matter how strong we think we are, none of us can withstand the jealous wrath of Almighty God. None of us.

In saying this, I’m not suggesting I know exactly God’s mind and intent in what happened at the Pulse Nightclub through Omar Mateen’s deadly crime spree. What I am saying is that our sins as a people are worthy of God’s wrath on this scale, and that we should be mindful that He has held nations to account in times past through similar means. And this point is well worth careful reflection.

With this established, let me hasten to state that Mateen’s acts were heinous, despite what the sinful proclivities may have been of those he shamefully murdered. His killing of 49 people and maiming of 53 others was evil, unlawful, and indefensible.

I must also emphasize this: We must love and seek to help those caught in the clutches of homosexual sin. Lest we forget, we are all sinners who have fallen “short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), and every one of us is deserving of hell fire apart from God’s unmerited grace (Rom. 1:18; Jude 5-13; Eph. 2:8-9). This should drive us to our knees to pray for the conversion of unregenerate homosexuals and also compel us to compassionately reach out and show them the path to real repentance that every sinner must take to find true freedom: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13).

Yet it’s also high time we recognize how despicable sin is in our Creator’s eyes. If sin wasn’t deadly serious to God, He would not have driven Adam and Eve from the Tree of Life in Eden’s Paradise and sent His precious Son to bear “the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:4) through a grueling death on the Cross.

And He would not have exacted divine judgment in history, over and over again, on wayward peoples who forsook His righteous ways. Think Sodom and Gomorrah in Lot’s time. Think Jerusalem before the scourge of Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C., and then again before Titus’s ravaging army in 70 A.D.

For some unsavory yet timely reflection, read Leviticus 26. Read Deuteronomy 28. Read Ezekiel 20-32. Read the book of Jeremiah in its entirety, as well as this weeping prophet’s book of Lamentations — and mourn.

The truth is this: God does not take sexual sins lightly. In Leviticus 18:20-30, God declares that he dispossesses nations — He “vomits” and “spues” them out — not only for rampant homosexual sin, but for the pervasive sin of adultery. The Prophet Jeremiah spoke of the latter when he proclaimed: “They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?” (Jer. 5:8-9).

Hollywood has profited of late in bringing a fictional, comic-book notion of “The Avengers” to the big screen, but there is a real-life, Holy Avenger in heaven who ought to grip our hearts and minds at this time. There’s much I could write on the “Muslim threat” in light of Sunday’s shooting, but it’s far more important for us to recognize that the greatest threat to our well-being is the wrath that follows unconfessed sin — be it in history or eternity. God, the Avenger Who must be feared, will not be mocked; we best take His judgment seriously.

Now is the time for us to break free of the bondage of our sins, including the sexual ones that God so greatly abhors (Lev. 18:20-30; Jer. 5:8-9). In repentance, through Christ’s Gospel, lies real and abiding hope (Acts 3:19; Titus 3:3-7).

Apart from this there is only woe (Isa. 3:11; 5:8-30; 29:15; Jer. 48:1, 46; Lam. 5; Mic. 2:1-5; Hab. 2:15-17; Zeph. 3:1-7; Matt. 13:41-42; Luke 13:3; Jude 5-13).