I believe in a God who is all-powerful and who is, in fact, love. He is all-knowing and he is everywhere. He is perfect, righteous, just, and holy. He can do anything he wants-or can he?
The short answer is-NO! The following is my short answer as to why, because the more I think about it the more pages upon pages I could write and you'd go back to doing something else long before you got done reading my words.
God told the people of ancient Israel the rules they were to live by, and pronounced blessings and cursings upon them based upon their obedience. He warned them that he knew they would fail, and he would judge them and remove them from the land. Their main sin was idolatry-serving false gods and rejecting the Living God. There are many promises God lays down in the Bible, and having given his word, he must uphold it. You see, God cannot lie. He cannot go back on his word. He also cannot leave sin unpunished-forever. I, for one, am extremely thankful that he is patient with my sin and his justice waits a lifetime. He has given me plenty of time to turn to him.
God judged Israel; he was forced to by his own word and honor.
I was inspired to write this after listening to audio of the book of Ezekiel. Through many chapters God relayed the message that he would no longer listen to the prayers of his idolatrous people and he would punish them. Listening to chapter after chapter of this heavy message really brought me down. One chapter drew the analogy that Israel was like a young girl that he nourished to health and later married when she was of age. He showered her with attention, but she turned her love to others. It was after contemplating this that I realized God was really angry with his people and was going on an emotional rant because of how much they had hurt him.
Comparing Israel to his bride, God showed his deep love and affection for her spanning centuries. He nurtured her, bestowed gifts upon her [how many lovers could literally feed you manna from heaven and give you a nation filled with milk and honey?] and was even so devoted to her and intimate with her that he disrobed his very Glory to her.
This rant was God going through the agonizing ritual of telling his bride of the horrible, heartbreaking things she had done to him. It is as if he was sitting down with his wife and describing to her the painful truth of seeing her in the arms of another man in all its nightmarish detail. He saw and accused her of all the sordid details of her adulterous activity. God trusted her with his very Presence and his Glory-yet she rejected the Living God for pathetic, evil demonic idols.
She sacrificed their own children to those idols.
If a person finds their spouse has committed adultery, he can divorce her, or even seek prosecution in some societies. The two people are on essentially equal footing in that regard. However, if you are God, and you established the rules of the marriage covenant and the laws forbidding idolatry, and you own Justice itself, you cannot simply forgive and take your spouse back, simply divorce and walk away, you are constrained to punish and judge. God had no choice-he had to punish Israel for her idolatry.
He also had no choice in another matter-he could not refuse to send his only son, whom he loved more than anything else, to die for the penalty of our sins. To be sure, he loves the whole world and willingly gave his son, but his very character prevented him from doing anything else! This gives me a tremendous sense of comfort and security in the love of God, for he keeps ALL his promises. Without fail. He has no choice.
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