A view of Divine Retribution

Here is a quick lesson about what divine retribution looks like. Imagine this as a video, or a short film vignette. I am writing this because some people continue to think that because "it hasn't caught up with them yet" or they live a "charmed life," they should not believe for a moment that God does not know all, see all, will judge, will right all the balances, and will have retribution on behalf of those wronged.

Arrogant sinners are like a couple of people, let's say a man and a woman, driving an expensive fast car, who go beyond simply enjoying their good fortune at having a nice ride, and the ability to earn such a living. Part of their enjoyment is to rub their fortune in the face of others who are less fortunate. So they are like this couple, zooming along in their car, overtaking the "slow pokes" ahead of them and passing them. They do not wait for the safe passing zone and they do not do it nicely with courtesy. They tail gate the "slow driver" until they can be sure that the driver has noticed how inadequate he or she is at the wheel of the boring sensible cheap car compared to their fineness. And they make sure the slow driver knows how dumb and inconvenient he or she is for going so slow. So after making sure to harass the driver as much as possible, they pull out into the oncoming lane in order to "show that slow poke their dust." They pull out across the double line and start their pass.

They may slow down as they pull even with the hapless driver so they can look them in the eyes and sneer. The woman in particular will hope that the slow driver, especially if a woman, notices how smartly she is coiffed and dressed, that she is slim, and maybe even flashing some bling (though of course the man and the car speak to that too). So they make sure to rub the slow poke driver's face in it, good and close up, smirking face to conscientiously driving face.

Then they really step on that gas pedal to leave the slow poke dummy in the dust. Since most of their fun is looking at how the hapless driver is reacting, they continue to watch, even as they have passed, craning their necks back. The hapless driver sees their laughs and smirks as they rush by him or her and ahead. The only trouble is that they are so busy gloating that they have not gotten safely back into the driving lane.

A huge tractor trailer truck driven by God is also on the road, driving slowly and carefully, in the oncoming lane. As the woman holds up her cell phone camera to take a last picture of the hapless driver behind them, dwindling in the distance, and the man urges her on and snickers, they smash into the grillwork of God's truck.

Jesus warned that no one will know when their time comes, and further, that judgment by God is inevitable, both in the world and when one dies. You better be sure that you are obeying God's road rules at all times.

For those of you who are particularly dense, this is an analogy. I don't mean that sinners die in car wrecks. I mean that they are so busy sinning and hurting less cool, slower people that they intrude on God's path and will find themselves hurled into hell through their own actions. That is divine retribution. God does not punish so much as he warns that certain behaviors put people themselves on their own behest on the way to hell. And it's not the cool song "Highway to Hell." Hell is by definition the most unbearable state of being that exists unbearably unendingly.