Imprecation and mercy

Are imprecatory prayers inconsistent with the biblical demand to love our enemies? On the surface it seems so, but since the Bible contains both imprecations and commands to love our enemy and since Scripture is internally consistent, they cannot be contradictory. Far from being contradictory, in fact, they are mutually supporting.

This is the point Paul makes in Romans 12. In one breath, he tells the Romans to refrain from revenge and leave room for the wrath of God the Avenger, and in the next breath he tells them to give food and drink to their enemies (Romans 12:19-20, where Paul quotes the mean-spirited Old Testament, Proverbs 25:21f). And then in the next breath he tells them to overcome evil with good. The command to do

good to those who persecute and abuse us is thus an immediate application of the command to "leave room for the wrath of God." We can follow Paul's apparently self-defeating instruction to give aid and comfort to enemies precisely because we are confident that God will deal with them in His time.

On the other hand, Paul says that doing good to enemies "heaps coals of fire on their head." That may be, as some commentators suggest, an image of mercy (God turns enemies into living altars), but even if it is, it shows that doing good is a means for God to bring about His judgments. If it is an image of judgment, then we have this circle: God promises to deal with our enemies, so we are free to treat them with kindness; and as we treat them with kindness, we are somehow working out God's judgment on them.

It might be objected that Paul does not instruct us to pray for God to avenge. But this is a foolish objection. God promises to avenge; we should pray for God to keep His promises; therefore.... Martyred saints in heaven are willing to pray for vengeance, and we are eager for God's will to be done on earth as in heaven (Revelation 6:9-11). The celebration of the fall of the harlot who drank the blood of saints is, in part, a celebration of answered prayer (19:1-2).

This is the secret of David's treatment of Saul. He refused to stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed precisely because he knew that Yahweh would someday remove Saul and give him the kingdom, and he had in fact celebrated the day when Saul would fall into the pit he made for David (Psalm 57:6; cf the Psalm title).

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, September 19, 2005 at 09:42 PM

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