HAVE SOME GONE SO FAR THAT THEY ARE NO LONGER ELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE FORGIVENESS?

Jesus was willing to forgive all. Even on the Cross, He prayed: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). However, Jewish scholars and rabbis tend to believe that some have just gone too far to be forgiven. For example, when Jews celebrate Purim, they spit when the name of Haman is mentioned. This symbolizes their belief that Haman, who had wanted to destroy the Jewish people, as recorded in the Book of Esther, had lost any possibility of receiving forgiveness.

Likewise, Elie Wiesel, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, admitted that Jews are not willing to forgive all evil-doers. Rabbi Meir Y. Soloveichik also confessed:

·       During my weekly coffees with my friend Fr. Jim White, an Episcopal priest, there was one issue to which our conversation would incessantly turn, and one on which we could never agree: Is an utterly evil man—Hitler, Stalin, Osama bin Laden—deserving of a theist’s love? I could never stomach such a notion, while Fr. Jim would argue passionately in favor of the proposition. Judaism, I would argue, does demand love for our fellow human beings, but only to an extent. ‘Hate’ is not always synonymous with the terribly sinful. While Moses commanded us ‘not to hate our brother in our hearts,’ a man’s immoral actions can serve to sever the bonds of brotherhood.” (FirstThings Magazine)

Soloveichik offered two examples of people who had crossed the line. Samson had finally been captured by the Philistines, who had cut his hair to deprive him of his strength and had plucked out his eyes. The Philistines had chained him to the pillars of their stadium before a sellout crowd who came to see him tormented. However, Samson prayed:

·       "O Lord God, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!" (Judges 16:28).

The Lord answered his prayer, and Samson brought down the stadium causing thousands of deaths. Soloveichik reasoned that God had granted his prayer because the Philistines were beyond forgiveness. He therefore wrote:

·       Indeed, the contrast between the two Testaments indicates that this is the case: Jesus’ words [‘Forgive them for they know not what they do’] could not be more different than Samson’s.”

According to Soloveichik, this proved that the NT had veered far from the Hebrew Scriptures. He then offered the example of King Agag of the Amalekites, who Saul had spared in opposition to God’s instructions.

·       [The Prophet] Samuel said [to King Saul], "Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And he sent you on a mission, saying, 'Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.' Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?" (1 Samuel 15:17-19)

·       Then Samuel said, "Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites." Agag came to him confidently, thinking, "Surely the bitterness of death is past." But Samuel said, "As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women." And Samuel put Agag to death before the Lord at Gilgal. (1 Samuel 15:32-33)

Once again, Soloveichik reasoned that Agag was no longer eligible for forgiveness and was therefore executed. However, Soloveichik wrongly assumes that forgiveness and temporal (earthly) punishment are mutually exclusive. He assumes that if God forgives, He will not also punish. However, there are many Biblical examples that show that God will forgive and still punish. He forgave King David for his adultery and murder of Bathsheba’s husband Uriah. However, He would also punish David:

·       David said to [the Prophet] Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child who is born to you shall die.” (2 Samuel 12:13-14)

If God can punish but also forgive upon confession of sins, the fact that He had punished the Philistines and Agag didn’t mean that they had gone so far that they could no longer be forgiven. Instead, they never confessed their sins – the necessary requirement to receive forgiveness.

Instead, Israelites were expected to show mercy to even their enemies. There is no indication that these commands excluded really bad enemies:

·       "If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it.” (Exodus 23:4-5)

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• If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22)

If God required mercy for the worst of enemies, then we should expect at least the same from Him. Jesus had commanded us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). Therefore, being merciful to the worst of people would be something that God would do. Jesus also explained:

·       But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:44-45)

(A strange anomaly should be noted. The God had never asked the Israelite to forgive. Perhaps this is because a complete forgiveness had not yet been accomplished on the Cross.)

Soloveichik also seems to overlook the fact that God had forgiven the worst people. King Manasseh had arguably been the worst of Judah’s kings. He had reigned in Judah for more than 50 years and killed so many of the righteous as to create a veritable bloodbath:

• Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols), therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah...’ (2 Kings 21:10-12).

However, after he had been captured and imprisoned by the Assyrians, he repented and the Lord evidently forgave him:

·       “Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God” (2 Chron. 33:12-13).

This would suggest that the Lord would forgive any who would sincerely call upon Him:

·       And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls. (Joel 2:32)

This is the same hope that the Lord extends to His errant people Israel:

•  “O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is abundant redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (Psalm 130:7-8).

• “I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned and by which they have transgressed against Me” (Jeremiah 33:8; also 31:34; Isaiah 43:25).

There were even times that Israel was worse than her pagan neighbors. However, this did not make them ineligible for forgiveness and salvation:

•  “Therefore thus says the Lord God: 'Because you have multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes nor kept My judgments, nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you...'” (Ezekiel 5:7)... “Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who dwells to the south of you, is Sodom and her daughters. You did not walk in their ways nor act according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you became more corrupt than they in all your ways” (Ezekiel 16:46-47).

Despite the gravity of their sins, God would remain faithful to Israel. Of course, Israel would have to turn from their sins and turn back to God:

·       If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14; Isaiah 55:7; 59:20)

Nevertheless, in the end, God will unilaterally change Israel in order to forgive them. He will initiate their return without waiting for Israel to turn to Him:

·       Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety…I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul. (Jeremiah 32:37-41)

God will pour out His Spirit and bring Israel to mourning and repentance:

·       “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn…The land shall mourn, each family by itself.” (Zechariah 12:10,12)

I don’t think that Soloveichik realizes that when he disqualifies the Hamans of this world, he is also disqualifying his own people, contrary to the mercy of God.