Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

RETRIBUTION

The dispensing of or receiving recompense or payment. Whether between God and humans or between human beings, retribution is the act of getting what one deserves, either by human standards or by divine decree. In the earliest traditions the legal material dictated that individuals should be punished accordingly for their wrongdoings. Both the Covenant code (Exod. 20–23) and the Holiness code (Lev. 17–26) are the classic texts for seeing the clarity with which the laws were written regarding retribution. Both sets of laws speak to both the divine-human relationship and the human-human relationship. To break any law, however, was to damage the relationship with God. All the commandments were given by God to give direction and instruction to the community of faith (Deut. 4:5-8; 5:28-33). Retribution must be made to correct any wrong or to reward any right.

With the law as its foundation, the history of Israel was a continuous cycle of making retribution. Even in the narrative of Cain and Abel, Cain is punished by being forced to leave his home (Gen. 4). All the earth is punished by a devastating flood for widespread sin (Gen. 6–9). For obeying God’s voice and going to Canaan, Abraham and Sarah are rewarded with a son, Isaac, to fulfill the promise (Gen. 12–25; 12:1-3; 21:1-7). The Jacob-Esau-Laban narratives are full of interesting twists on the theme of retribution (Gen. 26–36). Later, after Moses has led the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt, the people rebel against God and Moses and are punished by being denied entry into the Promised Land; it would be their children instead who would enter. The whole Deuteronomistic history is filled with one act of retribution after another (e.g., Judg. 10–20).

The problem of retribution, however, is serious. Throughout the Deuteronomistic history and the book of Proverbs, and even in the legal material and elsewhere, the idea is that everyone gets what they deserve. Deut. 5:28-33 (and many other places as well) states that if the people will just keep the commandments then all will go well and they will live in the land a long time. The Proverbs are similar, but on an individual level (cf. Prov. 3:1-2). The theology on which such texts are based is that the universe is right, and if one will but do the right things then good things will happen to such people.

While the point of such texts can be understood as to their intent, the book of Job, the questions of Jeremiah, the laments of the Psalms, and the story of the incarnation of Jesus Christ suggest that such a theology of retribution must include a lifelong search for an answer to Jeremiah’s question: “Why does the way of the guilty prosper?/Why do all who are treacherous thrive?” (Jer. 12:1). Retribution, then, is closely connected to any discussion of theodicy.

In Job a righteous man loses all he has except for his life and his wife. His friends, proponents of the “national” theology of retribution, are convinced that he has sinned. Even Job’s wife is so convinced. But Job knows that he has done nothing wrong. He is a threat to the accepted theology. Like Jeremiah, Job has serious questions for God (Jer. 12:1-4; Job 33; ; cf. Hab. 1:1–2:5). And, like Jeremiah, Job is answered by God, but the expected answer is not to be found (Jer. 12:5-6; Job 38–41). Both are told that the world will not change. The order of creation is not yet perfect. Indeed, the answer is not to be found in this lifetime. Retribution proper belongs solely to God and will be administered in the life to come (Matt. 25:31-46; Rev. 21:1-8; 22:1-5). Then and only then does the theology of the Deuteronomistic history and Proverbs come to fruition. Until then, bad will happen to the good and good will happen to the bad, and vice versa.

Bibliography. W. Brueggemann, Old Testament Theology (Minneapolis, 1992); K. Koch, “Is There a Doctrine of Retribution in the Old Testament?” in Theodicy in the Old Testament, ed. J. L. Crenshaw. IRT 4 (Philadelphia, 1983), 57-87.

Marc A. Jolley

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

RETRIBUTION

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)