A reproduction of the Watchtower Society's article
Why the ‘God of peace’ fights. Jehovah’s statement in Eden that he would put enmity between the seed of his Adversary and the seed of “the woman” did not change Him from being the ‘God of peace.’ (Ge 3:15; Ro 16:20; 1Co 14:33) The situation then was the same as in the days of the earthly life of his Son, Jesus Christ, who, after referring to his union with his heavenly Father, said: “Do not think I came to put peace upon the earth; I came to put, not peace, but a sword.” (Mt 10:32-40) Jesus’ ministry brought divisions, even within families (Lu 12:51-53), but it was because of his adherence to, and proclamation of, God’s righteous standards and truth. Division resulted because many individuals hardened their hearts against these truths while others accepted them. (Joh 8:40, 44-47; 15:22-25; 17:14) This was unavoidable if the divine principles were to be upheld; but the blame lay with the rejecters of what was right.
So, too, enmity was foretold to come because Jehovah’s perfect standards would allow for no condoning of the rebellious course of Satan’s “seed.” God’s disapproval of such ones and his blessing of those holding to a righteous course would have a divisive effect (Joh 15:18-21; Jas 4:4), even as in the case of Cain and Abel.—Ge 4:2-8; Heb 11:4; 1Jo 3:12; Jude 10, 11; see CAIN.
The rebellious course chosen by men and wicked angels constituted a challenge to Jehovah’s rightful sovereignty and to the good order of all the universe. Standing up to this challenge has required Jehovah to become “a manly person of war” (Ex 15:3-7), defending his own good name and righteous standards, fighting on behalf of those who love and serve him, and executing judgment upon those meriting destruction. (1Sa 17:45; 2Ch 14:11; Isa 30:27-31; 42:13) He does not hesitate to use his almighty power, devastatingly at times, as at the Flood, in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the delivery of Israel from Egypt. (De 7:9, 10) And he has no fear of making known any of the details of his righteous warfare; he makes no apologies, having nothing for which to be ashamed. (Job 34:10-15; 36:22-24; 37:23, 24; 40:1-8; Ro 3:4) His respect for his own name and the righteousness it represents, as well as his love for those who love him, compels him to act.—Isa 48:11; 57:21; 59:15-19; Re 16:5-7.
The Christian Greek Scriptures portray the same picture. The apostle Paul encouraged fellow Christians, saying: “The God who gives peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.” (Ro 16:20; compare Ge 3:15.) He also showed the rightness of God’s repaying tribulation to those causing tribulation for his servants, bringing everlasting destruction upon such opposers. (2Th 1:6-9) This was in harmony with the teachings of God’s Son, who left no room for doubt as to his Father’s uncompromising determination forcibly to end all wickedness and those practicing it. (Mt 13:30, 38-42; 21:42-44; 23:33; Lu 17:26-30; 19:27) The book of Revelation is replete with descriptions of divinely authorized warring action. All of this, however, in Jehovah’s wisdom ultimately leads to the establishment of an enduring, universal peace, solidly founded on justice and righteousness.—Isa 9:6, 7; 2Pe 3:13.
Dealings with fleshly and spiritual Israel. Similarly, much of the difference in content between the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Greek Scriptures is because the former deal mainly with Jehovah’s dealings with fleshly Israel, whereas the latter, to a large extent, lead up to and portray his dealings with spiritual Israel, the Christian congregation. Thus, on the one hand, we have a nation whose millions of members are such solely by virtue of fleshly descent, a conglomerate of the good and the bad. On the other hand, we have a spiritual nation formed of persons drawn to God through Jesus Christ, persons who show love for truth and right and who personally and voluntarily dedicate themselves to the doing of Jehovah’s will. Logically, God’s dealings and relations with the two groups would differ and the first group would reasonably call forth more expressions of Jehovah’s anger and severity than would the second group.
Yet it would be a grave error to miss the upbuilding and comforting insight into Jehovah God’s personality that his dealings with fleshly Israel provide. These give sterling examples proving that Jehovah is the kind of Person he described himself to Moses as being: “Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness and truth, preserving loving-kindness for thousands, pardoning error and transgression and sin, but by no means will he give exemption from punishment, bringing punishment for the error of fathers upon sons and upon grandsons, upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation.”—Ex 34:4-7; compare Ex 20:5.
Though balanced by justice, it is in reality Jehovah’s love, patience, and long-suffering that are the outstanding facets of his personality as revealed in the history of Israel, a highly favored people who, in their majority, proved remarkably “stiff-necked” and “hardhearted” toward their Creator. (Ex 34:8, 9; Ne 9:16, 17; Jer 7:21-26; Eze 3:7) The strong denunciations and condemnation repeatedly leveled against Israel by Jehovah through his prophets only serve to emphasize the greatness of his mercy and the amazing extent of his long-suffering. At the end of over 1,500 years of bearing with them, and even after his own Son was slain at the instigation of religious leaders of the nation, Jehovah continued to favor them for a period of three and a half more years, mercifully causing the preaching of the good news to be restricted to them, granting them yet further opportunity to gain the privilege of reigning with his Son—an opportunity that repentant thousands accepted.—Ac 2:1-5, 14-41; 10:24-28, 34-48; see SEVENTY WEEKS.
Jesus Christ evidently referred to Jehovah’s previously quoted statement as to ‘bringing punishment to later descendants of offenders’ when he said to the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees: “You say, ‘If we were in the days of our forefathers, we would not be sharers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ Therefore you are bearing witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Well, then, fill up the measure of your forefathers.” (Mt 23:29-32) Despite their pretensions, by their course of action such ones demonstrated their approval of the wrong deeds of their forefathers and proved that they themselves continued to be among ‘those hating Jehovah.’ (Ex 20:5; Mt 23:33-36; Joh 15:23, 24) Thus, they, unlike the Jews who repented and heeded the words of God’s Son, suffered the cumulative effect of God’s judgment when, years later, Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed and most of its population died. They could have escaped but chose not to avail themselves of Jehovah’s mercy.—Lu 21:20-24; compare Da 9:10, 13-15.
His personality reflected in his Son. In every respect Jesus Christ was a faithful reflection of the beautiful personality of his Father, Jehovah God, in whose name he came. (Joh 1:18; Mt 21:9; Joh 12:12, 13; compare Ps 118:26.) Jesus said: “The Son cannot do a single thing of his own initiative, but only what he beholds the Father doing. For whatever things that One does, these things the Son also does in like manner.” (Joh 5:19) It follows, therefore, that the kindness and compassion, the mildness and warmth, as well as the strong love for righteousness and hatred of wickedness that Jesus displayed (Heb 1:8, 9), are all qualities that the Son had observed in his Father, Jehovah God.—Compare Mt 9:35, 36 with Ps 23:1-6 and Isa 40:10, 11; Mt 11:27-30 with Isa 40:28-31 and Isa 57:15, 16; Lu 15:11-24 with Ps 103:8-14; Lu 19:41-44 with Eze 18:31, 32; Eze 33:11.
Every lover of righteousness who reads the inspired Scriptures and who truly comes to “know” with understanding the full meaning of Jehovah’s name (Ps 9:9, 10; 91:14; Jer 16:21) has every reason, therefore, to love and bless that name (Ps 72:18-20; 119:132; Heb 6:10), praise and exalt it (Ps 7:17; Isa 25:1; Heb 13:15), fear and sanctify it (Ne 1:11; Mal 2:4-6; 3:16-18; Mt 6:9), trust in it (Ps 33:21; Pr 18:10), saying with the psalmist: “I will sing to Jehovah throughout my life; I will make melody to my God as long as I am. Let my musing about him be pleasurable. I, for my part, shall rejoice in Jehovah. The sinners will be finished off from the earth; and as for the wicked, they will be no longer. Bless Jehovah, O my soul. Praise Jah, you people!”—Ps 104:33-35.
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