Hell

Passage: Deuteronomy 28:15-68

In this chapter God delivers a litany of all the bad things that will happen to his people if they turn their backs on him and his commands. The list is graphic and fairly exhaustive. Just about any bad thing that could happen to a person is on the list. God tells his people, “If you disobey me and turn your back on me, this is what will happen to you.” Now on the surface this speech sounds jealous and petty. God wants the people’s exclusive devotion, and he’ll hurt them if he doesn’t get it.

But closer examination of the list of potential consequences reveals something important: this is just a sampling of the bad things that can and do happen to people all the time. The world the Israelites inhabited was a world in which nations were routinely routed and destroyed by other nations. It was a world in which plagues decimated communities. It was a world in which famine wiped out the natural resources of a people group, forcing them to move or perish. There’s nothing supernatural about the judgment with which God threatens his people. These are all horrendous things that the Israelites have been spared so far; they are nonetheless things that could happen to the Israelites - things that happen regularly to their near neighbors.

When God warns his people of the dire consequences of disobedience, he’s warning them not of new threats that he’ll impose, but old threats he will allow. As the people of God, the Israelites have benefitted from God’s constant intervention and protection. God has protected them from plague and famine and slavery. What God threatens to do, should the Israelites disobey, is simply walk away. What God describes as the judgment that will befall his people should they turn their backs on him is life without God. Life in a broken world; a world in which evil is left unchecked. God is describing Hell.

Hell isn’t a physical place so much as it is a state of being. It is the state of being wholly and utterly removed from God’s presence. This may not seem so bad. After all, countless people in our world live without any real relationship with God. However, they live in a world governed by God, and enjoy the fringe benefits of living in close proximity to God and his people. Life without God is life as described in Deuteronomy 28: unchecked suffering and unmitigated evil and no hope of any relief. This is the inescapable end of all those who spend their lives pushing God away.