Punishment

Journalist Lance Morrow won the National Magazine Award for an essay— “The Case for Rage and Retribution”—written on Sept. 11, 2001. His opening in that essay captured the national mood as well as reflecting Morrow’s sense of good and evil:

For once, let’s have no ‘grief counselors’ standing by with banal consolations, as if the purpose, in the midst of all this, were merely to make everyone feel better as quickly as possible. We shouldn’t feel better. For once, let’s have no fatuous rhetoric about ‘healing.’ Healing is inappropriate now, and dangerous. There will be time later for the tears of sorrow. A day cannot live in infamy without the nourishment of rage. Let’s have rage.

Possible Preaching Angle:

When preaching the imprecatory psalms, remember they are not about personal vengeance, but prayers focused on God’s justice, sovereignty, and protection. These psalms express a longing for justice from those oppressed by enemies of both God’s people and God. God promises divine justice for His people: “Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?... He will see that they get justice, and quickly” (Luke 18:7–8; cf. Rev. 19:2).

Constructed during the early 18th-century during the reign of Sultan Ismail bin Sharif, the Kara Prison is a vast subterranean prison in the city of Meknes, Morocco. Its most unusual feature is that it lacked doors and bars, but it’s believed that no one ever escaped.

Its inescapability despite lacking bars and doors was due to its complex labyrinth-like design. It was named after a Portuguese prisoner who was granted freedom on the condition that he constructed a prison that could house more than 40,000 inmates.

The entrance is located in Ismaili Qasba, but the labyrinth goes on for miles. Some believe it’s roughly the size of the city itself. According to legends, a team of French explorers attempted to discover the vastness of the prison and never returned. Each hall of the dungeon contained several corridors, which led to another hall, into another, then into another.

As time went on, the prison was discontinued and was utilized as a storage facility for food. Today, a portion of the former prison is open to the public, but its true extent is still unknown.

Possible Preaching Angle:

While this Moroccan prison may have claimed to be escape-proof, it is certain that there is no escape from hell. An inescapable horror of black darkness (Jude 1:4,13), eternal fire (Matt. 25:41), undying worms (Mark 9:44, 48), and everlasting destruction (2 Thess. 1:9) await those who reject Christ.

A Michigan judge is taking a unique approach to combat shoplifting, ordering offenders to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot as part of their community service. Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the “Walmart wash” sentence will deter future thefts and serve as a reminder of the consequences of stealing.

Judge Clothier explained, “I don’t think everybody that steals is a bad person. Sometimes people are just down on their luck. But there’s going to be consequences when you break the law.” The judge introduced this unusual form of punishment in Grand Blanc Township, located 50 miles north of Detroit, and expects to assign 75 to 100 people to wash cars at weekend events in March and April.

Walmart has agreed to provide water and supplies for the community service events. Clothier said he was shocked by the extent of retail thefts after taking the bench in January, with many offenders coming from both Michigan and out of state. “It’s just crazy,” he remarked, recalling a day when he had 48 such cases on his docket.

The judge believes that the community service will not only be effective but also humbling. “I think it will be humiliating to be out there washing cars if you see someone you know.” Thus emphasizing the potential embarrassment of being caught in the act. Clothier even plans to lead by example, adding, “I will be there washing cars with them.”

Sometimes the wheels of justice turn slowly, but eventually they do turn. Such was the case for Billy Ray Trueblood, who was finally sentenced in May of this year for charges in connection with the 2019 death of accountant Alex Reser. Authorities say that Trueblood sold Reser counterfeit Oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl, which resulted in Reser’s death from overdose.

According to federal officials, the investigation zeroed in on Trueblood fairly quickly, as he was known for dealing opioids like Fentanyl. But they’d been unable to locate Trueblood until May of 2019, when one of the investigators happened to be watching the Portland Trail Blazers in an NBA playoff game and saw Trueblood captured on camera, seated just a few rows behind Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. Federal officials notified local police on hand at the arena, and Trueblood was arrested without incident.

At Trueblood’s sentencing hearing, Reser’s loved ones asked U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman for a harsh sentence. His father, Marty Reser, said in court:

[Alex] had so much to live for, but he died one day after we returned [from vacation]. For Billy, it was all about the buck … We were hoping for justice because our son Alex is not coming back … No one will ever again have the opportunity to spend time, create more memories with Alex.

Trueblood was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison and four years of supervised release.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Even when people think we’re successful at hiding from God, it’s all a fantasy. God knows us down to our core and there are consequences for sin. “… you may be sure that your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23).

A woman in Ohio who threw a burrito bowl at a Chipotle worker and was convicted of assault has been sentenced to an unusual punishment that includes working in fast food for two months.

During a dinner rush and while a restaurant was short-staffed, Emily Russell, then the store manager, said she made and then remade an order for Rosemary Hayne. Ms. Hayne was not satisfied with the final product. In a video shared widely online, she can be seen yelling at Ms. Russell before hurling the burrito bowl at her face.

“I didn’t expect it at all,” Ms. Russell, 26, said. “I just blinked and there was sour cream dripping from my hair.” Eventually, someone called the police, Ms. Russell said. The judge offered her a chance to reduce her sentence, with a catch—60 of her 90 jail days would be suspended if she worked 20 hours a week for eight and a half weeks (or 60 days) at a fast-food restaurant. Ms. Hayne, 39, agreed to take the judge up on his offer, he said. She must complete her time as a fast-food worker by the time she reports to jail.

The sentencing came as a surprise to Ms. Russell. “I thought she was going to get a slap on the wrist, but she didn’t. She is going to get to walk in my shoes,” Ms. Russell said.

Possible Preaching Angle:

That’s one way to learn how to walk in someone else’s shoes, but as followers of Jesus we should always be quicker to extend compassion and forgiveness to others.

A man from Georgia found himself in shock after being handed a speeding ticket totaling a staggering $1.4 million. Connor Cato was pulled over in September for driving at 90 mph in a 55-mph zone, resulting in the citation.

Cato says he knew he would be paying a hefty fine for driving so fast, but even taking that into account, the amount seemed excessive. “‘$1.4 million,’ the lady told me on the phone. I said, ‘This might be a typo’ and she said, ‘No sir, you either pay the amount on the ticket or you come to court on Dec. 21 at 1:30 p.m.’”

Eventually, city officials clarified that the amount was not the actual fine but rather a placeholder generated by the e-citation software used by the local court. The official statement from the City of Savannah stated, “The programmers who designed the software used the largest number possible because super speeder tickets are a mandatory court appearance and do not have a fine amount attached to them when issued by police.”

Savannah city spokesperson Joshua Peacock told the Associated Press that the citation’s value was not meant to intimidate or coerce individuals into appearing in court, explaining that the actual fine is subject to a cap of $1,000, along with additional state-mandated costs. Furthermore, Peacock assured the public that the court is actively working on revising the placeholder language to prevent any further confusion or misunderstanding regarding the nature of the citation.

Still, Cato was not the only person riled up by the big-ticket citation. In a recent editorial, The New York Post called it a metaphor for “the absolute state of the social contract we make with our elected officials and their administrative henchmen.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

People don’t always understand the eternal consequences of their behavior, but there is a shocking day of judgment coming. At that time many will face the consequences of violating God’s laws and there will be no mercy. However, God is merciful “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). At the present time, God uses consequences to awaken people to the penalty of disobedience (Heb. 12:4-12).

Cole Mushrush does two things when he wakes up each morning at the family ranch: make up a pot of coffee, then fire up his laptop to see if any cows have wandered astray. Not many do, because electronic collars have been hung around their necks that give them a jolt if they try to cross one of the invisible fence boundaries created on a computer. The digital fence follows the contours of a pasture, and the collars are designed to keep the cows hemmed in without having to go to the expense of building a real fence.

He said, “The collars have mostly deterred cows from wandering past the no-go zone—although the animals don’t always behave as desired after a shock that comes following warning beeps. Some of them close their eyes and run. We don’t need that.”

The cows undergo a four-day training regimen which included a beep followed by shock, and playing around with the boundaries. There were a few rule breakers, such as when a cow might see her friend on the other side of an invisible fence. Mushrush said, “There are social cliques within a herd. Sometimes a cow will walk through the shock to be with their friend.”

If you are wondering what the shock feels like, it is reported to hurt less than a bee sting.

Possible Preaching Angle:

We know we have freedom in Christ but sometimes we need to be reminded or warned that we are crossing a line which God has placed there for our good.

For most people, a drive home from a day out is rather uneventful, but most people are not Christopher Young. Young was spotted by Portland police officers driving a gray Audi without a license plate, and one of them thought the Oregon DMV Trip Permit in the window looked a little fishy. After running the number and determining it was fake, officers followed Young in traffic, and eventually decided to pull him over. This prompted Young to flee. Police then began a high-speed pursuit in which Young “drove into oncoming traffic, ran multiple red lights, nearly collided with multiple motorists and at one point drove onto a sidewalk,” according to court documents.

Police eventually apprehended Young at his home. Upon securing a warrant for the property, they discovered the VIN on the Audi had been painted over, there were several other stolen cars on the property, and that Young was in possession of firearms, at least one fake ID, and tools associated with car theft.

Young currently faces 51 counts of criminal charges, including identity theft, forgery, possession of a stolen vehicle, and reckless driving.

Possible Preaching Angle:

There's no way to outrun justice or the truth; God's desire for righteousness in the earth is so unrelenting there's no point for anyone trying to lie, cheat, or steal their way to prosperity. It won't work ultimately.

Hannah Beswick had a morbid fear of being buried alive, and this dread was not entirely irrational. Her young brother John almost had his coffin lid closed over him when a mourner attending John’s supposed death noticed the eyelids of the “dead body” flickering. On examination, the family physician confirmed that John was still alive. John regained consciousness a few days later, and lived for many more years.

Such incidents were not uncommon during the period in which Hannah Beswick lived—late 17th to mid-18th century. In fact, cases of premature burial have been documented well into the late 19th century. These are gruesome tales—urban legend or otherwise—about victims falling into the state of coma, and then waking up days … later to find themselves entombed.

The Scottish philosopher John Duns Scotus (1266-1308) was reported to have been buried alive after one of his occasional fits of coma was mistaken to be the loss of life. After his tomb was reopened, years later, his body was found outside his coffin. His hands were torn and bloody from the attempted escape.

On February 21, 1885, The New York Times gave a disturbing account of a man identified as “Jenkins,” whose body was found turned over onto its front inside the coffin, with much of his hair pulled out. There were also scratch marks visible on all sides of the coffin's interior.

Another story reported in The Times on January 18, 1886, tells about a Canadian girl named "Collins," whose body was described as being found with the knees tucked up under the body, and her burial shroud “torn into shreds.”

After the incident with her brother, Hannah was left with a pathological fear of the same thing befalling her. She asked her doctor to ensure that there was no risk of premature burial when her time came. She demanded her body be kept above ground and regularly examined for signs of life until it was certain she was dead.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This is a gruesome illustration but one which can realistically apply directly to the horrors of hell. The terrifying reality of the unsaved awakening after death in the inescapable horror of conscious eternity in hell cannot be ignored. We must be realistic in our view of both heaven and hell, and be compelled to preach the good news of God’s saving grace to a lost and dying world.

In a novel by the British mystery writer P.D. James, a detective shares a common sentiment, saying, “I don’t go for all this emphasis on sin, suffering, and judgment. If I had a God, I’d like him to be intelligent, cheerful, and amusing.” In response, her Jewish colleague says, “I doubt whether you would find him much of a comfort when they herded you into the gas chambers. You might prefer a God of vengeance.”

Theologian J. Todd Billings comments on this quote:

A God without wrath is a God who whitewashes evil and is deaf to the cries of the powerless. A student of mine who grew up in a gang culture and had many whom he loved taken from him by violence told me with profound honesty that “If God will not avenge, I am tempted to avenge.” Precisely because God is a God of love, he is also a God of holy wrath.

Drive three and a half hours north of Turkmenistan’s capital, into the flat, seemingly empty desert. In the middle of nowhere, you’ll see it. Bright orange flames rise out of an infernal abyss, licking the night sky. The air at the pit’s edge is thick and hot, like standing too close to an erupting volcano. It smells faintly of propane, and it is loud, like a jet engine revving up. Welcome to the Gates of Hell—at least until its devilish blaze is snuffed out.

In January of 2022, Turkmenistan’s President announced plans to extinguish the decades-old conflagration in the chasm. He cited safety concerns for those living nearby as well as economic loss as valuable methane gas burns off into the atmosphere. But he didn’t specify how he would put out the immense fire—perhaps by filling in the crater or diverting the gas elsewhere.

People have been trying to put out the crater’s fires since they first ignited—whenever that was. No one even knows exactly how or when the crater formed. The most widely circulated story about the crater says it formed in 1971 following a drilling accident. The Soviets were drilling in the desert for natural gas, when the drilling rig collapsed into the earth. Hoping to burn off the methane gas that floated up from the newly formed crater, the Soviets lit it on fire. They thought it would burn off the methane in a day or two. Five decades later, the crater’s still burning.

It’s rumored the Soviets tried to stop the blaze several times. But the fiery hellscape has continued to burn, drawing more and more tourists each year. The crater’s growing popularity is largely thanks to the internet and viral photos of the unearthly phenomenon.

But it may be harder to stop the flames than just pouring a bunch of sand into the pit. Explorer George Kourounis said, “As I was digging into the ground to gather soil samples, fire would start coming out of the hole I just freshly dug because it was creating new paths for the gas to come out of the crater. So even if you were to extinguish the fire and cover it up, there’s a chance that the gas could still find its way out to the surface and all it would take is one spark to light it up again.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

This deadly manmade fire may one day be extinguished. But the real fires of hell will burn forever according to the Lord’s own words as he described the Lake of Fire, the destiny of the unsaved.

In the town of Merced, which is named after the Spanish word for “mercy,” a bumbling robbery attempt was quickly brought to a merciful end. According to authorities, Stephan Stanley began breaking the glass in the jewelry department of a JC Penney store in Merced Mall. He was grabbed by two nearby men in the store, who attempted to hold him down to prevent him from getting away with any merchandise. Angered at their intervention, Stanley tried to use pepper spray against his sudden captors, but instead he sprayed himself.

Temporarily incapacitated by his own pepper spray, Stanley was easily subdued, and was eventually arrested on suspicion of robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and drug charges. He was subsequently booked into Merced County Jail, where he is unlikely to receive much in the way of mercy.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Justice will come to those who break God’s law, some sooner than is expected. “He that digs a hole will fall into it” (Ecc. 10:8).

Author/speaker Christopher Ash asks, “What are we to make of the Bible’s passages that seem to speak quite straightforwardly of blessings following obedience and curses following apostasy?” Ash urges that a distinction be made between the general truth of such sayings and absolute “every case” truth. He offers the following illustration:

Suppose an earthquake struck a well-planned place like Manhattan, with its clear and ordered grid of streets. If I wanted to go from A to B after the earthquake, I would in general still be best advised to go by the main roads. But whereas before the earthquake that would always be the best route, now I might find both that the main road has been blocked and also that some building has collapsed to open up some unplanned route.

It is a little like this with the created order after the disruption of the fall of humankind. In general, keeping God’s commandments and living in line with the created order will bring peace and prosperity. In general, for example, if I am honest and work hard, I will do better. But not always. And the final proof that righteousness pays will not come until the final judgment, when the disruption will be put right and the creation reordered as it ought to be.

Throughout history, human beings have always attempted to regulate behavior in order for people in a society to live peacefully and productively. Religious and secular values, societal laws, education, and politics have all been used to motivate people to adopt the better sides of our nature. The great atheist nation China has begun to implement a bold new plan to foster a more moral and industrious society.

The government has begun evaluating and ranking every citizen based on their behavior. As of 2020 all citizens have a new identity number and a social-credit record. Because of widespread concerns by Chinese citizens of the prevalence of corruption, scams, and scandals, the Communist Party has developed a system that would “allow the trustworthy to roam freely under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step.”

Good behavior is rewarded while bad is punished. “Rewards for high social credit—in other words, being deemed trustworthy—may include perks like free access to gym facilities, public transportation discounts, and shorter wait times in hospitals. Punishments for low social credit could include restrictions on renting an apartment, buying a home, or enrolling a child in one’s preferred school.”

Psychologists warn of the downsides: “People whose futures are tied to the score may make cold calculations about friends’ likely numbers in an effort to make sure no one becomes a drag on their or their family’s prospects. And they may decide against friending some individuals—or whole groups of people altogether.”

A single mom was heartbroken after her teenaged daughter was sentenced to Juvenile Hall. What was the offense that warranted such a punishment? Failing to finish her homework. ProPublica reported that Charisse and her teenage daughter Grace were given a strict warning from Judge Mary Ellen Brennan of Oakland County after Grace was placed on probation following theft and assault charges.

Brennan said, “I told her she was on thin ice and I told her that I was going to hold her to the letter of the probation.” She required that Grace submit to GPS monitoring, counseling, visits from a case worker, restrictions on phone and internet access, and keep up with her schoolwork.

The problem arose after Grace’s school responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Charisse, Grace’s mood disorder and ADHD required an individualized education plan that mandated extra teacher support to help keep her on track with assignments. Once classes went online, that support went away.

Nevertheless, new caseworker Rachel Giroux heard in a check-in that Grace had fallen asleep during class and failed to turn in an assignment. Giroux filed a violation of probation report on Grace, despite failing to check in with Grace’s teacher to verify her progress. After the violation was filed, Grace’s teacher told Giroux that she was “not out of alignment with most of my other students.” But that failed to change her mind. Giroux asked the judge to place Grace in detention because she “clearly doesn’t want to abide by the rules in the community.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

In our effort to train up our young people, our punitive actions should be guided by grace and mercy as acts of restoration, not retribution, lest we sentence punishments that make things worse in the long run.

In an interview with Fresh Air’s Terri Gross, Elton John explains why he prefers a “higher power” over God:

GROSS: You almost left rehab because - well, one of the reasons … was when it got to talk of a higher power, when it got to, as you describe it, the God talk, you felt like that is just, like, ‘not for me.’

JOHN: Yes.

GROSS: And you really thought seriously about leaving. So, I'd like to know what upset you so much about the God talk and if you were able to find a way into that talk?

JOHN: Well, the God thing, I was angry [because] God, for me, represented a punishment. You know, God will punish you for doing this; God will punish you for doing that. I hated the word God. And I really resented the word God.

And then someone said to me, ‘Listen - do you believe in something greater than yourself?’ And I said, ‘Of course I do. There's been so many things in my life that have happened by chance or just, you know, decisions I've made that have been prompted by something inside of my soul.’

Of course, I only have to look up in the sky to believe in something greater than myself, or I'll go walk in the field or look at a mountain. And they said, well, then that's it. Use it. That's how - say higher power instead of God. And I went, I can do that. I can do that.

It doesn't have to be the punishing God that I … learned in Sunday school. It can be a higher power that … sends me messages. And I accepted that, and I came to terms with that, and that was really very important to me.

The Dutch Defense Safety Inspection Agency launched an investigation about an F-16 fighter that suffered damage from 20-millimeter cannon fire during a routine training exercise. The problem? The damage came from its own cannons.

The aircraft is equipped with a Vulcan Gatling gun, which can fire over 6,000 rounds a minute. Those rounds travel at a muzzle velocity of 3,450 feet per second. But the aircraft is capable of flying much faster. So what appears to have happened is that, after a burst of rounds were fired from the aircraft, the pilot accelerated and collided with those rounds while still in mid-air. At least one of them struck the side of the F-16’s fuselage, and parts of a round were ingested by the aircraft’s engine. The F-16’s pilot managed to land the aircraft safely at Leeuwarden Air Base.

Potential Preaching Angles: God’s Word promises that we will reap what we sow. Be careful and just in your actions, lest the consequences become your own downfall.

A hunter was hospitalized after a goose fell from midair and landed on him.

Robert Meilhammer, 51, was out hunting with three others when his party noticed a flock of Canada geese flying overhead. From a blind, one of the members of the group fired a shot that struck one of the birds. In a burst of tragic irony, the trajectory of the plummeting goose aligned perfectly with Meilhammer's location, striking him directly. The impact left injuries to his face and head, including the loss of two teeth.

It was a "really unusual, freaky accident," according to Maryland Natural Resources Police spokeswoman Candy Thomson, who said the goose was approximately the size of a small turkey. "He's lucky," she added. "Those birds weigh a lot, and falling back down to earth, they're going to pick up a lot of speed. It's gonna leave a mark."

Obviously, hunting accidents like these are no better for the hunter than they are for the goose. Sources are unclear, however, as to how good they may be for the gander.

Potential preaching angles: Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it. You reap what you sow. Those who take the sword will perish by the sword.

On September 2, 1990, a murder occurred in New York City that horrified the nation. The Watkins family from Provo, Utah, a father and mother with their two barely grown sons, had come joyfully to the city for a long-anticipated trip to attend the US Open tennis matches. While waiting on the subway platform for the train to Flushing Meadows, the family was assaulted by a band of four youths. The older of the two sons went to his mother's rescue as she was being kicked in the face, and he was killed in the attempt. The judge, Edwin Torres, sentenced all four attackers to life without parole, the toughest sentence possible in New York at that time, and in doing so issued a striking statement expressing grave alarm for a society in which "a band of marauders can surround, pounce upon, and kill a boy in front of his parents [and then] stride up the block to Roseland and dance until 4 a.m. as if they had stepped on an insect. [These acts were] a visitation that the devil himself would hesitate to conjure up. That cannot go unpunished."

It makes many people queasy nowadays to talk about the wrath of God, but there can be no turning away from this prominent biblical theme … If we are resistant to the idea of the wrath of God, we might pause to reflect the next time we are outraged about something [much smaller than a murder but still worthy of our anger]—about our property values being threatened, or our children's educational opportunities being limited, or our tax breaks being eliminated. All of us are capable of anger about something. God's anger, however, is pure … The wrath of God is not an emotion that flares up from time to time, as though God has temper tantrums. It is a way of describing his absolute enmity against all wrong and his coming to set matters right.

In Fleming Rutledge's new book, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ, she acknowledges the difficulty that modern people have with the concept of God's wrath. Nevertheless, she writes, "there can be no turning away from this prominent biblical theme." But forget the Bible for a moment: don't we have wrath, too? Rutledge writes:

A slogan of our times is "Where's the outrage?" It has been applied to everything from Big Pharma's market manipulation to CEOs' astronomical wealth to police officers' stonewalling. "Where the outrage?" inquire many commentators, wondering why congressmen, officials, and ordinary voters seem so indifferent. Why has the gap between rich and poor become so huge? Why are so many mentally ill people slipping through the cracks? Why does gun violence continue to be a hallmark of American culture? Why are there so many innocent people on death row? Why are our prisons filled with such a preponderance of black and Hispanic men? Where's the outrage? The public is outraged all over cyberspace about all kinds of things that annoy us personally—the NIMBY (not in my back yard) syndrome—but outrages in the heart of God go unnoticed and unaddressed.

If we are resistant to the idea of the wrath of God, we might pause to reflect the next time we are outraged about something—about our property values being threatened, or our children's educational opportunities being limited, or our tax breaks being eliminated. All of us are capable of anger about something. God's anger, however, is pure. It does not have the maintenance of privilege as its object, but goes out on behalf of those who have no privileges. the wrath of God is not an emotion that flares up from time to time, as though God had temper tantrums; it is a way of describing his absolute enmity against all wrong and his come to set matters right.