Ai thuộc về YHWH, Ngài bảo vệ.

Ai đụng đến họ, Ngài phạt.

Những việc xảy ra với Gióp không phải để trừng phạt, mà để thử nghiệm — cho thấy đức tin và lòng trung thành thật sự không dựa trên phước hạnh vật chất. Dù xảy ra nhiều mất mát nhưng ông vẫn giữ không xúc phạm đến Đức Chúa Trời.

.

Như vậy, “vô cớ” ở đây không phải là hành động độc ác, mà là một phép thử chủ động từ phía YHWH, không dựa trên tội lỗi, mà dựa trên mục đích thiêng liêng: chứng minh sự trung tín của con người, và rèn luyện con người trong cơn thử thách.

Ở đây, câu chuyện KHÔNG NÓI RÕ VÌ SAO YHWH nổi giận, nhưng lại kể chính YHWH xúi giục khiến Đa-vít phạm tội, để rồi Đa-vít và dân phải chịu hình phạt.

Nếu sự “xúi giục” kia là 1 thử thách, thì Đavid đã không vượt qua được thử thách này.

ENGLISH

Isaiah 45:7

“I form the light and create darkness;
I make peace and create calamity;
I, YHWH, do all these things.”

I. THE PROTECTION OF THOSE WHOM YHWH LOVES

The people of Israel

The love of YHWH is not soft or sentimental.

He rises to fight when evil threatens His people.

“YHWH is a warrior; YHWH is His name.”
(Exodus 15:3)

When Egypt enslaved His people,
He struck Egypt with ten plagues and drowned Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea, to deliver the people whom He loved.

“Because He loved your fathers, He chose their offspring… and brought you out of Egypt with His great power.”
(Deuteronomy 4:37)

YHWH does not stand by while evil rules.
When hostile nations harmed Israel, He acted to destroy them in righteousness.

The Midianites led Israel into sin; He brought a plague that killed 24,000 people, then sent Phinehas to strike the offender — and the plague stopped.
(Numbers 25)

The Amalekites attacked Israel in the wilderness; YHWH declared:

“I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”
(Exodus 17:14)

When Balaam intended to curse Israel,
YHWH made his donkey speak and sent an angel with a drawn sword to block his way.
(Numbers 22)

Individuals

The love of YHWH is not only for a nation, but also for those whom He personally calls.
Whoever touches them, He repays.

When Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses,
YHWH came down in a pillar of cloud and rebuked them:

“Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?”
(Numbers 12:8)

And Miriam became leprous, white as snow.
→ He protected Moses — not because Moses was perfect, but because he belonged to Him.

When Abimelech intended to take Sarah,
YHWH spoke to him in a dream:

“You are a dead man, because the woman you have taken has a husband.”
(Genesis 20:3)

When Lot was in Sodom, about to be destroyed,
YHWH sent angels to rescue him.

“YHWH rained brimstone and fire from YHWH out of heaven.”
(Genesis 19:24)

Whoever belongs to YHWH, He protects.
Whoever touches them, He punishes.

II. HE USES ISRAEL AS AN INSTRUMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

His love always goes together with holiness.

“For YHWH loves righteousness and hates wickedness.”
(Psalm 97:10)

He judges the nations, strikes down rulers of the earth, so that the righteous may live in peace.

“YHWH is the strength of His people, the saving refuge of His anointed.”
(Psalm 28:8)

“YHWH will come in fire, and His chariots like a whirlwind, to pour out His wrath on the wicked.”
(Isaiah 66:15)

The Canaanites, Hittites, Jebusites, and others defiled the land by worshiping false gods and shedding the blood of children.
YHWH used the hand of Israel to execute judgment, to cleanse the land He chose.

“You shall destroy all the peoples that YHWH your God gives over to you.”
(Deuteronomy 7:16)

Because He loves His people, YHWH gives them strength to overcome evil.
He said to Joshua:

“Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid, for YHWH your God is with you wherever you go.”
(Joshua 1:9)

And indeed:

The walls of Jericho fell when His people blew the trumpets.
The sun stood still so they could take vengeance on their enemies.

“The sun stood still… until the nation took vengeance on its enemies.”
(Joshua 10:13)

He fought alongside His people, because His love never abandons them in battle.

III. DOES YHWH ‘CAUSE HARM WITHOUT CAUSE’?

“Without cause”

Job 2:3

“Have you considered My servant Job? … You incited Me against him to destroy him without cause.”

The Hebrew word is חִנָּם (ḥinnām), meaning “for nothing, without reason, without any deserving cause.”

In Job chapters 1–2, YHWH Himself acknowledges to Satan that He has “harmed Job without cause.”

What happened to Job was not punishment, but testing — to show that true faith and loyalty are not based on material blessings.
Despite severe loss, Job did not accuse God of wrongdoing.

Thus, “without cause” here does not mean malicious action, but a deliberate test initiated by YHWH, not grounded in sin, but in a divine purpose: to prove human faithfulness and refine a person through trial.

2 Samuel 24:1

“Again the anger of YHWH was kindled against Israel, and He incited David to number the people.”

“Incite”: סוּת (sûth)
Part of speech: verb (piel / hiphil, causative nuance)

Primary meanings: “to provoke, incite, stir up, strongly persuade someone to do an action.”

Thus, sûth always carries the sense of “pushing someone toward something they should not do,” distinct from “teaching” or “sending.”

Here, the text does not explain why YHWH was angry, but it does state that YHWH incited David, leading David and the people to suffer punishment.

If this “incitement” was a test, David did not pass it.

YHWH, in His anger toward Israel, caused David to be driven to count the people, in order to display judgment upon the nation.

During this punishment, His hand stopped at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite — the place that later became the site of the temple of God.

Conclusion

Both cases — Job and David — reveal a profound truth:

YHWH does not harm out of malice, but at times allows harm to occur “without cause” from a human perspective, in order to lead to a higher purpose.

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so His thoughts are higher than human thoughts.

IV. LOVE – RIGHTEOUSNESS – AND JUDGMENT

In Scripture, judgment is not opposed to love.
On the contrary, it is an act of love that protects holiness.

YHWH judges in order to cut away impurity, as a father disciplines the child he loves.

“For YHWH reproves the one He loves, as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights.”
(Proverbs 3:12)

If love is without righteousness, it becomes indulgence.
But if righteousness is without love, it becomes cruelty.

Only in YHWH are love and righteousness united — to restore the world, not to annihilate it.

VI. CONCLUSION

The love of YHWH is not weakness, but righteous strength.
He loves — therefore He protects.
He is righteous — therefore He judges.
He tests — to purify what is genuine from what is false.

And in all things, He remains the One who forms light and darkness, the Warrior, the Father, and the One who loves to the very end.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways
and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
(Isaiah 55:9)

chatgpt