Reminders on the Basics of Reality

"Fill their faces with shame that they may seek Thy name, O Lord." Ps. 83:16

The purpose of punishment is remembrance. It is a (paradoxically) friendly reminder of the may things really are, a reality check courtesy call. To the punished (and unpunished; vs. 17-18), it reasserts the immutability of what is true and real, for all evil is ultimately a denial of the true and real. When God laid down His laws, He was not making arbitrary assignments; He was laying down the basics of reality. You really shouldn't steal, or murder, or dishonor your parents, or worship any other god if you want to be happy and well. All acts against such laws are merely denials of their status as truths, an action that clearly reveals the supreme idiocy of evil: it actually claims, with a straight face and sober disposition, that lies, theft, murder, dishonor, idolatry, etc., are good for the soul.
It is at this point that punishment comes to wake the sleepers from the dead, out of dreams and into daylight. Punishment reaffirms the truthfulness of the law: you can only succeed and be happy when you obey what is real. Therefore, God does not punish out of egotistical sadism, but rather out of benevolent mercy to shake us to our senses. Should not this be obvious, though? Our own parents (if they were proper) punished us, if not to save us from some immediate physical threat, then to teach us that in the real world, negative actions necessarily entail negative consequences. That is how our parents taught us, and our Heavenly Father is no different.

-Jon Vowell