So let's say your child told one too many lies, or had sex one too many times outside of marriage, or if you're old school, ate one too many pork neck bones. So you go outside, fire up your grill, get all the coals red hot and call your child outside. You tell your child that they did one too many wrongs, then you pick up a hot coal with a pair of tongs and shove it in your child's right eye. Then you pick up another and shove it in your child's mouth. Then you pick up your child and body slam them on top of the grill while they scream and plead for mercy.
Would you call this love?
How, then, is this love when God does it?
Now let's say your child, who lives in your house, did something a bit more egregious. Through unfortunate circumstances, they become addicted to crack. While you're at work, they take all your jewelry, your TV, nice furniture, and other more expensive belongings and sell them. You get upset, kick them out for a few years, they sincerely apologize, you forgive them and let them back in your home. Then, they relapse, but this time onto a more clean version of crack that doesn't change their appearance on the outside but rots them inside - but is as equally addictive as the crack they used to do. So they again take your more costly belongings and sell them for money. You become enraged, kick them out again, but this time permanently. You are perpetually upset, angry, and sad.
This is how God treated Israel, this is how God treated everyone. With the exception of Yeshua (Jesus), all Israel violated the terms of their probation, and were sent back to jail with the rest of the world. If you don't believe me, you only need to ask some medium to call on the spirit of Hitler and ask how easy it was for him to slaughter six million Jews.
If Paul would have relinquished himself of his idolatrous beliefs and teachings concerning God (as those scribes and priests penned in the Torah), he could have danced across the bridge of death and stood right next to Yeshua. Paul, like Yeshua, was called by God, but Paul made too many poor choices that negatively affected people and the church (not that the church ever noticed, since, as far as they were concerned, Paul's word equated to God's word). As for what Paul's bad choices were, just remember, "In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets", anything other than this is religion and speculation. Micah stated something similar, "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?". Paul was a Pharisee and was raised and educated with patriarchal and authoritarian principles - this heavily reflected on his view of God. He meshed his beliefs with what he saw God doing - which was a dangerously awful idea - and this meshed view became the fabric of the Christian religion, even until today. God is not an authoritarian - you never see tyranny coming down from 'heaven' - neither did Paul, yet it is what he taught; and as a result, death was his recompense. (The same applies to the former psalmists, proverbialists, and prophets who clung to that bullshit wisdom tradition - that God blesses the good and shows disdain to the wicked - which is something you don't see God doing, since rain falls on the just and the unjust alike; sometimes shit happens, sometimes it doesn't; sometimes you hit the lottery, sometimes you don't.)
Let me interject: Don't get me wrong - this is not to say that God does not bless, but it is entirely up to God whom God blesses, and not up to you or I at all. God will have mercy on whomever God wants to have mercy - your prayers, songs, worship, sacrifices, etc. have no bearing on this. Any form of mercy that comes from God is God's business, point blank. God's mercy is perpetual and unfailing and uncommon on this planet - much like being raised from the dead is uncommon on this planet. God does not hand out mercy lightly; it is not openly dealt; it is not a switch that God turns on and off with leisure. A lot of damage can be done with God's mercy - Paul being the more recent example, Samuel and David another. Good happenstances are not the same as God blessing someone.
You do see liberty falling from 'heaven' on all life, this is what Yeshua recognized, it is why he freely befriended men and women who enjoyed eating neck bones, and having cocktails, and were "sexually free"; and couldn't stand being around religious men. But even in this, the religious conservatives spun this into religion by calling the "sexually free" the "sick who needed a doctor".
Religion always has apologies - always - religion has perfected them from generation to generation. Religion can rationalize violence, bullying, victim creation, treachery, and lies like no other - it does so even better than high sum investments in coal and oil. Though people are at liberty to help themselves to whatever religion they want, God is at liberty to stay far away from such people - even for thousands of years - as we have seen.
