Psalms 99:8 (ESV)
O LORD our God, you answered them;
you were a forgiving God to them,
but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
The context of the them in the above passage is that of Moses and Aaron. The previous section talks about the two of them coming to God in His holiness, in the Tabernacle of God. In the midst of the pillar of the cloud of His glory, O LORD our God, you answered them. So what did God say?
The above verse is written in both synthetic and antithetic Hebrew parallelism poetry. That simply means one line builds on another and then one contrast the other. There are actually three lines in the verse:
Line one: O LORD our God, you answered them;
Line two: you were a forgiving God to them,
Line three: but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
Line two builds upon line one. Line one states that The LORD answered them, but line two builds on line one and tells us what God answered them; you were a forgiving God to them.
Line three then contrasts line two. He may be a forgiving God, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
God gave them two types of information. The first was the positive and the second was negative. Yes, He a forgiving God:
Exodus 34:6-7 (ESV) The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.
But God will also discipline them for their sins:
Exodus 32:35 (ESV) Then the LORD sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.
Numbers 20:12 (ESV) And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”
Although there is no commendation for those who are in Christ Jesus, God is still not mocked; whatever a man sows he will also reap.
Romans 8:1 (ESV)
Life in the Spirit
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 6:7 (ESV)
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
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