The Instructor 1.8.68

This same Word who imposes punishment is judge; of him Isaiah says, “The Lord gave him up for our sins,” evidently as the corrector and director of sins. That is why he alone can forgive offenses, appointed by the Father of all as our Instructor, he alone who is able to distinguish disobedience from obedience. One who threatens clearly does not wish to do any evil or to carry out his threats; but by putting us in fear he checks the rush toward sins and shows his love for humankind, delaying still and making plain what they will suffer if they remain sinners, and not, like a snake, fastening on at once and biting. God, then, is good. And the Lord uses words for many things before the deed: “My arrows,” he says, “will finish them off: wasting with hunger and the devouring of birds, and incurable spasm; I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with the fury of things crawling on the earth. Outside the sword will make them childless, and fear within the chambers.” So the Divine is not angry, as some have thought; but most things are threatened, while in all things he has admonished humanity and shown what must be done. This is a good art, to frighten us so that we may not sin: “For the fear of the Lord drives away sins, and the one without fear cannot be justified,” says the Scripture.