How can God be loving and exact vengeance on those who are evil at the same time?

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The answer is in the first book of Proverbs. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools refuse correction, the wise seek it out. Receiving correction from the Lord means He loves you, otherwise He would leave you to your own devices and you would never learn.

What makes this all work is the covenant, the arrangement God makes with His people. God chose the Israelites, revealed His divine nature to them, and set out rules to live by. Failure to live by these rules would result in one of two punishments. God can correct you, or God can leave you.

God is all-mighty, meaning that if you receive correction, then you’ll avoid further consequences from the sins you’ve committed. God may punish you, as He did when he took David’s firstborn son for the sin of murdering his first wife’s first husband. God has the power to wipe the slate clean.

But if God does not wipe the slate clean, then He leaves you at the mercy of people who do not believe in God and do not care that you were ever chosen at all. The consequences for your sins will pile up and God won’t answer your pleas.

God has a plan, meaning that certain things will happen regardless of human intention. But there’s always room for mercy and compassion between the things He has to do, and just because He has to do certain things, doesn’t mean He can’t make them happen in one way or another.

One of my favorite Biblical fables is the Book of Jonah. Jonah decided he wasn’t going to do what God wanted him to do, and God, in a seemingly thoroughly amused fashion, played Jonah’s game. Jonah managed to find himself at Nineveh anyway and delivered the required prophecy in the most disgusted manner possible. It worked anyway and the town was saved.

God responded to Jonah’s rebellion by messing with him. God sent a storm when Jonah fled on a boat, Jonah didn’t want the sailors to pay for his malfeasance so he got them to throw him overboard. A giant fish swallowed him and deposited him by Nineveh. After Jonah gave the prophecy, he took up station outside the city because he was sure they’d go back to their old ways. God had shade grow to cool him off, then had bugs eat the shade.

God knows our minds more intimately than we do ourselves. He knows who has immense violence in their hearts and who needs a gentle touch. Sometimes the violent run across the meek, and God helps in unfathomable ways.