The Wrath of God

It is forgotten by modern Churchmen that God can be a wrathful kinda guy.  But He was--and is.

...Israel’s identity had been established in the Sinai Covenant: “You will be my people and I will be your God.” Covenants in the ancient Near East normally came with contractual terms, as did Sinai’s. We call those terms today “the Ten Commandments.” They begin with the prohibition of idolatry: “I am the Lord, your God. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” Indeed, in the long version of the Commandment, Yahweh calls Himself “a jealous God” who punishes sin (Exodus 20:5).

Israel had been previously unfaithful to its covenant. Even as Moses was coming down the mountain with the Ten Commandments, the Israelites—who had experienced God’s signs and wonders delivering them from Egypt—were partying in front of a golden calf (see Exodus 32:1-35), a calf fashioned by the priest left behind to keep Israel on the straight and narrow: Aaron.  

God Himself initially threatens to let His “anger…burn against them and that I may destroy them” (Exodus 32:10). It is Moses who, like Abraham on behalf of Sodom (Genesis 18:16-33), pleads with God to desist.  ...

...And while Moses talks God out of vengeance against idolatrous Israel, Moses hardly treats that deferral as a “beautiful, prophetic manifestation” of God’s Mercy to foster a dialogue with the bovine-bowing Israelites.

Instead, he sends the Levites through the camp, and they execute “about [twenty-]* three thousand” (Exodus 32:28) idolaters. 

This is the Old Testament's way of saying 'Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.'

Contrast that to Francis I's attempt to write the death penalty out of the Catechism.  Or the bleating of certain Churchmen against war, even a just one.  Or their similar wailing over violent self-defense.

Take heed.

*Translations differ.  The Vulgate's Latin says twenty-three thousand (cecideruntque in die illa quasi viginti tria millia hominum.)