The Torah is truth, it takes no prisoners. Its enemies are swallowed alive, their lives consumed by the hollowness of their existence. The Torah defines true substance, and its deniers remove themselves from that reality. The very battle of Korach serves, ironically, as testimony to the truth he failed to recognize. Sin is its own punishment.
Heavenly retribution is the distance and impurity engendered by the evildoer's own behavior.
This is the message of the earth. Though it conceals the Divine will, those who follow in its path are ultimately shown the flip side of truth, a snapshot in negative. A life of evil is transformed as eternal damnation, shadowing the timeless image of the man who truly stands in G-d's shadow, the Tzelem Elokim.