THE RIGHTEOUS WRATH OF GOD
AND God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. (Gen. 6:8)
… My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be 120 years. (Gen. 6:3.)
The earth also was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold I will destroy them with the earth. (Gen. 6:11-13)
Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. (Zeph. 3:8)
And for those of you who think that the Old Testament God was a tribal God and not the same as the New Testament God;
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)
For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. (Col. 3:6)
There is a lot of talk these days about the Love of God and seemingly among “Christians” a denial or reluctance to admit of the Wrath or Judgement of God. People are encouraged to come to the Church and play “happy families”, “find a friend” or be entertained. But who warns them to flee from the Righteous Wrath of God, and make no mistake about it there is such a thing!
We all deserve it, we have all sinned and fallen short of what we should be and indeed what God intended us to be when He made us. We talk of the “free will” He has given us, but what about the duty and responsibility that comes from choosing our own actions and ways and the consequences of disobedience to the laws He laid down?
Yes we have free will, to a degree – you are never as free as you think. You are not your own, as some people say – “Its my life or my body, I can do what I want with it.” Oh no you can’t! Not with impunity. There is only one that can do what He likes and even He has put restrictions on Himself in order that we are not consumed. God lives by the same rules as He laid down for us, so that we know we can trust Him. But true freedom is in the Lord Jesus Christ and it’s a hard lesson to learn. Mankind has an arrogance along with his ignorance – the great Deceiver, Satan has done his job well and today man knows nothing (of the things that matter), and is proud of it!!
The rules have been from the very beginning of time and were codified at Mount Sinai, not just for the Nation of Israel but for the whole World. Israel was created and designed as a demonstration nation, to show the rest of the World how good it can be when you live in harmony and obedience to the one true and living God.
And said unto them, Ye shall not bring in the captives hither: for whereas we have offended against the Lord already, ye intend to add more to our sins and to our trespass: for our trespass is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel. (II Chron. 28:13)
Wherefore the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem and he hath delivered them to trouble to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes. (II Chron. 29:8)
As we see, Israel failed miserably, God did not fail, Israel did, and here we come to the Wrath of God. Think about it, God created out of Love, yes He is love and He demonstrated it through the act of Creation. He created us for a purpose and that purpose is to glorify Him and enjoy Him for ever. I Corinthians 10:31; Romans. 11:36; Psalm 73:25-28. We are His creatures, we are the expression of His love and it is only right that we should respond to Him freely with love and obedience and look at the benefits of this for Israel – Deuteronomy 28:2-14. But when the Kingdom is restored all nations will benefit. Think of all the wonderful things in the World – and we only see things in their fallen state – so if we can see beauty now try and imagine what it was like before the Fall. We can’t fully of course, as St Paul says, for now we see through a glass darkly.
God is not only Love, He is a God of perfection and total purity. But if He just lashed out, right, left and centre, He would not be a God we could trust, subject to whims and moods as we are. He is not subject to these moods, but He is a jealous God, jealous or zealous for His wonderful creation and that includes mankind. He is angry (that is what jealous means in this case) at the corruption and the disobedience of His creature.
We have given our love and affection to other gods, gods of gold and silver and wood, gods of money, cars and sex, anything you can think of that you put before attending to the one true God. We all do it and that is why we have all fallen short of the glory of God. That is also why God Himself, manifested in His Son Jesus the Christ, gave His life, that ultimate price, for us, so that we would not have to pay it and to bring us back to Him.
Imagine this, here is our God creating us, giving us everything, giving us free will, because that is the only way to truly love someone, freely, then when we still turn away from him and deserving of His wrath after all He has done for us, He goes and dies for us, instead of us, to restore us to Him and give us another chance (how much more do we want from Him), and still we turn away from Him. Don’t you think He has a right to be angry and disappointed?
He was married to Israel and divorced her for her sins – adultery with other gods, through Christ redeemed her, thus providing salvation to all who would come to Him, so that His ultimate wrath can now be turned away from us, as now He sees those who truly repent only through the blood of Christ. This is one of those mysteries that we in our fallen and mortal state cannot comprehend, nevertheless it is true and because it happened we are able to turn back to our loving God without being destroyed.
One of the hardest things to reconcile is the death of a child. And this is when most people accuse God of not caring, if He exists. And if they do believe sometimes it is the catalyst that makes people lose their faith. This is where the Churches everywhere let the people down. If the church leaders knew and understood the truth of the Bible, they would at least have a proper answer to give these people in their distress. They may not still accept it, but at least they would have a proper choice.
Children seemingly innocent to us are born into a sinful world and soon learn such things as disobedience, cheating, foul language, and to hurt others from a very early age. They learn this from adults, and whilst they may seem innocent still to us, to God they are already fallen short of His glory and how He intended them to be.
According to the Bible there comes a time when even a child is responsible for its actions and must bear the consequences of them:
If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, this our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear and fear. (Deut. 21:18-20)
Here we see that not only were the son’s parents expected to chastise their child, but that the whole of the local area, i.e. the city, had the responsibility of punishing him if he would not repent of his evil ways. And the whole point was not so much to “rehabilitate”, but to punish the wrong doer, and be a deterrent to the whole of society, i.e. they all had to take part in the punishment, so they would not do this thing lightly. Something we are not allowed to do today, although the whole of society is still expected to bear the guilt of the individual; (the wrong doer is looked upon as a victim of society not really responsible for his or her actions, thereby turning the whole thing on its head). There’s no mention of children’s rights here but responsibility. Everyone is responsible for their own actions, but how can they be in this day and age when they are not taught, either at home or in the schools. So how do they know what is right or wrong, it is not instinct, it has to he taught and this is what God did through His Law.
It was for our own good and well-being, but in the end God brought us back to Him through His Son for His holy name’s sake. He is jealous or zealous for His good name, and why not – He is God. And we have been and are still being rebellious and disobedient children. As with stubborn children, in the end authority has to be seen in action otherwise chaos will ensue. Read Ezekiel 36:21-38.
He made certain promises to Israel, blessings if we obeyed Him, but curses or consequences if we disobeyed. There’s nothing odd or petulant about this, it is the natural order of things – actions produce reactions, some good, some bad depending on what one does. We have a choice, but God created us for a specific purpose which He cannot let us thwart or destroy. At the moment we cannot imagine what it is like to be completely in harmony with The Creator, the Everliving God, but we were designed to be with Him and His plan will not be halted.
Job 5:17: Behold happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty.
Psalm 94:12: Blessed is the man whom thou chasteneth, 0 Lord, and teachest him out of thy law.
James 1:12: Blessed is the man that endureth temptation. for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
Hebrews 12:5-11: And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might he partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to he joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
If it means we have to be chastised it is as He says because He loves us and wants the best for us, but at the end of the day His Holy Name is at stake and cannot be sullied without consequences. Again for those of you who think that the old vengeful God is only in the old Testament, read this:
And said to the mountains and the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand. (Rev. 6:16,17)
