Before bed at night, I delight in the light; I become accustomed to it. At bedtime, I turn off the light and go to sleep. When I awake it is still dark, and I turn on the light. Now now it seems too bright, and I curse it. Obviously, the light itself has not changed; it is just as bright in the early morning hours as it was the previous evening. The light is the same, but I have changed. Yet do you know what I do?
Now consider the experience of the ancient family of man with God. Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the evening when the dew collected on the grass cf Gen They had a warm friendship with Him and did not fear His presence. After sinning, they hid. Had God changed? No, they had. They now experienced Him very differently. Fast forward to another theophany.
God had come to Mt Sinai, and as He descended the people were terrified, for there were peals of thunder, lightning, clouds, and the blast of a trumpet. God, too, warned Moses that the people could not get close lest His wrath be vented upon them Ex No, He was the same God who had walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening in a most intimate way.
It was we who had changed. We had lost the holiness without which no one can see the Lord Heb The same God, unchanged though He was, now seemed frightening and wrathful. What, then, shall we do? If God is a holy fire, a consuming fire cf Heb ; Is , how can we possibly come into His presence? How can we avoid the wrath that would destroy us? Well, what is the only thing that survives in the presence of fire? He sent tongues of fire upon the apostles and upon us at our Confirmation.
God wants to set us on fire with the Holy Spirit in holiness. He wants to bring us up to the temperature of glory so that we can stand in His presence. See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come, says the LORD Almighty.
But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. The word alone instills fear and creates an image of someone on a warpath exacting revenge on all their enemies.
There are no warm fuzzies here. No hallmark moments. If the wrath of a human can be scary, then what is the wrath of God going to do to a person? When you think of the fact that the Bible says God is love, then how does the wrath of God coincide with that? That one question alone forces us to investigate and make sure that there is real understanding of what the wrath of God truly is.
If you go by this definition alone then you see that while wrath can have a tone of vengeance or revenge, it can also be justified depending on the circumstance. For instance, a person could commit a heinous crime and face the wrath of the courts. This would be completely justifiable because the punishment, or wrath, fits the crime. In other words, he is pouring out wrath as a form of justice — not to exact revenge.
In all three of these verses, we see mention of the wrath of God. What I want you to pay attention to is what the wrath of God is in response to. You will see God is responding to godlessness, wickedness, stubbornness, unrepentant hearts, and rejecting Jesus as savior. A logical question to follow would be — is this justified?
The short answer is yes. God stands as the judge of all mankind. Each of us will have to give an account for what we have done and how we have lived.
God gives us the freedom to make the choice in how we will live. What remains is that whatever decision we make we must be aware of the consequences of those choices. What many people often struggle with is marrying the idea that God can be love , and at the same time God can exact wrath. After all can these two co-exist together? From the very beginning God established a principle. He told Adam the day you eat from that tree you will surely die. When God judges sin or responds in wrath to sin he is doing so to uphold the principles or laws he has established.
Without them, instead of any semblance of order we would have chaos. Because of his principles, God honors his promises. His principles are why he responds when we put our trust in Jesus for salvation. Used by permission. Robert Jeffress. The Meaning of the Wrath of God. Posted at h in by A Webmaster 0 Comments. Enter Email Confirm Email. Select one Next Sunday, November 21 our First Dallas children and student choirs will be singing in worship at 11am! CSN International. American Family Radio Network.
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