Monday, June 26, 2006

Psalm 36:5,6

Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the great mountains;
Your judgments are a great deep;
O Lord, You preserve man and beast.

God's wrath is an attribute that we don't like to talk
about very much. I don't think I've ever heard it
mentioned in those services where people are asked to
give popcorn testimonies about the characteristics of
God. It is so much easier and fun to trill on about His
love, mercy, grace, righteousness, holiness, eternity, and
sometimes even His justice...but His wrath? who wants
to even approach it. Unfortunately, in the opinion of some,
God approaches it Himself.

Nahum 2:1

God is jealous, and the Lord avenges;
The Lord avenges and is furious.
The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries,
And He reserves wrath for His enemies;

Through the ages men have sacrificed many things to the
gods in order to propitiate their wrath and bring more
favorable circumstances their way. They've given money,
food, even their children to turn the anger of the gods
away from them. None of that worked.

Only God could pacify His own wrath. He did it by making
propitiation through the vicarious death of His own
beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

Now we can rejoice, if we have entered into that place of
safety, the place where the wrath of God can no longer come.
Now we are no longer His enemies, we are His own adopted
children.

1 comment:

Susannah said...

May I add some thoughts to yours about about God's wrath? I've come to the understanding that God's wrath is retributional. I believe it actually comes from His heart of mercy, because God's judgments are designed to bring repentance to his people. I believe God's wrath is his final effort to win the wayward back... although, as with ancient Israel, tragically, some do not survive.

At this point in my life, I truly understand how God allowed certain bad events to occur. They got me on my knees and I turned my heart toward Him. Not that I enjoyed the pain (far from it!), but I'm grateful to have discovered God's amazing love and His gift of eternal life. I can honestly say that it was worth the suffering.