In Other Words...Wrath

I love this a far side comic. In fact, for a while I had a shirt with the same comic on it. As if God is just up there dropping pianos on people’s heads for fun. There is also a line from Bruce Almighty, when Bruce says, “Fine! The gloves are off pal! C'mon, lemme see a little wrath! Smite me, O mighty smiter!” He implores God to actually come down and act, because as far as Bruce can see. God is absent. Bruce couldn’t understand why things were happening. He expected to be blessed for his hard work. Instead it seemed like he was cursed. It all comes back to incurring God’s wrath.

Deuteronomy 28 sets up a system of blessings and cursings that most people use to determine the will of God versus the wrath of God.
“If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God…However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you…”

Based on passages similar to this one, we begin to think, “As long as I stay on God’s good side, nothing bad will happen. But those gay people better be careful or they will see a new Sodom and Gomorrah.” We see it played out when people suffer the consequences for their sins. Whether they are caught in an illegal act and prosecuted, or cause harm to their physical body because of their actions, most people get what is coming, good or bad. Of course this is not always the case. Many times good people suffer and perpetual sinners get off scott free.

And then there are times when sinners really get what is coming. We see that at times God does act out against sin in a mighty way. The Bible has many examples besides Sodom and Gomorrah.
We see God's anger in many places in the Bible. The expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden is the first example. Later in the book of Genesis, the nations gathered to build a tower that reached to the heavens, only to have it destroyed by God and the people scattered. Another example comes in the book of Exodus where the people fashioned a golden calf to worship when they got tired of waiting for Moses to descend from the mountain with the Ten Commandments. Then, the Israelites grumbled in the desert and God sent snakes among them and it killed many. We see in the New Testament that Annanias and Sapphira were skimming off the top and God struck them dead. The source of God's wrath is the common thread running through all of these stories. In each instance, the people turned from trusting and glorifying God to seeking their own way. Those seem like harsh punishments for seemingly everyday offenses. Sometimes God goes way beyond consequences and acts in a mighty way against sin.

So it leads us to ask, “Why would a loving God have to enact wrath?” It seems so mean. So cruel. So ungodlike. Well we have to understand some things about God. God is holy. He is set apart from anything sinful. He can’t be around it. He can’t stand it. Sin stands as the complete opposite of God. So God’s wrath comes about because God’s holiness and love have been violated by the sinfulness of man. If he was not wrathful and warring against sin, God would then, in effect, be saying that sinfulness is not evil and can be tolerated. He would be saying, it is okay. But he doesn’t. He refuses to allow sinfulness to continue. So sinfulness creates certain results and consequences that we call the wrath of God.

The wrath of God is not like the wrath of man. The wrath of man is based on revenge and often petty anger. Someone cuts you off in traffic, so you display your wrath by flipping them off.
Someone ticks you off so you break off the relationship or give them the silent treatment until they learn their lesson.
That is our brand of wrath, and it is pretty lame. Pretty petty. Pretty stupid. And too often God's righteous wrath is credited with the destruction of our enemies when, in reality, it is our human reaction of revenge, conveniently attributed to God, that caused the pain and violence against our sworn enemies. People look around and either take credit for doing God’s wrath or for God enacting his wrath upon the world. People said that AIDS was God’s wrath against homosexuals, that the war in Iraqi is God using America to wage war against the Muslims, that 9-11 was God’s wrath against our greed. Even recently, people said that the hurricanes along the Gulf Coast were God’s wrath.

If you believe these people, then all of these horrible tragedies are God’s wrath. But they aren’t. God is not a terrorist. The wrath of God is not a sudden, passing passion that seeks revenge. The Bible does depict God as getting angry. Not like we get angry but a righteous anger that stems from us rejecting Him and rejecting his commands for us. Most of the time God’s wrath is enacted on God’s people. Why? Because there are expectations that exist for followers of God that do not exist for non-believers:
“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.” Colossians 3:5-7
We see God get angry especially at idolatry, sexual sins, and the oppression of the poor and weak. Really, God has every right to enact his wrath. He set up the rules and the consequences. We are the ones breaking them.

When we blame God for enacting his wrath it’s like blaming a cop for arresting you for a DUI. The cop was carrying out his responsibility to maintain order and peace. We broke a law. He was making sure that we did no more damage to ourselves or anyone else. Is he wrong for doing that? No.
God does the same. A lot of consequences we face can be traced back to the choices we make that are contrary to the order of God. Instead of asking “Why would a loving God do such things?” we might ask, “Why wouldn’t a holy God do it more often?”
How many times have you grumbled about what you wish you had?
How many times have you focused on other things than God and put them above serving and glorifying Him? How many times have you skimmed from God? Not necessarily money, but time, effort, or priority?
How many times have you treated someone with cruelty instead of love?

And in all those times, how many of you had snakes come and attack you? How many of you experienced fire falling from heaven? How many of you were struck dead? Obviously none of you. Understand that God has every right to pour out his wrath upon you. To press the “smite” button. But he doesn’t.

God's holiness becomes mercy when it comes into contact with those who seek Him. That same holiness becomes wrath when it comes into contact with those who refuse to seek and acknowledge Him. God is a loving God and he doesn’t enjoy sending his wrath. But sometimes we actually get what we deserve. Sometimes we get the wrath that we have stored up for ourselves through our actions. But that isn’t what God wants. Which is why Christ came. God poured out his wrath for us upon Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 states, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Consider what love God has that He did all he could to spare us from his wrath. Never ignore God’s holiness, because it sets the standard for how we are to live. And never ignore God’s great grace and love because it implores us to live out that holy standard.