Woven throughout the Bible, from the first Book of the Bible called Genesis, which tells us how this world and life in it began, to the final book of the Bible called Revelation, which tells us how this world will end, we have innumerable revelations of God’s goodness, kindness and grace, but also of His justice and judgement, of his intolerance, indignation and wrath toward a truth-suppressing humanity who pursue our greatest joy, pleasure and satisfaction in anything and anyone but God, who created us to find the same in relationship with Him.
In Genesis Chapters 1 and 2, we have the eternally holy, righteous and majestic God creating for His glory a spectacular universe and a world within that universe of unimaginable beauty and splendor, teaming with all forms of life, that would live in harmony with one another and with mankind; men and women whom God would create in His glorious image and likeness. Mankind would be able to fully enjoy the beauty and delight found in nature, but even more so the innumerable joys and pleasures that would be found within our relationship with God and one another.
Mankind, represented by Adam and Eve, is given by God rule/dominion over all of His good creation, while mankind would be ruled by the love of God, through the law of God, for the glory of God displayed in the everlasting joy and infinite pleasures we would experience in relationship with Him (Psalm 16:11). Mankind’s willingness to submit to God’s rule would be tested by God. God would graciously warn them that if they failed to obey His one command, which was well within their ability to obey, they and all who would proceed from them would lose everything, being cut off from the glorious life with God for which they were created, no longer the objects of His fatherly love, but now subject to His justice and wrath (Genesis 2:15-16).
Adam and Eve fail the test, (Genesis 3:1-6), committing what has been referred to as “cosmic treason”, as they join the devil in opposing God’s purpose for and rule over their lives (Isaiah 14:12-15). This has been true of all mankind since (John 8:44).
God proves that He is holy and just by carrying out His promise of death for disobedience, the forfeiture of the life with God for which we were created, with God driving them out of His glorious presence into a world that will grow increasingly dangerous and corrupt – increasingly evil as sin takes hold of our fallen race with men and women growing in their hostility toward God and toward one another, developing throughout the ages new and more exquisite ways of sinning against God (Romans 1:30) and of destroying ourselves (think drugs/opioids) and one another (think atomic bomb).
Human history is thus lived out under the illusion that man can ignore eternal truths (Romans 6:23) (Ezekiel 18:20) and yet live without negative consequences, both temporal and eternal. Like Adam, we are convinced by Satan that there is no final reckoning for how we live our life in this world in relationship to God and our fellow man (Genesis 3:3-4).
We do so despite God continually showing forth His wrath and judgement as a just and righteous response to the sin of mankind. Although it is no longer fashionable or politically correct to call earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis and floods acts of God, these were clearly noted as such in the Old Testament (Amos 3:6), with the most dramatic and renown expression of God’s wrath found in the worldwide flood in Genesis 7:17-24. At that point early in human history, mankind had become so wicked, so evil that we are told in Genesis 6:6 that God was grieved – regretting His creation of man due the depth and pervasiveness of the wickedness man had achieved (Genesis 6:5). And thus in His just and measured wrath He wipes out the whole human race except for Noah and his family, who God graciously saves so that His gracious promise of redemption can be fulfilled.
However, men and women who proceed from Noah and his sons are no less rebellious and evil after this great outpouring of God’s wrath than before. This is demonstrated in the events of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) and the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24). We see God’s wrath in the plagues of Egypt, in Israel’s conquest of Canaan and in God’s judgement against Israel’s blatant unyielding, (in your face God!) idolatry. We see God’s judgement symbolized in the sacrificial system God gave Israel to atone for their sin, wherein an animal must die in their place, pointing to Jesus, who would ultimately take God’s wrath upon Himself in our place.
We presently see the wrath of God displayed in all of the genetic defects and deformities, physical and mental disorders, injuries and accidents which afflict our body, which ultimately lead to physical death (Exodus 4:11).
However, the Bible makes it clear that wrath and judgement, though expressions of God’s righteousness and justice, are His response to something that has occurred in the creation, namely sin, and that it gives God no pleasure in displaying wrath toward a humanity He created to love. He states in Ezekiel 18:23 that He would rather we would turn from our sin and embrace his mercy and grace, that we can one day enjoy the glorious life with Him for which we were created. In Isaiah 30:18 we are told that God longs to display His grace and compassion on those who will look to Him.
We are told in Isaiah 28:21-22 that wrath and judgement are God’s strange or unusual work. When he speaks to Moses in Exodus 34:5-7, God reveals Himself expansively as gracious, merciful and long-suffering, slow to display His wrath, but willing to do so upon the guilty who will not seek His mercy. Ephesians 2:4 reveals that God is rich in mercy, and Micah 7:18-19 reveals that He delights in displaying His mercy.
The prophet Jeremiah, grieving over the smoldering ruins of Jerusalem, (Lamentations 3:20-26) speaks of the Lord’s great love and compassion as the only reason he and all men can hope to escape eternal judgement.
Our gracious God gives us all of these warnings of wrath (Ephesians 5:6)) alongside revelations of His mercy so that we will flee from the wrath to come in Hell (Matthew 10:28), and embrace the ultimate expression of His love and compassion as it is displayed in God the Son, Jesus Christ, who would, while on the cross, take the wrath of God upon Himself so that anyone who would repent of their sin and embrace Him as their Lord and Savior would not perish in Hell, but receive the gift of eternal life (John 3:16) (John 3:36) (Romans 6:23).
Grace and Peace ×