The Day of God's Wrath

The wrath of God is not a popular subject these days. We prefer to talk about the love of God, the compassion of God. The danger is that we might reduce the character of God to a sentimentalized warm-fuzzy emotional grandparent type of figure who tolerates any type of behavior. The reality is that there is at least as much attention given in the Bible to God’s wrath as there is to His love. Today’s reading is one of those passage.

Isaiah 13:6–13 NIV84

Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty. Because of this, all hands will go limp, every man’s heart will melt. Terror will seize them, pain and anguish will grip them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at each other, their faces aflame. See, the day of the Lord is coming —a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger— to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless. I will make man scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, in the day of his burning anger.

I don’t know about you but this description of the wrath of God sounds pretty scary. I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end. Certainly it is nothing to be taken lightly or simply dismissed.

The reality of God’s wrath

There are many verses which speak about God’s wrath:

Nahum 1:2–3 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet.

We’ve seen that wrath demonstrated in the Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the exile in Babylon, and the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in 70 AD.

Psalm 7:11 NIV84

God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day.

What we want to keep in mind is that God’s wrath is not the same as human anger. It is a deserved punishment for sin. There are times when it is right to be angry. Imagine that a strong man is walking one evening and sees a young girl being attacked. Which is the better response – to stop and pray that God would intervene, or to act to protect the girl? What feeling do you get when you read about examples of abuse? Being angry is not necessarily sinful.

Ephesians 4:26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,

If someone injures a person you love is not anger an appropriate response? When we disobey God we are hurting ourselves at the very least, and often others as well.

Wrath or anger is a human emotion that the biblical authors apply to God in an attempt to explain the consequences of turning from or disobeying God. It is rooted in God’s holiness and justice. God’s wrath is not mere displeasure. It cannot be dismissed as simple annoyance or mild irritation. Rather, it is a raging fury directed against evildoers. The price of diluting God’s wrath is diminishing God’s holiness.

The Day of the Lord, or the Day of God’s Wrath, is a time when Yahweh intervenes to judge sin and rebellion. This has happened to various degrees throughout history, in today’s passage from Isaiah it refers to God’s judgment of Babylon which fell to the Assyrians in 689 b.c,, Their particular sins were arrogance and pride

Zephaniah 1:14–18 “The great day of the LORD is near— near and coming quickly. Listen! The cry on the day of the LORD will be bitter, the shouting of the warrior there. That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the corner towers. I will bring distress on the people and they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like filth. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the LORD’s wrath. In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live in the earth.”

The objects of God’s wrath

Romans 1:18 NIV84

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,

Notice that Paul says God’s wrath is being revealed, it is present not just something in the future.

God continues to bring judgments.

Arrogant and proud – people who exalt themselves will be humbled

Proverbs 16:5 The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.

Evildoers

Romans 2:8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.

Sinners

Those who reject Jesus

John 3:36 NIV84

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”

There will, however, be a final time when God’s wrath will be poured out on the earth. We are told there will be a final judgment of the whole world at the end of this age.

Revelation 19:11–16 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

Deliverance from God’s wrath

The good news is that those who are in Christ will not experience God’s wrath. In writing to the church in Thessalonica Paul says

1 Thessalonians 1:10 (NIV84)

10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

1 Thessalonians 5:9 NIV84

For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Isaiah tells us this about the work of the Messiah

Isaiah 53:4–6 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Jesus bore the weight of God’s wrath on the cross, paying the price for those who belong to Him. At the present time God is patient, waiting, giving more time for people to repent.

Our response

It is not up to us to seek revenge.

Romans 12:19 NIV84

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

It is not up to us to judge others

Romans 2:1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

What we are called to do is

Live our lives in ways pleasing to Him

Seek to invite other people to trust in Jesus, to repent and believe in Him.