Wrath of God: A Mystery

Who can stand before His indignation?

Who can endure His anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire,

The rocks are broken asunder by Him.

(Nahum 1:6)

          People are prone to dwell upon passages that seem to conform to their views and predilections.  Christians often disregard the harsh words of God, His grave threats, His relentless commands and His words of doom; Christians would rather stand for the virtues of God, especially those virtues we would like to see in human beings.  To avoid these harsh words, those passages in regards to the anger of God, some Christians recoil, and some treat those harsh words allegorical, some are repelled by those words.  To use allegory or a metonymy in regards God’s wrath as a synonym for punishment, is to misread authentic meaning, to misrepresent Biblical thought.  To experience God’s anger and believing you were provoked by God is to make an attempt to adjust, or to shift, to evade the true nature of God’s wrath.  The passions of anger, or wrath is often pictured as sinister, a malignant passion, or an evil force, and must be suppressed under all circumstances.  The truth, is that those features, extraneous solution and exuberance an overflowing and your enjoyment or approval, are not the essence of God.  In regards to man can be a blessing, but more often is fatal, especially reprehensible when it is associated with malice, and fraught with danger.  Anger can cause a person to surrender and capitulate unrestrained, and will end in disaster.  On the other hand, the absence of anger deprives a person of their strength or efficiency making them useless or worthless as to their moral sensibility.  Patients, equality of holiness, apathy, activity in the practice of virtue in the soul if it is not associated with righteous indignation, will have a poor outcome.  Therefore, if the anger is to be a blessing it must be a righteous anger, righteous indignation:

“He who follows righteousness and mercy

Finds life, righteousness, and honor.”

(Proverbs 21:21)

God’s anger cannot be accounted to be unpredictable or irrational.  God’s anger is never a spontaneous outburst, but a reaction occasioned by the conduct of man.  The love of God in His relation to man is not indiscriminate an outpouring of good, given by the condition and merit of the recipient, rather it is an intimate sensibility, manifesting itself in His sensitive and manifold reactions.  God is a righteous judge, and righteous indignation is part of Him:

“God is a righteous Judge,

a God Who has indignation everyday.”

(Psalm 7:11).

          The anger of man has only one view in the end; vindictiveness, vengeance, and to prove their rightness.  It is not that there is not the cause for anger but that anger must be held in check if it is not righteous indignation for that anger.  God’s wrath in anger has one end in view; redemption and salvation.

          In our world today, especially here in the United States it is easy to become full of anger due to poor governmental decisions and mandates.  It is easy to desire that your anger be satisfied, and cause you to act in ways that may seem a right answer to your anger, only to have another poor government to be in charge over you.  It is OK to be angry, or mad, but that anger or madness must be held in check by a righteous indignation causing you to make ways to overcome the evil that you see against the citizens of the United States.  Your anger must be better than just for you to be satisfied.  God’s anger was His desire for His people to return to Him.  Are you not satisfied with our government?  If so, become active and intentional to rectify this problem of poor government.  You have representatives, those that you hired to do work for you, to contact and in today’s world it is easy with e-mail.  There are town meetings, or even with local government there are meetings at City Hall that you should be aware of or attend.  When the time comes to vote, this is a time for you to make a change.  We do not take up arms and go to physical warfare with bullets and bombs and hand grenades, no, that was necessary in 1776, but it is not necessary today because our fight is within ourselves not against another government.  The time for talk is over!  The time for action is now!  Will you allow God with His righteous indignation leads you so that your anger in wrath has a basis of righteous indignation and are using God’s law, principals, commands, that tell us how we are to satisfy our danger and our wrath.  Beware of others who wish to fight, not with words, but with military armor.  We’re not pacifist, but we are followers of Jesus Christ, He is our leader, and if the person who is leading you not a true follower of Jesus Christ, get away from that leader.  Christians make up the majority religion in the United States, therefore, let is join together in prayer, in worship, in legal action.

“Again proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says Jehovah, of hosts:

‘My cities shall again spread out through prosperity;

Jehovah will again comfort Zion,

And will again choose Jerusalem.’”

(Zechariah 1:17)