Inspired by...: Inspired by . . . Day 23, His Character, Wrathful

Inspired by . . . Day 23, His Character, Wrathful

God is Wrathful

This is a hard truth about God, but if we want to know Him, we have to embrace everything about His character.

Yes, God is Love, but He is Just and Holy and His anger burns against the wicked. We need to be careful here that we do not anthropomorphize God the way we do our animal friends. Unlike human anger, God’s wrath is never capricious, self-indulgent, or irritable. It is the right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil.

The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries and keeps wrath for His enemies. Nah 1:2

With over 151 references to wrath in the OT and over 40 in the NT, this is an attribute of God that we should study and seek to understand. The OT references can be hard, but we need to remember to take scripture as a whole to gain true understanding. For example, the very next verse in Nahum states, The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.

Do those words “slow to anger” seem familiar to you? Maybe that’s because nine times in the OT we’re told that the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. This is not a paradox, Beloved. Yes, God is avenging and wrathful. He will take vengeance on His adversaries. But His truest desire is that we be His children, not His enemies.

The wrath of God was satisfied on the cross.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Joh 3:16

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 6:23

Death, the penalty for sin, was defeated on the cross. But make no mistake, the final judgment is coming. The current events in our world today speak loudly that the enemy knows his time is short. The following passage is a hope and promise that I cling to when I think of my loved ones that do not know Him.

But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 2Pe 3:7-9

Our Lord takes no pleasure in punishment. Yet, the very essence of His character demands that all wrong shall be made right. We should take great comfort in this, Beloved.

We should fear the Lord, not with a fear of despair and dread, but with a sense of awe, respect and a reverence for Who He Is.

The nations raged, but Your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding Your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear Your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth." Rev 11:18