Is God Angry?

"If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. 
He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself;
he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.  
And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 
He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God,
that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God." (1 John 5:9-13)

Is God Angry? Yes, God is actually furious right now today with most of mankind. There are a number of reasons why God is not merely disappointed with us. Many of us now living are provoking God even now while actually living in denial.

If you know Jesus Christ and He is your Lord, relax for now. This is not about you.

Fiery outrage and furious wrath are attributes of the One who is our Creator. God is actually a living Being. Yes, “God is Love,”-- that should be clear a bit later. He is also Holy.

“He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power.” (1 Timothy 6:15,16)

The Wrath of God is more about consequences of our unacceptable behavior than about God having a temper tantrum. Yet Romans 1:18-20 is all too true. All men everywhere, regardless of what they know or don't know, are without excuse because of God's revelation of Himself in nature.

God’s stinging indictment of mankind can be seen throughout the entire Bible, for instance in Romans Chapter 2:

“Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

“But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.” (Romans 2:1-11)

The specific group of people addressed here are the self-righteous, not the flagrant sinners indicted in Romans Chapter 1, nor the Jewish people addressed in Chapter 3.

Actually ALL of us are included in one way of another in these early chapters of Romans. A way of escape is also clearly given! Trusting and serving God’s Son, Jesus Christ the Lord, is THE one way of escape that a God of love has provided to any and all of us! God is holy and righteous and just, but His "mercy triumphs over judgment." We can not earn God’s favor, get on His “good side,” nor placate Him with meritorious deeds. His help is offered free to us--purchased at enormous cost to Himself. Keep in mind that God is a Person. His mind is infinitely better than all the minds of any sage, scientist, philosopher. His emotions are far deeper than we can ever know. Glimpses? Yet, Psalm 22, for example, hints at God’s personal involvement with our race through His unique Son, Jesus.

This wrath... is primarily God's removal of the restraints upon human wickedness, allowing evil to become widespread and publicly evident. That is the wrath of God at work...these people who have a clear view of what is wrong in society is devastating. He says they are guilty because they are doing the same things themselves. The judges are as guilty as the ones they have in the dock.

As a practiced, self-righteous hypocrite, I always have a feeling of surprise at that statement. I feel that whenever moral people, those who pride themselves on a degree of righteousness and a standard of ethics, read a statement like this, they are taken by surprise. "What do you mean? How could this be?"

This reminds me of our Lord's account of His return, when all the nations are to be judged before Him (Matthew 25:31-46). He will separate them into two bands, the sheep and the goats. The test of judgment is made on the basis of how people treat others.

He will say to the sheep, "When I was thirsty, you gave me to drink, when I was hungry you fed me, when I was naked you clothed me, when I was in prison you visited me."

To the goats He will say, "When I was thirsty you did not give me to drink, when I was hungry you did not feed me, when I was naked you did not clothe me, and when I was sick or in prison you did not visit me."

Both groups are taken by surprise and say, "When did this happen? When did we see you thirsty or hungry or naked? We don't remember that!"

This feeling of surprise is highly indicative of how little we understand ourselves and why we need a passage such as this. We are all guilty. I am going to use myself as an example, simply because I feel I am such an excellent example of what the rest of you are like. As I have been thinking this through, I see three ways by which I try to elude the fact that I am guilty of the things that I accuse others of doing: First, I am congenitally blind toward many of my own faults. I just am not aware of them. I do not see that I am doing the same things that others are doing, and yet other people can see that I am. I don't see it, and neither do you see it in yourself. We all have these blind spots.

One of the greatest lies of our age is the idea that we can know ourselves. We often argue, "Don't you think I know myself?" The answer is, "No, you do not know yourself. You are blind to much of your life." There can be areas that are very hurtful and sinful that you are not aware of...

How tenuous to hope that God, who sees all men openly and intimately, who sees not only what is on the outside but also what is on the inside, will pronounce judgment on these other people, but not on you. People will say, "How can a just and loving God permit the injustice and vileness that takes place in this world? How can he allow a tyrant like Hitler or Stalin to arise and murder millions of innocent people? How can he allow these godless regimes to come into power and crush people, usurp their rights, put thousands in prison, and spread destruction and sorrow across the land? Why does he allow these things to go on year after year? Why doesn't God judge these men?"

The God of truth and justice sees the one as well as the other. Paul asks, "Do you think that you will escape the judgment of God?" Then Paul asked the second question, the other horn of the dilemma:

Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, even realizing that God's kindness should lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4 NIV)

Paul says that when we refuse to judge these areas we are storing up wrath for ourselves. The word is "treasures." We are laying up treasures, but the treasure is wrath. This is the same word that Jesus employed when he said, "Lay up treasures for yourselves in heaven," (Matthew 6:20 KJV). We are constantly making deposits in a bank account which we must collect one of these days. In his wrath, God allows us to deteriorate as human beings. We become less than what we want to be. I think C. S. Lewis has described this very accurately. In his book, Mere Christianity, he says,

People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, "If you keep a lot of rules, I'll reward you; and if you don't, I'll do the other thing." I do not think that's the best way of looking at it. I would much rather say that every time you make a choice, you are turning the central part of you, the part that chooses, into something a little different than what it was before. And, taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature; either into a creature that is in harmony with God and with other creatures and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God and with its fellow creatures and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heavenly, i.e., it is joy and peace and knowledge and power; to be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us, at each moment, is progressing to the one state or the other.

If you are "by persistence in doing good seeking glory and honor and immortality," i.e., if you want God's life, you want to be his kind of a person, you want to honor him and be of value to him -- if that is what you really want above everything else, then you will find it. God will give you eternal life. In the context of the whole Scripture, this means you will find your way to Jesus Christ, for he is life eternal. You will find him as your Redeemer and Lord and Savior. You will grow increasingly like him, as you judge these evil areas of life, and honestly confess them, not assuming that God will pass over them. But what do you really want?

If what you really want is not God, truth, life, glory, and immortality -- if you really want pleasure and fame and wealth and power and prominence, if you want to be the center of things and have everybody thinking of you and looking at you and serving you -- then, according to this passage, "there will be trouble and stress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, and then for the Gentile." God plays no favorites. Church member or pagan, civilized or savage, white, brown, red, black or yellow, it makes no difference before God.

Now if all this sounds very harsh, if it sounds unloving, it is because you have not read the passage in its context. For this is not inconsistent with the picture of a loving God, who loves humanity and wants to restore it. It is a picture of a loving God who loves us so much that he tells us the truth, and that is true love. He will not allow us to deceive ourselves, to be tricked and trapped by falling into self-deceit. He tells us the truth. There is no way out, except one, and that is what he wants us to see. God's love is helping us to see that there is only one way to deal with sin -- admit it is there, and recognize that God has already dealt with it in Christ. On that basis, God offers us full and free forgiveness. There is no other way.

Any person who thinks he will escape by taking another route, or listening to some of the other voices that try to trap us into ways of rationalizing these feelings, and accepting them on other terms rather than dealing with them as ugly sins before God, will discover ultimately that he has stored up a treasure house of wrath. That is why God tells us the truth now. God, in great love and at tremendous cost, has provided a way out. It is that we surrender self. We give up self-seeking and living for ourselves, and begin to live for the God who made us. By the power of the Lord who forgives us and restores us and makes us his own, we have heaven instead of hell.

C. S. Lewis says the principle of giving up self runs all through life, from top to bottom:

Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life, and you will save it. Submit to the death of your ambitions and your favorite wishes every day, and the death of your whole body in the end, submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look out for yourself and you will find, in the long run, only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ, and you will find Him, and with Him, everything else thrown in.

This is the gospel. This is what this tremendous passage is aiming at, that we might realize there is no hope, none whatsoever, except in a day-by-day yielding to the plan and the program of God, as we find it in Jesus Christ our Lord...

God is the Source of all life and His capacity for pain and pleasure is way far greater than anything we experience in the best of times or in the worst of times. But believing that “God is love” elicits little more than fuzzy love in us moderns. That fact that God IS love is related to all that He does. In the absence of a created universe, the divine persons “dance” a great round dance of giving and receiving love. (This topic in itself is a classic subject called the “Procession of the Godhead,” among theologians).

Consider the creation of everything.. It was the work of all three Persons in the godhead. God the Father is the Designer and Architect, Jesus the Word of God implemented the concepts and blueprints, giving form and substance to matter, time, and energy. And, God the Holy Spirit infused life and enablement and multiple connections into the whole. The entire creation, visible and invisible, was very good, flawless, and perfect when finished. The crowning glory of it all was us! The apex of creation was our forefather Adam and his wife actually — not you and me and not anyone-- since our first parents ruined everything. Adam messed up big time (and so did Eve) but the Chief Offender (ha Satan) was a very high angel.

How would you feel (if you were God), if a usurper took possession of your great creation with the intent of running everything? You’d be outraged most certainly! To add insult to injury, your greatest work of creating--namely Adam/Eve, made in your image, teamed up with the Evil One forming a partnership, alliance, consortium, conspiracy to change all the rules--calling good evil and evil good among other things. Man ends up “totally depraved” — a puppet not a king. Eve faired no better.

Should God be outraged at all these bad choices by certain angels and man ending up in the camp of the Lord’s cosmic enemy? Yes, the anger of God was surely “kindled” back at the beginning of the show. Has God additional reason to be both hurt and outraged? Can God identity with us since He is holy and sin?

Yes! God can and in fact already HAS SOLVED the problem of evil—both human and angelic. God lives outside of time. He created time.

For thus says the High and Lofty One
Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

“I dwell in the high and holy place,
With him who has a contrite and humble spirit,
To revive the spirit of the humble,
And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
For I will not contend forever,
Nor will I always be angry;
For the spirit would fail before Me,
And the souls which I have made. (Isaiah 57:15-16)

It is not surprising that Jesus, the Son, should be assigned the greatest honor of all. God knew His pristine universe, His creation masterpiece would be ruined, but our freedom to choose, our free choice, is sacrosanct. That “free will” — which makes us most like God — is cherished and protected deeply by God because of His very own triune nature.

God IS Love—make no mistake about that. He is not a cantankerous, bitter old man subject to out-of-control fits and outbursts of pent-up anger. (We meet people like that). God is not easily provoked even when human behavior is outrageous. How often criminals go unpunished, the innocent suffer, and good people are put-down and marginalized! Why doesn’t God step in? Is He even keeping score? Yes. God’s record books include every detail, all the fine points, every nuance, motives and recorded facts.

Genesis 18 records an amazing dialogue between Abraham and The Angel of the LORD during which God patiently agrees to spare Sodom and the Cities of the Plain from destruction if ten good people live there. The next day we see that only Lot and his two daughters survived. None of these three qualify for sainthood however.

We are not the good people we insist we are.

What then? Are we better than they?
Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
As it is written:

“There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.

They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”
“Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
And the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:9-26)

The fact that judgment and justice are long overdue in the universe is linked to an important attribute of God, “long-suffering.” His “stored up wrath” is also mentioned in Romans 2 quoted above.

God is actually not one Person but Three. Before we and our world were even conceived in the mind of God. The Three chose the Son to solve the enormous holocaust of the Fall of man, and the fall of certain angels before that.

Looking ahead, the story of man has a triumphant ending. Everyone will recognize Jesus, those who already know Him personally, and those who did not:

“All who dwell on the earth will worship him,
whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

If anyone has an ear, let him hear.” (Revelation 13:8-9)

The wrecking of the universe began way back at the beginning but has been compounded many-fold since the Fall.

God is not merely watching history. He has embedded Himself in history since the beginning! He has been pursuing man ever since! He chose to pursue Adam down the long corridor of history and with a slightly different track He has been pursuing Eve also. We are included! Jesus has been called he Hound of Heaven since His desire is for no one to perish. He can not force Himself on us because he can not violate anyone’s will!

“...do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:8-9)

Consider the love Jesus has for his enemies, the Pharisees. He turns up the heat in his last attempts to get their attention but only a few respond and come to Him for life. (Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, Saul of Tarsus, et al).

Emotionally how would you expect God to react to man’s inhumanity to man, down through thousands of years of history till now? On top of that, what about all the rejection, apathy, indifference towards the very Person of God as manifested in Jesus?

An unusual scripture I have often thought about is Revelation 6:5-17:

And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, 
“Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath (orge) of the Lamb!“
For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

I have never seen an angry lamb, a perturbed goat yes.  Until I read about His two cleansings of the temple I thought Jesus was meek and mild and never hurt a fly. I realize now that we can provoke our Heavenly Father to correct us when we get out of line.  But God’s holy indignation for our sins was all transferred to Jesus on the Cross. God has very good reason to express His fury at those who continue to hate His Son no matter how much patient mercy and long-suffering He expresses.

Another passage about the stored-up wrath of God and of wrath of the Lamb:

“If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand,“he himself shall also drink of the wine of th e wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. “And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. (Revelation 14:9-14)

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath (thumos) of God on the earth. So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man; and every living creature in the sea died. Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying:

“You are righteous, O Lord,
The One who is and who was and who is to be,
Because You have judged these things.
For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets,
And You have given them blood to drink.
For it is their just due.” 

And I heard another from the altar saying,

 “Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.”

Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory. Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain. They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds. Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

 “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.” 
And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon. Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!”

And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great. (Revelation 16)

“We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father, knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything. 

For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.“ |(1 Thessalonians 1:2-10)

Was Jesus well-received among His own people when He showed up in Israel on time, exactly as predicted--with exact credentials? He was soundly rejected and murdered, (as most people realize). Has Jesus been well received since He came triumphantly back from the dead and ascended to the throne room of the Father?

No, Jesus is ignored by most, and widely represented by many of His followers with few exceptions.

If you were God what would you do as Governor, CEO, Commander of the Armies of Heaven, Captain of the Angelic Host, LORD of the cosmos? Surely you would step in and stop mankind’s suicidal self-destruction? How long would you tolerate the exploitation and ruination of a once glorious planet? (If He had stepped in a hundred years ago, you and I would have been left out!)

What about a Just God paying us back for our part in our great personal anarchy? On what grounds should we plead for mercy?

Here is where we can be surprised by joy!

The key word is “propitiation” (a much stronger word than the usual “expiation.” See the footnotes)

If I owe you $20 due Friday and pay you back $20 on time, my debt has been paid as agreed. That’s “expiation” illustrated. The debt is paid.

If I owe you $20 and pay you back $20 plus an extra $20, on time or earlier, we have a clue about the meaning of “propitiation.” The debt is more than satisfied. My actions were over and beyond what I was obliged to pay.

To suggest a simple, naive scenario for events in heaven between God the Father and God the Son (outside of time), suppose the following:

God the Father commissions His Son to solve the problem of human evil by interposing Himself (i.e., the Son) between a righteous, holy God and a hopelessly lost human race. What a great gulf! God is righteous and He must act justly, punishing sin and removing evil from the universe. Sin can only be resolved, covered, removed by a suitable blood sacrifice. Therefore in order for the Son to carry out the Father’s commission He is asked to carry out the most unimaginable task of perfect obedience unto death. Leaving the details for now, the Son of God did in fact become a man, was born of woman, was free from the genetic contamination of Adam. He did obey the Father perfectly for 30+ years and then He died. He did not stay dead which would have prevented Him from conquering death and returning triumphantly to the Father.

Imagine their reunion!

A Third Party, God the Holy Spirit, went through the whole process with Jesus. The Spirit was instrumental in carrying out the requirement of the Law of Moses from the birth birth of Jesus to resurrection and ascension. The Spirit did garbage cleanup by removing all sin to a secure facility--to Hell --so the entire creation is being made safe and a new home for redeemed persons is being built.

Imagine the Father’s delight when the Son reports back to the Father, “I accomplished the task you assigned to me.” “I am back, what is my next assignment.”

The Father was “propitiated” not merely “expiated.”

What is the next assignment for the Son of God in history? We are told! The Father hands the Title Deed of the earth to His incarnate Son in the dramatic scene witnessed by the aged disciple Apostle John in Revelation 4,5!

After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:

“Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty,
Who was and is and is to come!”

Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:

“You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created.”

And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?” And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.” And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth.”

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice:

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:

“Blessing and honor and glory and power
Be to Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”

Then the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever. (Revelation 4:1 - 5:14)

Is God just in punishing evil and paying all unpaid bills and debts? It’s tempting to say “Damn right.” He is totally Just. We are given glimpses of God’s behind-the-scenes hands-on personal involvement in human affairs. He can not, my nature, act unjustly. Does the punishment fit the crime? Can anyone in hell accuse God for acting unjustly? Can any of us escape? What about our culpability if we refuse God's solution to our sin problem.

Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?

For He has not put the world (oikoumene) to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place, saying:

“What is man that You are mindful of him,
Or the son of man that You take care of him?
You have made him a little lower than the angels;
You have crowned him with glory and honor,
And set him over the works of Your hands.
You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”

For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.

For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying:

“I will declare Your name to My brethren;
In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You.”

And again:
“I will put My trust in Him.”
And again:
“Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.”

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham... (Hebrews 2:1-16)

There is more. Many will not believe until a crisis in life comes upon us and we see our deep need for Jesus. He helps of course, even when we turn down further aid, further rescue.

Jesus is always bailing out ungrateful sinners even when most will go their own way after the bail-out! Still Jesus the Hound of Heaven wants no one to perish. In a world now numbering 8000 million persons some estimate that 10% are responders, followers, obedient servants of Jesus. (Only 5% of the people in the world are Americans.) In His announced move we can expect God to soon step back into history, He will take charge directly to set everything straight--working with, and through, His servants. A hard core of humans will continue to refuse Him, or even to acknowledge Jesus as rightful heir. He is King over kings, Lord of lords, whether anyone believes that or not. No matter how much Jesus “turns up the heat” many prefer hell to heaven. If this is the case, God will grant their last wishes. (See Luke 16:18-31)

What’s coming down the pike? At long last the “stored-up,” long overdue, wrath of God will be poured out soon on earth and on earth’s inhabitants. It’s wise to get out of way now by “fleeing from the wrath to come.”

This article has been about “wrath” as an absolute, certain attribute of the living God. Vivid pictures are given to us in the Bible, and here God speaks for Himself.

Jonah walked 700 miles to Nineveh in the 8th Century BC. He reluctantly told that very evil empire that His God Yahweh cared about them and actually loved them. From the king on down they all repented (changed their minds and lifestyles) —to Jonah’s chagrin. The whole nation was spared for two whole generations. But after 166 years they went bad all over again and God then called His prophet Nahum to announce the bad news. God had them "taken out" completely in 612 BC.

Ray Stedman has a great overview of the short Old Testament book of Nahum:

The book of Nahum is one that is neglected because it is so obscure, and so small that it is seldom read and much less frequently understood. But every portion of scripture is indispensable, each has its own contribution to make. This is why the Apostle Paul could say, "All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16,17) And this little prophecy of Nahum is no exception.

When you read this you may feel that it is a rather dry account of ancient history but actually, this prophecy reveals something of God more clearly than any other book of the Bible. It is the job of the prophet to reveal to us the character of God. The prophets unfold for us the divine attributes and each sees God in a different light. As you read through the prophets, therefore, you are seeing one facet after another, flashing like a diamond in the sunlight, of the mighty character and attributes of an eternal God.

Now the attribute which the prophet Nahum was given to reveal was God's anger. There is no doctrine quite as repugnant to people today as that of the anger of God. This is one doctrine which many would like to forget. There are some who picture God as a kindly gentleman with a merry twinkle in his eye who cannot bear the thought of punishing anyone or judging anyone. Nevertheless, it was Nahum's task to unfold the anger of God and in this prophecy the God of Sinai flashes forth in awful fury, a God before whom man must stand silent and trembling. You cannot read this prophecy without sensing something of the solemnity of this tremendous picture of God.

As we begin this book it is important to know why and at whom God is so angry. this prophecy is directed against the city of Nineveh to whom God sent the prophet Jonah. When Jonah preached in Nineveh, the city repented in sackcloth and ashes. God's anger was withheld from the city and he spared it, because from the king on down to the lowest citizen, they turned to God and repented of their sins.

The book of Nahum comes some one hundred years after the prophecy of Jonah. During this time, Nineveh had repented of its repentance, and had begun to do the same things again that called forth the threat of judgment through the prophet Jonah. The prophet Nahum was sent to minister to the southern kingdom of Judah at the time of the invasion of the Assyrian king Sennacherib. King Sennacherib who came from the capital city of Syria, Nineveh, invaded Israel at the time of the prophet Isaiah, and it was from this great city in the north that the armies of the Syrians frequently came against the land of Judah and of Israel. But God moved to protect his people and met and destroyed these enemies of the king overnight.

Nahum means "consolation," or "comfort," and as the Assyrian army was spread out around the city of Jerusalem, the prophet was given a message of consolation. You can imagine how consoling it was when the armies were right there with their terrible reputation as ruthless warriors, burning and destroying, raping and pillaging, killing the children and sparing no one, to have this prophet stand up in Jerusalem and declare to them that God would destroy Nineveh, the capital city of their enemies.

This is one of those parts of prophecy in scripture which already has been fulfilled. Much of scripture remains to be fulfilled, and many of the predictions of the Old Testament prophets look beyond our own day to a time when the Lord will come again. But as we look at this book, we see prophecies that have long since come to pass. This is one of the great proofs that the Book of God is from God, for there is a description here of exactly how this destruction would occur, given years before it took place. Those who are interested in apologetics might use this in talking with some who challenge the fact that the Word of God is predictive.

We can divide the book of Nahum into four sections, and each of them is a description of the anger of God. I think the simplest way to describe this first section, this vision of God in his wrath, is to simply use the Anglo-Saxon word "terrible." These are beautiful poetic expressions, but they powerfully picture the wrath of God (chapter 1, verses 2-6):

The Lord is a jealous God and avenging,
the Lord is avenging and wrathful;
the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries
and keeps wrath for his enemies.
The Lord is slow to anger and of great might,
and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

His way is in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
He rebukes the sea and makes it dry,
he dries up all the rivers;
Bashan and Carmel wither,
the bloom of Lebanon fades.
The mountains quake before him,
the hills melt;
the earth is laid waste before him,
the world and all that dwell therein.

Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are broken asunder by him. (Nahum 1:2-6 RSV)

What a description that is! The prophet sees God in his anger looking at the hosts of Assyria. There are some men and women who live in a perpetual temper. Their hot tempers boil over at the slightest provocation. but the interesting thing is that people do not usually fear this kind of a person. They pity them or they make jokes about them. There are other people who are more quiet and peaceful by nature. It takes a long time to stir them up. They endure irritations for a long time, but when their patience is exhausted and at last they are brought to a boil, watch out. They are terrible in anger.

That is the picture that the prophet gives here, of an infinitely patient God. As the prophet says, "He is slow to anger." He does not move rapidly. He has given this city chance after chance to repent. He has sent prophet after prophet after prophet. They did believe one prophet and repented their evil ways, and God spared the judgment he said he would bring. But they repented from their repentance. That is one of the most terrible things that men can do. Having turned from their evil, they went back to what they had said they would forsake, and this is what evokes the judgment of God at last.

God is angry, and this is no temper tantrum. There is nothing capricious about the anger of God. There is nothing selfish about it. It is a controlled but terrible rage, fearsome to behold. You can get some idea of the awfulness of this divine anger in the fact that all the Hebrew words for wrath or anger are brought together in these six verses. The words are: jealous, vengeance, wrath, anger, indignation, fierceness, fury. All of them describe the anger of God.

Jealousy, that burning zeal for a cause felt so deeply in the heart. This is not the selfish, petty jealousy we exhibit sometimes, but God's overwhelming concern for what he loves. His vengeance, or retribution; his wrath, that towering anger, the blackness of it, the darkness of it, is described here. The word for anger is the word that literally means "heavy breathing," or "hot breathing." And the word for indignation literally means "foaming at the mouth"! You can see how picturesque these words are. The word fierceness in Hebrew literally means "heat," and the word fury means "burning." And all this to describe a God who is terrible in his wrath, moved at last to the point of pouring out his wrath upon that which has awakened it. God in a white-hot passion, burning with a terrible, blistering rage.

The second section, beginning with verse 8 of chapter 1, brings before us another aspect of his anger. Here we learn that the wrath of God, or the anger of God, can be personal, for this is all directed against a single individual. In verse 11 you have reference to Sennacherib, the general of the Assyrian armies.

Did one not come out from you,
who plotted evil against the Lord,
and counseled villainy? (Nahum 1:11 RSV)

God's anger was all directed against this pagan king who deliberately plotted to destroy the people, after God had visited his city with grace and had saved them from his anger. Verse 12 refers to the visit of the angel of death when Sennacherib came down with his armies before Jerusalem. In Isaiah, chapters 36 and 37, you have the description of how the Assyrian armies came down and spread out before the city of Jerusalem. Then with taunting challenges to King Hezekiah, they told him they were going to take the city and that there was no strength that could stand against them. Isaiah tells us how Hezekiah took these messages and spread them before the Lord and asked God to save the city, even with the armies of Assyria surrounding it. And that night, we are told, the angel of death went through the Assyrian hosts and slew 185,000 soldiers. (Is. 37:36) That is referred to in verses 12-13:

Thus says the Lord,
"Though they be strong and many,
they will be cut off and pass away.
Though I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no more.
And now I will break his yoke from off you
and will burst your bonds asunder." (Nahum 1:12-13 RSV)

As a result of this, the Assyrian armies went back and Jerusalem was saved. (There is an interesting construction there in the Hebrew. It says, "When they woke up in the morning behold they were all dead men." Of course, the ones who woke up in the morning were the Israelites and not the Assyrians.)

Verse 14 was literally fulfilled in the murder of Sennacherib. When the angel went through the camp the Assyrian general was spared, and he returned to Nineveh. But while he was worshiping his false gods in the temple after returning from this engagement with Israel, he was murdered by his own two sons, who stole the crown for themselves. We read here (verse 14):

The Lord has given commandment about you:
"No more shall your name be perpetuated;
from the house of your gods I will cut off
the graven image and the molten image.
I will make your grave, for you are vile." (Nahum 1:14 RSV)

Years before that happened the prophet Nahum was told that God would deal with this man in his own temple, in the house of his gods, and make his grave there. God's anger sought him out and struck him down. In verse 15 you have the joyful shout that went up from Jerusalem when the news came of Sennacherib's death:

Behold, on the mountains the feet of him
who brings good tidings,
who proclaims peace!
Keep you feasts, O Judah,
fulfill your vows,
for never again shall the wicked come against you,
he is utterly cut off. (Nahum 1:15 RSV)

What a picture this is of the fact that God's wrath can be directed against a person. This is what people are so slow to believe. They say that God is a God of love. How can he possibly punish anybody? This is the argument. When it is mentioned that God's justice demands that he punish us, they say that this cannot be so. God's love is greater than his justice, they say, and therefore, under no circumstances can God's justice cause him to punish. There are many who are suffering under this delusion. But here is a man who was singled out, as the prophet tells us, to bear the brunt of the wrath of God, this man who was responsible for the depredations against Judah.

Now there is a third section, comprising all of chapter 2, which reveals still another aspect of God's anger: he is thorough. Here God is addressing Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, and he says (verse 1):

The shatterer has come up against you.
Man the ramparts;
watch the road;
gird your loins;
collect all your strength. (Nahum 2:1 RSV)

How dramatically this is put, as though the watchman is looking out and he sees the armies of the Babylonians coming up to destroy the city of Nineveh. History tells us that the combined armies of Cyaxares and Nabopolasser, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, came up against Nineveh and this army is called the "Shatterer." "The Shatterer has come." Here is the way the account of the battle in the city begins (verses 3-5):

The shield of his mighty men is red,
his soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots flash like flame
when mustered in array;
the chargers prance.
The chariots rage in the streets,
they rush to and fro through the squares;
they gleam like torches,
they dart like lightning.
The officers are summoned,
they stumble as they go,
they hasten to the wall
the mantle is set up. (Nahum 2:3-5 RSV)

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth. O LORD, I have heard the report of thee, and thy work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst of the years renew it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.

God will come from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran (i.e., from Sinai and Edom; Petra).

His glory will cover the heavens, and the earth will be full of his praise. Selah. His brightness is like the light, rays flash from his hand; and there he will veil his power. Before him goes pestilence, and plague follows close behind. He will stand and measure the earth; he will look and shake the nations; then the eternal mountains will be scattered, the everlasting hills sink low. His ways will be as of old. I see the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of Midian tremble. Is your wrath against the rivers, O LORD? Is your anger against the rivers, or your indignation against the sea, when you ride upon thy horses, upon your chariot of victory? You will strip the sheath from thy bow, and put the arrows to the string. Selah.

You will cleave the earth with rivers. The mountains will see you, and writhe; the raging waters sweep on; the deep gives forth its voice, it lifts its hands on high. The sun and moon stand still in their habitation at the light of your arrows as they speed, at the flash of your glittering spear. You will stride the earth in fury, you will trample the nations in anger. You will go forth for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You will crush the head of the wicked (one), laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah.

You will pierce with your shafts the head of his warriors, who come like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. You will trample the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters.

I hear, and my body trembles, my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones, my steps totter beneath me. I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. Though the fig tree do not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like hinds' feet, he makes me tread upon my high places. (Habakkuk 3:1-19)

Note: The Hebrew Prophetic Future Verb Tense

Verb tenses are not as clearly specified in the Hebrew language as they are in English. In a number of prophetic passages of the Old Testament the verbs are commonly translated as past tense in our English Bibles. However, the prophetic future tense can equally well be used. (Note: When the Hebrew letter waw is added before a word it means "and." When added as a suffix it means "his." Waw before a verb indicates a change of the tense of the verb from past to future and vice versa (a verb in the past tense with a waw in front of it is to be understood as future tense).

Notice in the passage quoted below how the words of the prophet Habakkuk take on new meaning for the end of the age if one switches the verb tenses from past tense to future. Habakkuk lived just before Nebuchadnezzar's siege and destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple so he was downhearted and grieved because God was bringing great Israel against the chosen people through a foreign people of even great wickedness. It was a dark hour for history similar to the hour that Israel faces in our own time, so Habakkuk's words and prayers applied both to his immediate situation. Yet his prayer would seem to apply equally well to the end of the present age:

Habakkuk said: "The vision will speak in the end," as all true words from God do. When Jesus Christ returns He will come from Bozra/Petra brining with him the Jews from the remnant who fled Jerusalem at the mid-point of the Tribulation (see Matthew 24:15-22). His garments will be spattered by the blood of His enemies, (Revelation 19:13 and Isaiah 63). Jewish believers down through the centuries will be resurrected from the dead and brought to Petra where the Great Shepherd will separate believers from nonbelievers. As the Greater Moses, Jesus will bring all of the Jews who are true believers with him when he returns to stand on the Mount of Olives, Zechariah 14. See also Bozra for more details. A Wonderful Hebrew word is Perez, Ha Parats, translated "Breaker" when referring to Messiah as Shepherd King.

Jewish Encyclopedia: Originally, the name of a tribe and then of a district of the Edomites. In Biblical genealogy it is the name of the eldest son of Eliphaz, the first-born of Esau, and one of the "dukes" of Edom (Gensis xxxvi. 11, 15, 42; I Chron. i. 36, 53). The genealogy here noted proves that Teman was one of the most important of the Edomite tribes, and this is confirmed by the fact that "Teman" is used as a synonym for Edom itself (Amos i. 12; Obad. 9; comp. Jer. xlix. 20, 22; Hab. iii. 3). The Temanites were famed for their wisdom (Jer. xlix. 7; Baruch iii. 22); Eliphaz, the oldest and wisest of the friends of Job, is described as a member of this tribe (Job ii. 11 et passim).

Teman is referred to in Obad. 9 as a part of the mount of Esau, while Amos i. 12 mentions it in connection with the Edomitic "palaces of Bozrah"; Ezek. xxv. 13 speaks of it in contrast to the southern boundary Dedan. The "Onomasticon" of Eusebius (260, 155) mentions a region called Thaiman, in Gebalene (the Gebal of Ps. lxxxiii. 8 [A. V. 7]), and thus in the district of Petra, noting also an East Teman, a town with a Roman garrison fifteen (according to Jerome, five) miles from Petra.

Zephaniah the Prophet is even more relevant for us than Nahum because he wrote about God’s preservation of a faithful remnant in “the Day of the Lord.”

In Hebrew, this word is Zaam literally means 'foam' or 'froth at the mouth' and describes fury or rage, the just wrath of God. Zephaniah is describing God’s displeasure with sin or His wrath which will result in punishment.

Ray Stedman has left us a powerful summary of Zephaniah from 1966:

Change your mind and get acquainted with Jesus. He is alive today and in charge of everything. He is now working behind the scenes, but not for much longer.

“He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” (1 John 5:10-13)

Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.(Revelation 1:8,9)

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May 18, 2019. June 3, 2020. September 29, 2022.