Exodus 4:14 Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses
2 Samuel 6:7 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error,
1 Kings 11:9 And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD,
1 Chronicles 21:7 But God was displeased with this thing, and he struck Israel
Numbers 12:9 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them
Deuteronomy 3:26 But the LORD was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me. And the LORD said to me, ‘Enough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again
Deuteronomy 9:8 Even at Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, and the LORD was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you.
Psalms 78:58-60 For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols. When God heard, he was full of wrath, and he utterly rejected Israel.
Philippians 2:21 For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
2 Timothy 4:10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.
Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
Anger of God. Wrath of God. We hear much preaching and devotionals of God’s grace, mercy, and love but do not hear that much about His anger.
“Colin Smith” wrote an interesting devotional about this and after I read it I deleted what I wrote and shared his with you.
As peace is a truth widely loved, wrath is a truth widely loathed. Many in the history of the church has been embarrassed by God’s wrath and have wanted to revise this biblical truth.Yet, this theme of the wrath (or anger) of God toward sin and sinners is clearly and widely taught in the Bible. This truth is so interwoven with the hope of our peace with one another and with God that if we lose our grasp on the one, we lose our hope of the other.
1. The anger of God is not like our anger.
When we speak about the wrath of God, remember that it is the wrath of God. So everything we know about God—he is just, he is love, and he is good—needs to be poured into our understanding of his wrath.
The words “anger” and “wrath” make us think about our experience. You may have suffered because of someone who is habitually angry, loses his temper, or flies into a rage. Our anger can often be unpredictable, petty, and disproportionate.
Although these things are often true of human anger, none of them are true of the anger of God. God’s wrath is the just and measured response of his holiness toward evil.
2. God’s wrath is provoked.
The anger of God is not something that resides in him by nature; it is a response to evil. It is provoked.
The Bible says, “God is love.” That is his nature. God’s love is not provoked. He does not love us because he sees some wisdom, beauty, or goodness in us. He loves you because he loves you, and you can never get beyond that (Deuteronomy 7:7).
But God’s wrath is different, his holy response to the intrusion of evil into his world. If there was no sin in the world, there would be no wrath in God. So the Bible’s teaching about the wrath of God is different from ancient mythologies, gods who run around frustrated and fuming. God’s anger is his settled resolve that evil will not stand.
3. God is slow to anger.
Why does God allow evil to continue in the world? Why does he not wipe it out?
God holds out the offer of grace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:9). People are coming to him in faith and repentance every day, and God patiently holds open the door of grace. The day of God’s wrath will come, but God is not in a hurry to bring it because then the door of grace will be closed.
4. God’s wrath is revealed now.
How does God reveal his wrath when sinners suppress the truth about him, exchange the truth for a lie, and worship created things rather than the Creator? God gives them up (Romans 1):
- Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity (1:24).
- For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions (1:26).
- God gave them up to a debased mind (1:28).
One writer states, “Paul is not teaching that one day God will punish Roman civilization for its vice and decadence. On the contrary, the vice and decadence are themselves God’s punishment…Their punishment was their greed, envy, strife, deceit, violence and faithlessness.” [2] When we see the moral fabric of our culture being torn, then as Christian believers we should cry to God for mercy.
5. God’s wrath is stored up.
The whole Bible story leads to a day when God will deal with all evil fully, finally, and forever. This will be the day of wrath, when God will recompense every evil and bring to judgment every sin.
God will do this in perfect justice. The punishment for every sin will match the crime. When the judgment is done, every mouth will be stopped because everyone will know that God judged in righteousness and justice. Then God will usher in a new heaven and a new earth, which will be the home of righteousness.
6. God’s wrath is on sinners.
In John 3:36, he does not say, “The wrath of God will come on [the disobedient].” He says, “Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remainson him.” It is already there. Why is it already there? By nature, we are children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). It is the state in which we were born.
What, at the end of the day, is the greatest human problem? It is not that we are lost and need to find our way on a spiritual journey. It is not that we are wounded and need to be healed. At the core of the human problem is that we are sinners under the judgment of God, and the divine wrath hangs over us unless and until it is taken away.
How God’s Wrath Is Removed
The Bible speaks about God’s wrath being poured out at the cross: “I will soon pour out my wrath upon you, and spend my anger against you” (Ezekiel 7:8). This takes us to the heart of what happened there: The divine wrath toward sin was poured out on Jesus. He became the “propitiation” for our sins (Romans 3:25), which means that the payment for our sins was poured out on Jesus at Calvary.
Don’t ever get the idea that God loves you because Christ died for you. No, it’s the other way round. Christ died for you because God loved you! He loved you even when you were the object of his wrath! God so loved the objects of his wrath that he spent the wrath on himself at the cross.
The outpouring of God’s wrath was the greatest act of love this world has ever seen.
[Tweet “The hope for sinners is that between us and the wrath of God stands the cross of Jesus.”]
The hope for sinners is that between us and the wrath of God stands the cross of Jesus. Sin was laid on Jesus and the Divine wrath toward it was poured out, spent, and exhausted in the darkness of Calvary. And when it was done, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “It is finished!” The wrath of God that will one day be poured out on all sin was spent at the cross with regard to all who are in him.
Then Christ rose from the dead, and he stands before you today, a living Savior! He offers to you the priceless gift of peace with God. He is ready to forgive your sins and fill you with his Spirit. He is able to save you from the wrath and reconcile you to the Father. He has opened the door of heaven, and he is able to bring you in.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
Denying pending judgement of God, denying the anger and day of wrath of God, and living as though there is no consequence to being complacent and neglectful to God, does not make it untrue or go away. It just means your heart is of stone, your eyes are blind, and your ears are deaf to the holiness and righteousness of God and the ability to know of His grace, mercy and love. Seek Him while He may be found. Desire to have Him soften your heart, open your eyes and ears to knowledge and understanding of Him.