God’s Loving Wrath
Many think God’s love is…
quiet, passive, calm, peaceful
sunshine, flowers, warm fuzzies
You know that feeling when a puppy is snuggled in your neck?
… Yea, it’s like that.
But, actually, it’s not.
God’s love involves blood, death, violence, fear, exhaustion, anger, loss, and darkness.
Let’s see what this looks like…
When Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves with leaves, God determined that wasn’t good enough because He still loved them. He slaughtered animals in order to cover them properly with skins.
Abram left all that he knew to follow God. God showed His deep love for Abraham by giving him promises. In order to prepare for the vow of these promises (covenant), Abram had to cut a cow, a goat, and a ram in half. Exhausted and covered in blood he fell into a deep sleep. With a jolt, God showed up in the blackest darkness and terrified Abram!
God’s presence on Mt Sinai as darkness, thunder, and lightning was so extremely violent that the people wanted nothing to do with Him. And after indulging 960 hours non-stop in God’s loving sweet presence, how angry was Moses when he saw the golden calf?
At the age of twelve Jesus terrified Joseph and Mary for over three days because He was worshiping and teaching in the temple instead of being by their side.
During His ministry, Jesus simply loved people and healed many of them. This phenomenon was extremely frightening to devoted followers of God’s Law. That’s why they hated Jesus and thought He was possessed by a demon.
If you know anything about the thousands of Muslims who are giving their life for the cause of Jesus today, you would know that the suffering they endure involves loosing their families and often their own lives.
What does this have to do with God’s wrath?
Without love, God’s wrath would not exist. His wrath is a product of His love. God loves everyone. period. It’s a jealous and possessive kind of love. It’s that same feeling you have when your spouse shows interest in someone other than you. Your jealousy is a product of your love for that person and your reaction is a form of wrath against an injustice to that love. None of this would happen if love didn’t exist. The same is true of God’s wrath – it wouldn’t exist if He didn’t love.
When people continually do what they think is right in their own eyes and refuse to turn to God, He will eventually release them into their own rebellion (Psalm 81:11-14). This is seen throughout the Old Testament. Israel was so engrossed in worshiping God AND the queen of heaven (Jer 44), that after some very long suffering, He gave them over to nations that were saturated with the queen of heaven lifestyle (Assyria and Babylon). God was not the cause or the source of their hardships. They brought it on themselves and they suffered at the hands of those nations – not by God’s hand. God’s intense anger was due to their buying into the lie that other gods brought their salvation and pleasure. His jealousy does not allow His glory to be shared with any evil being – whether it is a spirit being or human being.
Even though He let them go, His eye remained on them due to his passionate love for them. Of the thousands who ended up captive, a few finally chose to come up out of that pit of lies, repented, and came back into the holy presence of God. The land of Israel today is a living testament to those few.
He hasn’t changed.
Holy Spirit loves to live inside of people. This is the most intimate relationship God can have with us. The thing is, Holy Spirit is not just with those who love Him. He protects those who hate Him too. In this way He serves as a restrainer or deterrent so that humanity does not experience the full evil intent of the devil that floods the hearts of men (2 Thess 2:6). This is how so many people are able to see God’s presence in the worst of situations.
When men are released into their own desires and do what they think is right, God doesn’t stand in their way (Rom 1:24-25). When this happens, God suffers with grief and pain (Psa 78:40-42) because He abhors the suffering they endure for doing what is wrong.
Can God prevent the suffering? He sure can, but He never forces His goodness on anyone – even at His own expense. When Jesus was hauled off to be tortured and crucified He said, “do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions [over 72,000] of angels?” Instead, God allowed Israel to sink into their own deep hatred.
The violent, wrathful love of God was felt physically in the earth the moment Jesus died. Falling into sudden darkness, feeling the ground shake underfoot, and hearing the loud, horrendous noise of the earth moving was cause enough for a Roman soldier, who’s hands were bloody from hammering his nails into a Man’s flesh, to immediately believe that this Man was the Son of God.
