Revelation Day 43 - God's Wrath

DAY 43
God’s Wrath
1 Thessalonians 5:4-11
 
Is God angry?

The short answer is, “Yes!” But we have to answer this question more carefully. Let’s look closer at what the Bible says.

Pastor John talks about God’s wrath, or God’s anger, about 10x in Revelation - which is a lot. John amps it up even further in 16:19 when he talks about “the fury of God’s wrath.” However, John is not the only Bible author to talk about God’s wrath. Just look at today’s reading from 1 Thessalonians. We’ve talked about this before in this series but we need to again. What does it mean when the Bible says that God is angry?

We have to talk about basic principles of Bible study. Recognizing anthropomorphism is one of the long-standing principles of interpreting the Bible. Anthropomorphism carries over from Latin. It means something has “human form (anthros + morph).” In this case, we say something about God by saying something like we would about human beings. God’s wrath, or anger, isn’t like human emotions that swing back and forth uncontrollably. In fact, the Old Testament repeatedly says that God is slow to anger (Exodus 34:6; Psalm 86:15).

These plague-judgments in Revelation show us God’s disgust for evil. When the Bible talks about God’s wrath, it’s talking about God’s permanent hatred of evil. The Bible uses another word for God permanent opposition to evil and that word is “holy.” God is holy, so completely and perfectly good that God clearly stands out as radically different from us. God won’t suddenly decide to support evil tomorrow like many of the pagan Gods of Greece or Rome.

At the same time, God calls us to be holy, too. By showing us how ugly evil is and by showing us God’s distaste for sin, Revelation urges us to seek holiness. In a way, sin should sicken us, especially sin in ourselves. That’s one of the reasons why Revelation so often talks about repentance.

God is against evil but not against us, as Paul the Apostle says in 1 Thess. 5:9. We have to take God’s anger against evil seriously if we follow the Way of Jesus.

REFLECT
What’s your usual response when you read in the Bible about God’s wrath? Do explanations like today’s devo help you better understand it?

PRAY
Thank you, Lord, for being so perfectly opposed to evil. You did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Make me sick of sin, my own most of all. Make me holy. Amen.