Lesson Five: THE WRATH OF DIVINE LOVE
Introduction: God’s wrath is an expression of His love, which will punish evil and sin. God expresses hate for evil through divine wrath in the Old and New Testament times upon rebellious Israel. Likewise, Jesus expresses deep sorrow upon His people who are treated unfairly. In addition, Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary is the only one that can save us from eternal perishing.
Memory Text: Psalms 78:38(NKJV)
But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, And did not destroy them. Yes, many a time He turned His anger away, And did not stir up all His wrath.
SABBATH; The Lord is a God of love and compassion. He is the same in the Old and New Testament. Therefore, His wrath comes from a base of love because He hates evil and gets angry at it too. Similarly, Jesus expresses anger against evil in the New Testament when He sees the needy being oppressed. This makes God’s wrath a righteous and loving response to evil and injustice. It seeks the well-being of His creation. It is an expression of His divine love.
SUNDAY; God feels intense sorrow when His beloved creatures are hurt by evil. He is provoked to a passion expressed on behalf of the oppressed people, those oppressed in the hands of evil and injustice. Israel repeatedly rebells against God even after He delivers them out of danger. However much this evil and infidelity goes on, God repeatedly meets human unfaithfulness with unending compassion, faithfulness, longsufferring forbearance and amazing grace that cannot be fully comprehended. (READ Psalms 78; Nehemiah 9:7-33 )
MONDAY; Looking at Jonah the prophet, he reacts towards the mercy that God showed the Assyrians who had mistreated Israel, with hardheartedness. Furthermore, He emphasises how merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love, God is, for he knew how God would abandon Nineveh’s judgement. Unlike human beings, God is slow to anger, exceedingly patient but yet, He turns no blind eye to injustice. In addition, God Himself makes atonement for sin and evil via the cross so that He can be both just and the justifier of those who believe in Him.
(READ Jonah 4:1-4; Matthew 10:8; Romans 3:25&26)
TUESDAY; Taking an instance where a mother gets a child being defiled by an adult, a mother cannot sit back and watch this act go on. She will act angrily towards this adult because of the great love she has for her child. Likewise, God’s anger is a response drawn from love. The temple and its services were being used to oppress the poor who came seeking for forgiveness of their sins, the children were being stopped from approaching Jesus and furthermore, Jesus was being condemned for healing and doing good on the sabbath. All these instances made Jesus angry at the oppressors. He was grieved. Thus his reaction at the temple was driving out those that did against the right thing. (READ Matthew 21:12&13; John 2:14&15; Mark 10:13&14; Mark 3:4&5 )
WEDNESDAY; God’s anger is only and always against that which harms His creation. Thus, if there were no evil, there would not be God’s wrath. In as much as God does not want to bring judgement against evil doers, love finally requires justice. That’s why God continued to forgive His people and repeatedly granting opportunities for them to repent and get reconciled with Him, through the word of the prophets. However, continous rebellion landed Israel into the hands of the heathen nations. God desires good for His creation, therefore He will eradicate all evil finally on earth for the good of the universe.
(READ Ezra 5:12; Jeremiah 51:24&25,44; 2 Chronicles 36:16; Zechariah 1:15; Judges 2:13&14)
THURSDAY; As Scripture states it, it is only God with the right to bring judgement and deliver perfect justice, for vengeance is His. While God does so, God did not appoint us to wrath. He wants you and I to obtain salvation through Christ for He made a way for all who believe in Him. It is Him who delivers us from the wrath to come, all by having faith in Him, for without securing salvation in Him, one is not exempted from eternal divine wrath. Just as we receive God’s everlasting love and compassion, we ought to be equally considerate towards others for we are all partakers of the divine grace.
(READ Deuteronomy 32:35; Proverbs 20:22; 24:29; Romans 5:8&9; 12:17-21; Hebrews 10:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:9)
FRIDAY; In the context of the sin of the golden calf with Israel, they were guilty of treason in the divine government. However, God’s mercy was displayed. He maintained the law and granted freedom of choice and opportunity for repentance to all. Only those who persisted in rebellion were cut off. In addition, it was necessary that this sin should be punished, and as a testimony, surrounding nations would testify that God has great displeasure for idolatry. Furthermore, God punished a few in order to save millions more.
(READ “Idolatry at Sinai”, pages 315-330, in Patriarchs and Prophets by Ellen G White)
CAPTIONS:
SUNDAY; Grieved by evil
MONDAY; God is slow to anger
TUESDAY; Righteous indignation
WEDNESDAY; God does not afflict willingly
THURSDAY; Show compassion
FRIDAY; Further thought
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS;
- Why do you think so many people struggle with the concept of divine wrath? What helps you to understand it?
- What problems always arise when people seek vengeance that never arise when God seeks it?
- How was God’s judgement against Israel after the golden calf rebellion also an instance of divine mercy? What other examples in Scripture show that even God’s judgement is an act of love?
- Even though we understand that God righteously becomes indignant against evil and brings judgement with perfect justice, how important it is for us to refrain from condemning others? Discuss this particularly in light of 1 Corinthians 4:5.
