Faithful Steward Ministries and FSM Women's Outreach

If you are old enough to remember black and white televisions you may recall the contrast knob on many sets. It was there to help us see the picture clearer.

When thinking about God, I always want to see the clearest picture. Yet, I usually do not put His “Glory” and His “Wrath” in the same construct. But I must remember all of God’s attributes are connected, inseparable, and of course divine.

So maybe the next time when offering praise and worship for the “Glory” of God we would do well to remember the consequences of all “those living in “ungodliness and unrighteousness.”

---

.

.

CONTEXT:

Themes: Glory

glory. A biblical term used in reference to the unapproachable and mighty manifestation of the immediate presence of God. The biblical concept of glory carries with it connotations of inexpressible beauty and majesty. At the same time it implies an absolutely pure and terrifying “holiness” confronting the sinfulness of humans. In the NT, Christ is said to be the glory of God, al- though a glory that is at least partially veiled from sight, except for those who exercise faith in Christ. Christ’s glory is especially a consequence of his resurrection from the dead and his ascension to the right hand of the Father.

Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 55.

.

David Brainerd’s Experience of God’s Glory

Brought up in a strong Puritan home near Hartford, Connecticut, David Brainerd had already set his mind on ordination aged nineteen. But to his temperamental introspection was added a sense of guilt over his own selfishness and sin. Though he studied the Scriptures and prayed, he gained little relief. Then on July 12, 1739,

while he was walking in thick wood-land, conscious of the fact that he had reached the end of all his striving, God gave him a sudden revelation of presence. “Unspeakable glory,” so he recalled, “seemed to open to the view and apprehension of my soul.… It was a new inward apprehension or view that I had of God, such as I never had before.” It was as though some bright vision like that of one of the ancient seers had opened before the eyes of his soul, and he was allowed to taste the bliss of an absolute submission to the God of glory. “Thus God brought me to … set Him on the throne,” he wrote, “and I felt myself in a new world.”

SOURCE: Marcus Loane, They Were Pilgrims (New Creation, 1985), 5.

John Stott, The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott, ed. Mark Meynell (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018).

Themes: Wrath

Divine Wrath; The wrath of God or divine wrath are concepts used in both the OT and NT that invite readers to consider the anger of God in contrast to his mercy. The concept of divine wrath emphasizes the danger of opposing the divine will and expresses, in human terms, the emotional reaction provoked in God by sin and rebellion.

The idea of God’s wrath is part of the biblical tradition because the people of the ancient Near East made a connection between their God (or gods) and misfortunes that happened in their lives and concluded that the misfortunes they endured had a direct connection to the pleasure or the wrath of God (Amos 3:6). Accordingly, the anger of God manifested itself in punishments of various sorts, such as illness, disease, famine, plague, disorder, malformation, storms, earthquakes, eclipses, and virtually any natural activity that brought discomfort or death (Num 11:33; Isa 30:30; Ezek 7:15). In the ancient Near Eastern tradition, divine anger was sometimes brought on by human transgressions, such as defiling a sacred space or breaking a divine command, but other times resulted solely from inexplicable divine caprice. In the biblical tradition, God’s wrath is almost always explicitly linked with human sinfulness generally (Josh 7:11–12; Isa 10:12) or Israel’s forsaking Yahweh’s covenant specifically (Deut 11:13–17).

Descriptions of the wrath of God can be found in virtually every part of the Hebrew Bible through the NT. Examples abound, including the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19), the flood (Gen 6), the expulsion from the garden (Gen 3), the utterances of nearly every one of the prophets (e.g., Ezek 7; Joel 2), the actions of Jesus in the temple (Matt 21), the denunciations of the Judaizers by Paul (Gal 1–2), and, of course, the destruction in hell of all unbelievers and liars as so graphically described by the author of Revelation (Rev 20–21). Divine wrath is associated with the “Day of Yahweh,” a time when Yahweh intervenes to judge the world for its sin and rebellion, but the biblical depictions of that day blend elements of immediate and partial judgment with the reality of future and total judgment (e.g., Isa 13:1–22).

There can be no doubt that divine wrath plays an important conceptual role for ancient Israel, early Judaism, and early Christianity. However, the exact nature of that role is unclear. At one level, the frequent reminder of the punishment of God if his people transgress could simply be an attempt to hold sinful acts in check. But more profoundly, the wrath of God serves to remind people that God wishes their best and is willing to take physical action to inhibit the self-destructiveness of human rebellion. Said another way, God’s wrath is the twin of God’s mercy. Mercy without correction is mere permission, and mere permission never has the best interests of the person in mind. God’s wrath, then, is God’s mercy. And God’s mercy is, because of the nature of God’s love, sometimes made known in God’s punishment of wrongdoing and wrongdoers

Jim West, “Divine Wrath,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).

.

“Jesus Suffered in Our Stead”
Matthew 26:28; Romans 1:18–20; Ephesians 2:1–3; Hebrews 2:17; 9:15

To avert from men God’s wrath
Jesus suffered in our stead;
By an ignominious death
He a full atonement made.

JOHN HUSS

Elliot Ritzema and Rebecca Brant, eds., 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Medieval Church, Pastorum Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).

---

DEVOTIONALS

.

.