Morning Direction From Scripture 4-29-20

So he said he would destroy them—
    had not Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach before him
    to keep his wrath from destroying them.

24 Then they despised the pleasant land;
    they did not believe his promise.
25 They grumbled in their tents
    and did not obey the Lord.
26 So he swore to them with uplifted hand
    that he would make them fall in the wilderness,
27 make their descendants fall among the nations
    and scatter them throughout the lands.

28 They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor
    and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods;
29 they aroused the Lord’s anger by their wicked deeds,
    and a plague broke out among them.
30 But Phinehas stood up and intervened,
    and the plague was checked.
31 This was credited to him as righteousness
    for endless generations to come.
32 By the waters of Meribah they angered the Lord,
    and trouble came to Moses because of them;
33 for they rebelled against the Spirit of God,
    and rash words came from Moses’ lips.[c]

34 They did not destroy the peoples
    as the Lord had commanded them,
35 but they mingled with the nations
    and adopted their customs.
36 They worshiped their idols,
    which became a snare to them.
37 They sacrificed their sons
    and their daughters to false gods.
38 They shed innocent blood,
    the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
    and the land was desecrated by their blood.
39 They defiled themselves by what they did;
    by their deeds they prostituted themselves.

40 Therefore the Lord was angry with his people
    and abhorred his inheritance.
41 He gave them into the hands of the nations,
    and their foes ruled over them.
42 Their enemies oppressed them
    and subjected them to their power.
43 Many times he delivered them,
    but they were bent on rebellion
    and they wasted away in their sin.
44 Yet he took note of their distress
    when he heard their cry;
45 for their sake he remembered his covenant
    and out of his great love he relented.
46 He caused all who held them captive
    to show them mercy.

47 Save us, Lord our God,
    and gather us from the nations,
that we may give thanks to your holy name
    and glory in your praise.

48 Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting.

Let all the people say, “Amen!”

Praise the Lord. Psalm 106:23-48

Talk to me about the quality of God’s love that causes Him to relent in the midst of punishment.

The Road Through Romans: Wrath

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Today we are moving on to Romans 1:18 in our journey through the Paul’s letter to Rome. I am planning four sessions in this verse in which we will discuss: wrath, ungodliness, unrighteousness and holding the truth in unrighteousness.

If you have missed any of our previous discussions they can be found on THE ROAD THROUGH ROMANS PAGE

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,” Rom. 1:18

Let’s talk about wrath for a bit. What exactly is the wrath of God? Is it like our wrath? Is it shouting and screaming and punching holes in the wall wrath? Is it that out of control seeing red wrath that some of us know so well, the wrath that shoots first and asks questions later?

Maybe a definition of the actual word would be helpful.

Wrath- from the Greek orgē ,

I. anger, the natural disposition, temper, character

II. movement or agitation of the soul, impulse, desire, any violent emotion, but esp. anger

III. anger, wrath, indignation

IV.anger exhibited in punishment, hence used for punishment itself of punishments inflicted by magistrates (definition taken from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance)

Well, so far the wrath of God doesn’t seem all that different from the wrath of people. Let’s look at some of the other Scriptures where the word, orgē,  is translated as wrath.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath G3709 to come? MA. 3:7 John the Baptist

But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, andwrath G3709 upon this people. Luke 21:23 Jesus

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath G3709 of God abideth on him. John 3:36 Jesus

And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? Rev. 6:13-17

From these verses I glean that: the wrath of God is something we definitely want to escape; It is something that causes great distress; That God has made a way for us to escape this wrath which involves judgment; AND while God doesn’t exactly punch holes in the walls, the very heavens themselves are damaged when God reacts in wrath.

What strikes you about the wrath of God from these or other verses in Scripture?