Escaping the Wrath

When I was a mischievous boy growing up, I had my turns of getting in trouble -- with my parents, my teachers and various random people. For some weird reason a few of us boys from St. Catherine's parochial school kind of enjoyed doing things that would get us in trouble. While riding our bikes to school we'd taunt teenagers driving in their cars and then take off at full-speed on our Schwinn bikes, with angry high school students chasing us down.

Of course, we'd occasionally get the nuns (our teachers at school) mad at us for the stupid things we'd do: talking too much in class, harassing the girls, squirreling around at assembly. We liked the misbehaving part, but when we got caught and punished we hated the consequences.

I remember one time when my friend Charlie Buckingham and I were messing around at a shopping mall. The major department store there had an escalator. We found a fake $20 bill and decided to ride up and down the elevator, dropping it from the top floor and then watching people scramble around to grab the "$20 bill" when it hit the floor. The manager caught us and warned us to not do it again. So what did we do? We went right back up the escalator and once more dropped the fake money and let it float down to the first floor, watching people's reactions. As we got off the escalator, there was the manager -- steaming mad. He grabbed our arms and marched us right to his office, letting us know clearly that we were in big trouble. Suddenly I wished that I had never got talked into this prank by Charlie -- or did I talk him into it?

You remember those days of getting in trouble, maybe with your parents. And how you feared their wrath, the coming punishment. "Just wait til your father gets home, " your mother might have said.

These past few days I've been reading in Jeremiah about God's anger with His people. Though they received His loving care and protection after being delivered from Egyptian bondage and were given a beautiful land in which to live, they repeatedly turned their backs on God. They foolishly served and put their trust in empty idols. By the time of the divided kingdom, their sin was so pervasive and deep that it was time for them to suffer the consequences. The wrath of God was coming -- and Jeremiah was commissioned by the Lord to bring this bad news.

At one point in his ministry, Jeremiah tells Baruch to go preach to the people of Judah:

"You go to the Temple on the next day of fasting, and read the messages from the LORD that are on this scroll. On that day people will be there from all over Judah. Perhaps even yet they will turn from their evil ways and ask the LORD’s forgiveness before it is too late. For the LORD’s terrible anger has been pronounced against them.” -- Jer. 36:6-7 (Emphasis mine)

And I thought that having nuns or store managers mad at me was scary. Could you imagine hearing the Lord tell you that His terrible anger has been pronounced against you?

This is a part of the character of God that I'd prefer not to discuss or even think about. I'd rather talk about His love and compassion and grace. And yet I don't think we'd deeply appreciate the power of the cross and the necessity of Jesus dying and rising for our sins if we failed to grasp the significance of God's holiness and His hatred of sin. His wrath is against those who rebel against Him. And Jesus took all that wrath upon Himself on that cross. Wow! What love!

When I misbehaved and triggered the anger of nuns, teenagers in their hot rods or store managers, I had nothing to plea but for mercy. And that's our only plea when we face our sin and guilt before this Holy God. As the song says, "Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy." And in the cross, that's what we have when our faith is in Him and in what He did for us.

"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." - 2 Cor. 5:21

What can I say but "Hallelujah, what a savior."

Jim