The Righteous Judge
YHWH, I have heard the report about You and I fear. O YHWH, revive Your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. Habakkuk 3:2
Wrath – “There is an evil which most of us condone and are even guilty of: indifference to evil. We remain neutral, impartial, and not easily moved by the wrongs done unto other people. Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself; it is more universal, more contagious, more dangerous. A silent justification, it makes possible an evil erupting as an exception becoming the rule and being in turn accepted.”[1]
A man cannot be filled with wrath and show compassion at the same time. A man of wrath seeks vengeance for wrongs committed against him or others. A man of wrath is overcome with anger at injustice. But God is not a man. God is filled with wrath toward those who ignore and reject His order, and, at the same time, His wrath is the occasion for compassion. How this is possible is a great mystery, but its truth is a fact that cannot be disregarded. To believe that God’s compassion erases His wrath is the height of foolishness. Justice will be served. Evil will be removed. Vengeance belongs to Him and He will bring it to pass. Any theology that presumes to portray God as eternally forgiving and compassionate leaves its adherents in a most dangerous position. Now is the acceptable year of the Lord, but it will not always be so.
The Hebrew rogez is a word of raging emotion. It is about extreme disturbance and tumult. Applied to God, it means He feels intense repugnance over evil. And He will not let it go. Forgiveness might remove our guilt, but it does not remove God’s disgust over sin. God’s wrath is a shaping tool, not a blunt instrument. It is designed to mold, repair, recapture and reuse. The renewed creation will come about as a result of God’s wrath. In the exercise of wrath, God will reorder existence and renew its perfection. Wrath is not the application of unrestrained force, exterminating all that stands in His way. It is the scalpel’s edge of the great surgeon, cutting away all that is ungodly from its entwined hold on all He wishes to restore. Wherever there is mercy, wrath preceded.
Reflect on our experience of mercy enough to recognize how close we came to wrath. The line is so fine, so fragile, that only the hand of God could have prevented the consequences we should have inherited. The scalpel was necessary to save us and it cut to the bone. If you thought God saved you by His grace, you have overlooked how necessary it was for Him to turn from His wrath. In your case, mercy outweighed consequence, by a hair’s breadth. Thank Him for that narrow escape. Recognize that you were not saved as a trophy but as an instrument. The purpose of the scalpel was to set you free in order to do what He requires. To do less is to devalue the cost of your surgery.
Topical Index: wrath, Habakkuk 3:2, mercy, rogez
[1] Abraham Heschel, The Prophets, Vol. 2, p. 64.
—His wrath is the occasion for compassion. How this is possible is a great mystery–
—In the exercise of wrath, God will reorder existence and renew its perfection.—
Well done sir, and not one mention of the offending Cross! How bloodless indeed! Well written,- a fine dancing all around without coming to-. A great mystery indeed!
Very well then, how can this be?, “in wrath remember mercy” apart from the cross of the Crucified ONE? Yes,? I’m listening (intently). The cross, the cross, the “preaching and proclaiming” of the cross.. – Where it is? Without the cross of (the) Christ- we are left without mercy and (very much) -under G-d’s wrath. Why? Because of sin. G-d hates, (yes hates- actually more like abhors,- sin) If anything, I hope we (all) have learned -G-d is holy. May I dare to ask? -how holy? Very. Beyond our knowing. (yes,-that holy.) We have never known holiness like this before- it does not exist on this side of Death’s doorway. G-d is holy.
Did you know (or have you realized) if the only “sin” ever committed in my entire short existence here on this green planet was to steal a pencil (remember “thou shalt not steal?”). Oh horror of horrors- he stole a pencil. This wouldn’t place me in the same league as Hitler would it? Such a small and trivial thing is this. Such minutiae. Surely YHWH would overlook such a small thing as this. -Or would He? “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” (James 2.10). Woah! (or woe..) Surely not. – Yes, my friends- surely. One point. One jot or one tittle, unless we have lived perfect (sin-free) lives we aint’ gonna make it into G-d’s kingdom. Heaven is a totally “sin-free”, absolutely perfect place. (Ahmein?)
Well now, aren’t we in a pickle. For the Bible (G-d’s Torah-our authority for righteous living) says all have sinned. (Romans 3.23). These very words were written by Rabbi Sha’ul- a Hebrew of the Hebrews, the equivalent of a triple PhD, and born into the very tribe of Benjamin and yet this man (in his own words) confessed- “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank G-d through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:24, 25). -Reminds me of another “nameless” man, not a Pharisee, but a Publican who cried out- “G-d, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18.9-14.) “In wrath, remember mercy.” Or another blind man (whose eyesight was far better than ours today), who cried out in a loud voice saying, “Jesus, [thou] Son of David, have mercy on me.” “In wrath, remember mercy.” Or the wandering son who “came to realize and recognize” -what am I doing here feeding with these hogs?- maybe my Father, “in wrath, would remember mercy”, and returned home to the prodigal Father. And did the Father receive such an one? -Such a mystery, isn’t it?
The delema of receiving mercy and forgiveness while facing the wrath of God reminds me of the hymn “Make me a captive Lord and then I shall be free.” Mysteries which I may never completely understand, yet firmly believe and stake my life on. O Lord, help my unbelief!
Thank you brother Skip for the message this morning!
I love the prophets and find myself returning to them often. Just finished reading Isaiah last night.
Their passion for God is what I love, but what I have discovered in the text is God’s passion! HIS passion, his love for good and his hatred for evil. Thank you for making me more aware of his hatred for evil.
It is not an anger that consumes the nation or individual, but an anger that seeks to rescue that nation or individual from that evil and then restore. May I my King have your passion against evil and may it move to do something about it!
Could it be that God’s wrath possibly be motivated by His love for His creation?
Sounds right to me.