Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:1) speaks forcefully of God’s wrath: “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name’” (Revelation 14:9-11). The concept of “the wrath of God” is a problem for some people. Because our anger is so frequently sinful, we find it hard to associate anger with God. We should note, though, that even our anger may not always be sinful. Ephesians 4:26a declares, “Be ye angry, and sin not.” We are rightly upset by such things as a government that encourages drug trafficking and, even worse, human trafficking (really, slavery) by failing to enforce effective borders. Someone who is not angry about these activities is either ignorant or inhumane (or some combination of the two). We should work lawfully to end such nefarious practices, motivated by godly wrath. God’s anger is rightly directed against evil; He would not be God if He did not care to oppose wickedness. He is God, and His wrath is good and righteous.