3D LENSES – Introducing the three dimensions of wrath.
The scariest, most uncomfortable word attached to God is his wrath. In the following sections, I’m going to assemble a 3D lens for us that will hopefully remove some of our very flat and restrictive ways of viewing God’s wrath. God’s desire for justice creates the framework for this lens. The three targets of wrath are: individuals who avoid their calling as deliverers, societies or people who are unjust oppressors and the church when it breaks covenant with God. The context of wrath within that framework of justice becomes a lens to help us see into God’s dimension of activity.
Any time a theological concept is first introduced in the sacred writings, we would be wise to pay attention. If we define wrath simply as a destructive activity, then there are plenty of case studies such as the great flood following the antediluvian period. But the first three actual times wrath is mentioned in direct connection to God’s name are what I will use to construct the 3D lenses for understanding wrath. These three categorical groups, as mentioned in the opening paragraph, will incite wrath when they directly or indirectly (sin of commission or omission) oppress and marginalize people.
CALLING – Our personal calling or identity as deliverers.
In Exodus 4:13-14 God’s personal engagement via wrath is the first “lens” introduced into the divine drama. In this passage, Moses receives a heavenly mandate to deliver a million and half slaves from Egypt, which he tries to pawn off on his more eloquent brother. God’s wrath ignites. Here, God is focused on the individual He has groomed to be a great deliverer, who is now ignoring his divine calling.
Just as Moses, who was called as a great deliverer of slaves, brought in the old covenant, Jesus, who was called as the great Prophet-Deliverer of humanity under spiritual oppression, brought in the new covenant by purchasing it with His eternal blood. Many NT scholars assume that Jesus’ reference to “take this cup from me” was a reference to passages like Jeremiah 25, which speak about the cup of God’s wrath in a global context. But even if we should choose to call it a cup of wrath, the more powerful aspect of this cup is that it was for the sake of covenantal love. That fatal night when Jesus broke the bread and dipped it in the cup of blood-red wine for his disciples, he demonstrated a clear fire escape from our unwitting battle against God and into a trusted place as sons and daughters.
Jesus’ call was to step into the crosshairs of God’s governmental wrath when He experienced death on the cross so that He would be “perfected” (Heb 5:8). But that was really a divine decoy for the sneak attack of heaven’s colossal mercy; meanwhile, the devil got both barrels of the sawed off, 12 gauge shotgun instead. God’s wrath could never harm the Perfect Man, but divine mercy will always catch the devil off guard.
Because Jesus humbly positioned Himself as our Deliverer from wrath, He is therefore worthy to be the Judge of all that stands in the way of friendship with God (Rev 5:5). Each of us, as followers of Jesus’ example, can follow His high call as deliverers of those who are oppressed. We are “a kingdom of priests to God, reigning on the earth” (Rev 5:10).
OPPRESSION – Those who don’t know God and perpetuate injustice on others.
The second occasion where God’s wrath appears as our lens is Exodus 15:7, as God destroys the Egyptians in a final act to free Israel (which represents an entire people group’s escape from slavery). A celebratory song of deliverance by the wrath of God emerges when the Egyptian army is drowned in the Red Sea.
Moses judged Pharaoh’s domain, and Jesus judged Satan’s. Both set the scene for a broader battle: Moses towards taking Canaan, and Jesus towards conquering the kings of the earth (Psa. 2) and destroying Babylon when it drinks from the cup of wrath (Rev 16:19). There, and in Paul’s reflections in Romans 1:18-32, we see that evil is self-destructive, and that God’s wrath is His allowing people to self-involve into that self-destructive process by taking Him out of their picture.
The Old Testament writings of the prophets are rife with allusions to and dire warnings of judgment and God’s governmental wrath for those who oppress the poor. Isaiah 56-58 promises major societal restoration that is contingent upon our care for the poor, marginalized and oppressed. Ezekiel declares that Sodom’s ease was tied to their forgetfulness of the poor, which was their greater sin. In another story, God withheld His wrath after Jonah preached and an entire city repented. Nineveh, the great Assyrian city and enemy of Judah hastily cried out to God for mercy after Jonah’s prophetic début. Jonah was angered, thinking destruction was a better course, but God pointed out to him that 120,000 innocent children and even many animals would have been destroyed.
COVENANT – Our corporate call as God’s people to just community.
Completing our 3D lens, the third time God uses wrath applies to the Bride in covenant. We find this lens placed in Exodus 22:21-24, where the Law clearly warns against oppressing the stranger, the alien, orphans and widows. God clearly says, “You came from such a place of oppression, so don’t fall into the behaviors of the oppressors I rescued you from.” From Moses at Mt Sinai (where the Law was given) onwards, God works with Israel on the basis of covenant relationship, and His wrath kindles when that covenant relationship is broken.
From the advent of the Messiah onwards, the church walks in betrothal covenant with Jesus, and His concern remains critical that we would continue to remember the poor. Instead of being given the Law by Moses, we are given the Holy Spirit, who leads and liberates us to be slaves of love and deliverers of those enslaved to evil. In Matthew 18, Jesus warns his disciples that good treatment of little children is essential to their growth as His leaders. In Matthew 25, Jesus speaks of societal responsibility to care for the poor and equates helping the poor with encountering Him.
Among the NT writers, James has one of the clearest messages to the church community regarding honoring the poor and using mercy to fulfill the kind intentions of judgment. This message is similar to oracles of the OT prophets about Israel caring for the poor and remembering justice as his covenant people or encountering God’s wrath. In James’ letter there are only inferences to this wrath, especially when he says, “the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” (James 1:19-20) This insinuates that God’s wrath can achieve righteousness where humankind’s anger cannot.
LIBERATION –The final intent of wrath.
The fresh words of the NT broaden the heavenly view requiring that God’s people not only be considerate of the poor, as in the OT, but that we all pursue our individual and corporate identity as deliverers of those who deal with any kind of oppression. We are to contend not only with material abjection and sin, but with disease, evil spirits and even death itself, attacking anything that signals the handiwork of the evil one, who is reserved for God’s judgment alone (Jude vs.9).
Stating it more clearly, Paul tells us that God’s wrath is very much God’s job and is absolutely not ours. What is clearly our job is to overcome evil with good. Jesus is the only safe choice for the world as the One to act out governmental wrath, since only He could drink the full cup of God’s wrath…and resurrect in vibrant life! That was His personal, magnificent statement of overcoming evil with good.
The final biblical word on wrath in Rev 19:11-21 offers an essential glimpse into the divine plot of God’s goodness at work through history. Jesus comes garbed in blood to bring liberation from oppressors (blood in this instance meaning life). His followers are clothed in righteousness, which means rightness with creation, other people and especially God Himself. Their righteousness reflects a resurrection body that is like a new skin: one that is not at odds with the earth. Jesus and His saints go out as deliverers of the oppressed, warring with kings and armies and using the Word of God effectively with all flesh that is under the curse.
The birds of the air symbolize Creation as they join in this redemptive wrath. The Word of God that slays is a word of life, and love and peace. The intent is never destruction but liberation, the glorious freedom of the sons of God (Rom. 8:21). Jesus is dealing with a defiant element of humanity that refuses such amazing gifts like a resurrection body: a body he won by overcoming evil with goodness. Our new, uninhibited body that is not in conflict with creation like our current body, which is limited in its ability to serve and protect the earth. (Gen. 2:15 & 3.17b).
So, these three, our divine call, the oppressor, and the covenant of the bride bring the 3D lens of God’s governmental wrath into focus. Now that we can understand when wrath comes, one or more of these three is in play, let’s become a people that is not scared of wrath. Instead, let’s lift our eyes to heaven with confidence in thankful conversation with the Father, marvel at his gentle yet terrifying wisdom and trample injustice wherever it crosses our path!
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