THE WRATH OF MAN.

Tuesday 3 December

But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. Genesis 4:5 (NKJV)

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. James 1:19-20 (KJV)

Whenever some people think about God, they imagine Him very old and very angry, with a white beard who takes great delight in their misfortunes and woes. This picture could in actual fact be no further from the truth. The reality is wrath originated with man and not God.

The first time that ‘wroth’ is ever mentioned in the scriptures is when Cain was very angry with Abel his brother in Genesis 4:5. This confirms that wrath was the result of the fall of man and Romans 5:12 tells us ‘through one man sin entered the world and death by sin’. Wrath or anger is therefore a product of sin and something that is foreign to God’s nature. Despite what most people believe, anger is not from God.

Galatians 5:22-23

For the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Agape love and its eight characteristics is the sum total of God’s character. Notice wrath is not on the list.

Galatians 5:19-21 shows us another set of characteristics .‘Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, dolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like’…

Did you see the 10th in the list is ‘outbursts of wrath?’ It tells us wrath is a work of the flesh that came about through the fall of man. The fruit of the Spirit is the antithesis of the works of the flesh.

So why does it seem like God is full of wrath in the Old Testament? There are a few reasons for it. The main one is assumptions of His character based upon a lack of understanding.

The Old Testament saints had no concept of an adversary i.e. Satan. Because of this, they thought everything that happened such as blessings or cursings were both from God. Based on this idea they would apportion blame on God for the bad things and thank Him for the good things.

Another factor was the sin consciousness through the fall, that coloured the perception of even the prophets about the nature and character of God. This is why they originally would give offerings to try to appease God in the hopes that He would spare them in His mercy. They didn’t know who He is.

Think about Adam and Eve. Was God angry with them because they sinned? Did He curse them? No and no. If God had any anger in Him you would think it would have been expressed at that point.

After Adam sinned God had a problem. The nature of sin in man had to be punished, but He didn’t want to punish man because He loves man, so He punished sin in His own body on the cross through the man Christ Jesus as man’s representative and sin bearer. Remember God had this in mind before Adam sinned and man fell.

So when you see scriptures about the wrath of God you know how to interpret them correctly. The word wrath is the Greek is ‘orge’

Romans 1:18 says ‘For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;’

The context here for the word ‘wrath’ is the punishment for judging sin and therefore God directed the judgement towards Jesus. I hope you are catching my flow.

Jesus was the one telling His disciples ‘you do not know what spirit you are of’ when they asked whether they should ‘command fire to come down from heaven and consume them even as Elijah did?’ Jesus said to them ‘the Son of man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.’ (Luke 9:51-56).

Listen carefully. God is not wrathful, angry or destructive. None of those things are a part of His nature. God doesn’t have bipolar. Wrath has never come from God. It came from man.

Jesus Christ is the image of God and it says ‘He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is only good, holy and righteous and He doesn’t change!

APPLICATION

Go through and study the portions of the Bible where it talks about the wrath of man, the wrath of God with this new understanding from the Word of God to help you.