God is good all the time and he discipline his people with his immeasurable and unconditional love whenever they walk in disobedience.
In the Old Testament, God's wrath upon unrepentant individuals and nations was manifested through various forms of direct divine judgment and consequences of their sinful actions. These consequences were not arbitrary but a just response to ungodliness, unrighteousness, and a hardened heart that refused to turn back to God.
Specific manifestations of God's wrath included:
- Physical Destruction: God often brought about the complete physical destruction of individuals, cities, or nations. Examples include the global flood in Noah's day (Genesis 6-9), the fire and brimstone destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19), and the defeat and killing of 185,000 Assyrian soldiers by an angel in one night (2 Kings 19:35).
- Plagues and Disease: Divine judgment was often in the form of plagues, sickness, and disease. For example, a severe plague was sent upon the Israelites for complaining about food (Numbers 11:33), and snakes were sent to bite them for a similar reason (Numbers 21:4-9).
- Military Defeat and Captivity: For nations and Israel when they were disobedient, God's wrath often meant being conquered by enemies, experiencing war, and going into exile or captivity (e.g., Israel's captivity by the Babylonians, 2 Chronicles 36:16-17).
- Famine and Withholding of Blessings: God would at times withhold natural blessings, such as rain, leading to famine and hardship as a consequence of unrepentance (Deuteronomy 11:17).
- Spiritual Separation and Hardened Hearts: A more subtle but profound form of judgment was the spiritual separation from God, where He "gave them up" to their own sinful desires and a depraved mind (Romans 1:24, 26, 28). This resulted in a hardened heart, making it increasingly difficult to repent and return to Him.
- Societal Decay and Futility: Unrepentant sin at a national level led to moral corruption, social injustice, and a general sense of futility and misery in the land (Romans 8:20; Proverbs 14:34).
The Old Testament consistently emphasizes that God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and His primary desire in judgment was to call people to repentance so that they might turn from their ways and live. However, for those who remained stubborn and refused His mercy, the full weight of His righteous judgment was the consequence.
And in connection to this present generation how do we live as children of God, are we still UNREPENTANT individuals or REPENTED individuals?
We have to know the truth and the truth will set us free in the name of Jesus Christ.
Who is Jesus Christ?
Hebrews 3 will give us a simple knowledge of who he is and how important is it for us to know about him.
Jesus Greater Than Moses
3 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. 3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,”[a] bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.
Warning Against Unbelief
7 So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today,
if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your
hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during
the time of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested and tried me,
though
for forty years they saw what I did.
10 That is why I was angry with that generation;
I
said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
and
they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They
shall never enter my rest.’ ”[b]
12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. 15 As has just been said:
“Today,
if you hear his voice,
do
not harden your hearts
as
you did in the rebellion.”[c]
16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
Our unbelief to Christ Jesus will lead us to disobedience to our Heavenly Father. And as we all knew how God will discipline his people from the very beginning. His love never changed. He is the God of Abraham, God of Jacob, God of Moses and the God of all generation(Hebrews 13:8 ). In our generation we have the most powerful savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Mighty God himself is with us (Isaiah 7:14). His presence is not to condemn us but to call each one of us to come together in repentance before him so we may able to hear voice and be saved against his wrath in due times.
The sign of his second coming is here, war, famine, calamities; earthquakes and strong typhoons. As it is written, Matthew 24:3-8
3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately.“Tell us,” they said, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that you are going to appear as king, and that the end of the age is upon us?”
4 “Watch out,” replied Jesus. “Don’t let anyone deceive you. 5 You see, there will be several who will come along, using my name, telling you ‘I’m the Messiah!’ They will fool lots of people. 6 You’re going to hear about wars, actual wars and rumored ones; make sure you don’t get alarmed. This has got to happen, but it doesn’t mean the end is coming yet. 7 Nations will rise against one another, and kingdoms against each other. There will be famines and earthquakes here and there. 8 All this is just the start of the birth pangs.
As we can see so clearly it is now happening in our present generation. Be watchful for disobedience to God will bring us destruction, but obedience bring glory to Him!
John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
W-rong doing God's mighty response
R-epentance is a must in the name of Christ Jesus
A-n extreme anger of God
T-urn your ways to God/To live away from sin
H- ave faith and obey God's commands
What shall we do?
REMEMBER:
Acts 2:38 - And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
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