The Wrath of God Against Mankind? – Part 2

Explanation/Summary:Some at this point may wonder, what does the preceding have to do with God seeming to be angry at the corruption of the Israelites.  Well, it is wonderful to know that we have some attributes of God, but of course not all, God is God and we are his creation, his ways are greater than our ways and his ways are higher, much higher, supremely, infinitely higher than our ways. Because He is superior, God has a different standard of Holiness and Righteousness and Love. These higher ways would create anger in God, but it is a Holy Anger, which is similar to a gifted human attribute “righteous indignation: a strong sense or feelings of anger against injustice, moral corruption or any perceived unrighteousness when it is contemplated or encountered”. 

And in this case, it has been here raised by the inquiring mind of the submitter of this question. God was teaching it to Moses, who had seen how God delivered the people and how with undeniable miracles (plainly observed by all) brought forth the people from the land of Egypt from slavery. Even though Moses pleaded for God to save the people and not destroy them, God knew that in order for Moses to lead the people correctly, he had to have a sense of the Holiness of a loving God and that when that Holiness is cast down, and made light of, a spirit of anger, motivated by a strong and ever increasing gratitude for God in light of the wondrous works he has performed for the children of man, to quote the 107^th Psalm. 

Isaiah Chapter 6, states “1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2 Above it stood the Seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” (KJV)

It is very interesting, that of the many attributes of God only one of his attributes (though all are important) “Holiness” is called our three times, as the scripture recounts.  Revelation 4:8 states, “Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.” (NLT) This is another look into the very Heavens of God, and the Angelic beings are repeating the Holy nature of God three times. This is said to be the only attribute of God repeated three times in the bible. This would signify that there is something God wants to convey to us concerning this attribute, which he alone can possess and rightly convey. 

Though we are sanctified (set apart as or declare holy, consecrate) by God, we can never claim the attribute independent of God or of our own will. The presence of the Holy Spirit sanctifies man, as it did Moses and the entire camp of the Hebrews in the wilderness, as it did sanctify even the Holy Mountain, and as it does sanctify believers today. The entire biblical record could be seen as the transcript of God, teaching us, conveying to us, in our progressive sanctification, how to interact with the triune God, the only true God, a Holy, Holy Holy God.  

Though men may try, independent from God, we cannot even explain God’s Holiness.  If we are speaking, preaching or teaching on it, we would do best to stay in the scriptures with respect to God’s Holiness. As we did from the Moses account, we see from Isaiah’s encounter of being in the presence of God, how grave, our sin appears in the light of God’s Holiness.

Isaiah 6, 3And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. 5Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. 6Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 7And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. (KJV)

Christ’s death, resurrection, and his ascension into heaven, did this similar purging or purification of our entire body, (for those who are professing Christians), removing our sins, as we live in God’s presence everyday of our lives. This removing is not preventing us from ever sinning, but removing or cleansing us of sin and lessening sin’s hold on our will. The removal of sin totally comes at a point of complete sanctification, which many theologians state occurs just before death, while some say at death and still others say at the rapture and the return of Christ to claim us and give us a glorified body, which cannot sin.

Yes, this body will surely die (save Christ’s return), because of the unholy nature of sin, and our fallen status in this world. But God has prepared us a new body, a body free of sin and death, one which we can’t contaminate again by sin. Moses was playing the role or the representation of the Messiah, the Pre-figured Christ, the propitiation for the sins of the Jewish people, as Christ was the propitiation for our sins (those of the whole world). 

Moses was acting as a type of savior. Still plenty died that day for what was done by the people in the camp, even as ordered by Moses, driven by the righteous indignation, (righteous anger) he had, which was a zeal for God, from an understanding of the Holy, Holy, Holy attribute possesses by God alone. Because he had literally seen God (at least the image he was allowed to see without perishing). He was even more incited when he reviewed what God had done for the people and what he promised to do for them.

God told Moses that he would send a Messiah to the nation and to all mankind, to save us from the deadly reality of sin. Even the cure was sin, for Moses ordered the destruction of the unrepentant, to save the nation and to prevent God from destroying all of the people, as the scripture states, he had told Moses, he proposed to do. This act was similar to removal of the cancerous cells, so that the good ones could survive. In the Nation of Israel, the tribes entering the Promised Land, agreed, that if one tribe, committed sins which would bring God’s wrath on the whole nation, they would join together and eliminate the aberrant tribe. And the history of the Nation shows, just that. 

Isn’t it wonderful and a holy blessing, that we have a savior in Christ?  The promised Messiah has come. No longer does one group need to feel that they must kill or hurt their brothers and sisters to defend the Holiness of God and his Commandments. With the advent of Christ, came “Peace on Earth and Good will towards man”, God declared, through the angelic chorus at Christ’s birth. Now you see what it means, no longer will you need to destroy your brother to survive. 

God has made a covenant with man and provided a propitiation, an atonement, a cure for sin, Jesus the righteous, his death and his Blood paid all penalties for all the sins of those who accept him and believe that he is the Savior of the World, sent by God for that express purpose and that he is the Son of God and that the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit (1 X 1 X 1 = 1 Holy, Holy, Holy Supreme God).  

The Gospel (the Good News) is certainly that and much, much more.  It is a world of Goodness in itself.  The plan of creation, the mystery of all mysteries, solved in the person of Christ, God’s Holiness is so Holy, that no one can stand, in the light of it. The whole world was destroyed once (all put a few, a handful of the people in it, Noah and his family survive) because of sin. So it is clear that the Holiness of God required a propitiation to resolve, the debt of sin we all own, in our lives (big and small); but no sin is too small, as to not require forgiveness or repentance or penalty, and none so proliferated as to escape his great grace if they are repented of. 

When we understand the Holiness of God, we see the love of God, because it pleased God to make Christ, his Son, the penalty for all sin, so that mankind, no longer has to die in the same manner as in the past; that is with no redeemer, with no one to heal their fallen condition of sin, lust and depravity.

Christ came into the world and now sits at the right hand of God in heaven and the Holy Spirit was given after Christ’s ascension, to live within us and to daily keep us from falling, if we belong to him.  So no matter how many people have been lost, no one reading this or in the world today needs to lose their eternal life for sins committed or for crimes done, there is a balm in Gilead, as the Scriptures state, that will heal the sin-sick soul, Jesus the Christ is the cure for all sin. 

No, God is not angry with mankind, he never was. But sin took an occasion and killed men by the billions, which it will continue to do, if men do not take hold of Christ, the propitiation for our sins, the peace for each individual which our Holy, Holy, Holy Triune God requires. 

Will you lift up Jesus, will you take the cure the sacrifice made by God’s own Son, which bought and paid for all your sins, or would you die as many have and do continue to in this world. Will you a sinner approach a Holy, Holy, Holy God on your own record of good you believe you have done? Or will you run and sin as before, and die in your sins? Or will you let the Savior in, to cure you of all, as he was born to do? Christ is mighty to save, he can save many times more, than those who died because of the immorality of sin, he is here for you now, and he will save you.  Just lift him up, confess him, repent, be baptized and freed from the cruel death without a savior.

Glory be to the father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.God is not angry, He is a just and true God and will forgive all of your sins, if you trust only in Jesus Christ and in nothing else. Christ is Savior of the world. He can save you from the wrath of a Holy, Holy, Holy God; in whose presence sin may not reside.

Such wrath may seem as anger to some, but his foretelling of his promise and his providing a Savoir, shows that God loves the World, so much so, that he gave his only begotten son, that we should not perish but have eternal life.  Welcome to Life with such a Holy, Holy, Holy and Benevolent God.  Welcome all you seekers, to Life with God, Lived in the power of God, in his indwelling Spirit, sanctified by the sacrifice of Christ, Blessed of God.