Featured The Wrath of God

So back on “The Topic That Must Not Be Named” (yes, that was a Harry Potter joke for those that are going to get their panties in a bunch … I liked the first book and thought they went steadily downhill, quitting after the third) there was oblique discussion on the wrath of God and whether or not the Bible actually says God’s wrath was placed on Jesus. This aroused my curiosity to do a word search for “God” and “wrath”. Here are the results:

• [Deu 9:7 NASB95] 7 "Remember, do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness; from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.
  
• [2Ch 24:18 NASB95] 18 They abandoned the house of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols; so wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their guilt.
• [2Ch 36:16 NASB95] 16 but they [continually] mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, until there was no remedy.
  
• [Ezr 5:12 NASB95] 12 'But because our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, [who] destroyed this temple and deported the people to Babylon.
  
• [Ezr 7:23 NASB95] 23 "Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done with zeal for the house of the God of heaven, so that there will not be wrath against the kingdom of the king and his sons.
  
• [Neh 13:18 NASB95] 18 "Did not your fathers do the same, so that our God brought on us and on this city all this trouble? Yet you are adding to the wrath on Israel by profaning the sabbath."
  
• [Psa 59:13 NASB95] 13 Destroy [them] in wrath, destroy [them] that they may be no more; That [men] may know that God rules in Jacob To the ends of the earth. Selah.
  
• [Psa 78:59 NASB95] 59 When God heard, He was filled with wrath And greatly abhorred Israel;
• [Isa 51:20 NASB95] 20 Your sons have fainted, They lie [helpless] at the head of every street, Like an antelope in a net, Full of the wrath of the LORD, The rebuke of your God.
• [Jer 7:20 NASB95] 20 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast and on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched."
• [Jer 10:10 NASB95] 10 But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, And the nations cannot endure His indignation.
• [Jer 25:15 NASB95] 15 For thus the LORD, the God of Israel, says to me, "Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.
• [Jer 42:18 NASB95] 18 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "As My anger and wrath have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My wrath will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you will become a curse, an object of horror, an imprecation and a reproach; and you will see this place no more."
• [Eze 9:8 NASB95] 8 As they were striking [the people] and I [alone] was left, I fell on my face and cried out saying, "Alas, Lord GOD! Are You destroying the whole remnant of Israel by pouring out Your wrath on Jerusalem?"
• [Eze 13:13 NASB95] 13 Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, "I will make a violent wind break out in My wrath. There will also be in My anger a flooding rain and hailstones to consume [it] in wrath.
• [Eze 20:33 NASB95] 33 "As I live," declares the Lord GOD, "surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I shall be king over you.
• [Eze 22:31 NASB95] 31 "Thus I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their way I have brought upon their heads," declares the Lord GOD.
• [Eze 25:14 NASB95] 14 "I will lay My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel. Therefore, they will act in Edom according to My anger and according to My wrath; thus they will know My vengeance," declares the Lord GOD.
• [Eze 36:6 NASB95] 6 'Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel and say to the mountains and to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys, "Thus says the Lord GOD, 'Behold, I have spoken in My jealousy and in My wrath because you have endured the insults of the nations.'
• [Hos 11:9 NASB95] 9 I will not execute My fierce anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, And I will not come in wrath.
• [Nah 1:2 NASB95] 2 A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; The LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies.
• [Jhn 3:36 NASB95] 36 "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
• [Rom 1:18 NASB95] 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
• [Rom 2:5 NASB95] 5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
• [Rom 3:5 NASB95] 5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.)
• [Rom 5:9 NASB95] 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath [of God] through Him.
• [Rom 9:22 NASB95] 22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
• [Rom 12:19 NASB95] 19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath [of God,] for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord.
• [Rom 13:4 NASB95] 4 for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.
• [Eph 5:6 NASB95] 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
• [Col 3:6 NASB95] 6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,
• [1Th 5:9 NASB95] 9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
• [Rev 14:10, 19 NASB95] 10 he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. ... 19 So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered [the clusters from] the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God.
• [Rev 15:1, 7 NASB95] 1 Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, [which are] the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished. ... 7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.
• [Rev 16:1, 19 NASB95] 1 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, "Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God." ... 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath.
• [Rev 19:15 NASB95] 15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.

An observation from all these verses: God’s wrath is directed against those that disobey (both His people and those not his people); God’s wrath is directed against his enemies and the enemies of His people; God’s wrath is sometimes withheld or withdrawn; God’s wrath is never directed against an innocent substitute.

We know that there is an entire sacrificial system to deal with sins, but does anyone have any verse to link that to WRATH? These verses suggest that God’s wrath is only directed against the guilty who are not forgiven.

Inquiring minds want to know.

 

I guess that another way to approach this is:

Why did the animals die under the Law in the OT?

Why was their death required?
What did their death accomplish?
(Does it have anything to do with wrath?)