There are differences of opinion about the woman sitting on
the beast in Revelation chapters 17 and 18.
Verse 8 of chapter 17 tells us, “The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings
of the earth." Some believe the
city is Rome and that this section of Revelation has already been
fulfilled. Whether this is true or not,
there is a great foretelling here of justice, judgment, and the outpouring of
God’s wrath. This blog entry looks a
little deeper at God’s wrath.
Before we
do that, I think it is important to answer a very fundamental, yet deep
question. Why does God allow evil to
exist? A short answer is that He has
decided that it is more important for us to have freedom of choice than it is
for there to be a complete absence of evil.
In the mysterious mix of God’s sovereignty and our free will, He has
given us the freedom to love Him or not, to choose to follow Him or not, to
open our hearts to His love or to do evil.
But He must
respond to evil. And we too have a
universal response when we see something evil perpetrated on another. We desire justice. So does God.
What if God never responded to evil?
That is unthinkable.
Because He
is so good and all-knowing, He perceives things as horribly evil that we don’t
even notice. This is part of why we
sometimes think His judgment is too harsh.
We are tempted to think that God is not completely good. This is a lie, one that was first told on
earth in the Garden of Eden. Let us use
the truth of God’s Word to utterly destroy this lie in our hearts and minds. God’s wrath is completely good and completely
righteous. It is an expression of His
perfect love.
Scripture
tells us that the outpouring of God’s wrath has occurred in the past, that it
is an ongoing part of His interaction with mankind, and that it will result in
the absolute removal of all evil from our presence in the future.
Thanks be
to God that we are safe from His wrath.
Romans 5 tells us, “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's
wrath through him! … Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through
our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
Those who trust in Jesus should trust that
they are safe from God’s wrath. But for
those who do not trust Him, Hebrews 10 tells us there is “only a fearful expectation of
judgment and of raging fire that will consume
the enemies of God.” And … "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
God’s wrath
is …
To be feared
Coming
Sure
Good
Let us know
this. Let us be moved in our hearts for
those who don’t. And let us speak. Let us speak the very words of God in love, shining
the light of truth on what is otherwise a very dark and fearful expectation of
judgment.
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