Believers and Destruction

After the incident with the golden calf, Moses had to meet with the Lord.  During that we are told,

Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord.  And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.  Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 34:5-7).

And indeed we love to repeat that first part.  Our God is slow to anger and abounding in love.  But what about when he’s reached the end of his patience?  With the Holy Spirit let’s take a look at when the Lord lashes out.

Can the Lord be angered by his own people?  Of course he can- it is rare, but when the wickedness of believers reaches such a state, the Lord does not sit silently.  When warning Israel he explained,

When you tell these people all this and they ask you, “Why has the Lord decreed such a great disaster against us?  What wrong have we done?  What sin have we committed against the Lord our God?” then say to them, “It is because your fathers forsook me,” declares the Lord, “and followed other gods and served and worshiped them.  They forsook me and did not keep my law.  But you have behaved more wickedly than your fathers.  See how each of you is following the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying me.  So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor” (Jeremiah 16:10-13).

We read this sort of thing and think that’s an Israel problem- but if you live in a “Christian” country, know that God watches how your fellow “believers” (true or otherwise) behave.  Thus saith the Lord,

My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes.  I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols (Jeremiah 16:17-18).

The Lord repaying double?  Is such a thing possible?  Consider this: God brought Israel to the Promised Land- he parted the waters (twice) for them to be able to walk to their destiny.  He subdued multiple nations under them.  And then, because of their sin he took it all away.

As the survivors of the destruction of Jerusalem and their deportation to enemy nations, the people of God looked back on what they lost.  We read,

How the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion
With the cloud of his anger!
He has hurled down the splendor of Israel
From heaven to earth
He has not remembered his footstool
In the day of his anger.
Without pity the Lord has swallowed up
All the dwellings of Jacob;
In his wrath he has torn down
The strongholds of the Daughter of Judah.
He has brought her kingdom and its princes
Down to the ground in dishonor.
In fierce anger he has cut off every horn of Israel.
He has withdrawn his right hand
At the approach of the enemy.
He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
That consumes everything around it (Lamentations 2:1-3).

When God moves in anger, his wrath is terrifying.  But was the Lord wrong?  Did not Israel sin so constantly as to have earned their punishment?  And when it all comes down- then what?  That’s what Moses wanted to know.  When the young nation was still in the desert they initially snubbed the land of Canaan, the land promised to them.  The Bible records,

The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt?  How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?  I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they” (Numbers 14:11-12).

But Moses wouldn’t take that deal and argued back:

Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it!  By your power you brought these people up from among them.  And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it.  They have already heard that you, O Lord, are with these people and that you, O Lord, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  If you put these people to death all at one time, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, “The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath; so he slaughtered them in the desert” (Numbers 14:13-16).

Laying down a strong case, Moses then used the words God said to him:

Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: “The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.  Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”  In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now (Numbers 14:17-19).

Moses pointed out that- despite deserving no mercy- if the Israelites were destroyed the nations would see God as either a liar, a falsehood, or too weak to achieve his goals.  God relented, “The Lord replied, ‘I have forgiven them, as you asked’” (Numbers 14:20).  However, he could not let Israel go unpunished.

Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, no one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times – not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers.  No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it (Numbers 14:21-13).

And so a generation died in the desert before their children received their inheritance.  Our nations’ evils do not go ignored, my friends.  God stays his hand as long as he can, but his patience has limits.  God explained,

You have neither heard nor understood;
From of old your ear has not been open.
Well do I know how treacherous you are;
You were called a rebel from birth.
For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath;
For the sake of my praise I hold it back from you,
So as not to cut you off.
See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this.
How can I let myself be defamed?
I will not yield my glory to another (Isaiah 48:8-11).

When it comes to national sin the only thing holding back the Lord’s hand is his own image.  This might seem selfish, but would you rather suffer as Israel has?  Would you rather see anti-theists justified as they mock the Lord who saved you?

By why should we care?  If the end comes, those of us in Christ are going to heaven anyway.  Go ahead Lord and bring the fire- show the wicked what-for!

People have heard my groaning,
But there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my distress;
They rejoice at what you have done.
May you bring the day you have announced
So they may become like me.
Let all their wickedness come before you; deal with them
As you have dealt with me because of all my sins.
My groans are many and my heart is faint (Lamentations 1:21-22).

But God says,

Woe to you who long
For the day of the Lord!
Why do you long for the day of the Lord?
That day will be darkness, not light.
It will be as though a man fled from a lion
Only to meet a bear,
As though he entered his house
And rested his hand on the wall
Only to have a snake bite him.
Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light-
Pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? (Amos 5:18-20)

Maybe in your own distress you have forgotten others.  Jonah was disappointed when the Lord held back his destruction of Nineveh, but God said,

But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well.  Should I not be concerned about that great city? (Jonah 4:21)

I remember once I was talking about the coming end and how at the time I welcomed it, but a friend of mine reminded me that he had a child- what about his kid?  Everyone will lose when destruction from the Lord comes.  After all, Jesus taught,

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.  He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous (Matthew 5:44-45).

Perhaps when desolation comes on your land the Lord will take you swiftly- but perhaps he won’t, and you’ll survive to feel the great loss of that day.  Then you will lament,

I am worn out from groaning;
All night long I flood my bed with weeping
And drench my couch with tears (Psalms 6:6).

The rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous.  May that be a warning to you.

Nevertheless, our God is merciful.  As it is written, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).  God is holding the door open for us to repent.  Do not tarry if you are still without Christ.  We are told, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.  The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare” (2 Peter 3:10).  So repent now, before it’s too late.

“Even now,” declares the Lord,
“Return to me with all your heart,
With fasting and weeping and mourning.”
Rend your heart
And not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
For he is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger and abounding in love,
And he relents from sending calamity.
Who knows?  He may turn and have pity
And leave behind a blessing-
Grain offerings and drink offerings
For the Lord your God (Joel 2:12-14).

May the Lord be praised!