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Wrath of God

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Wrath of God is a term that describes the character of God, which is also love, but “don’t push Him too much” because he has a mad side too.

Wrath of God The Bible presents God as the Creator and Judge . Being who made ​​us, who created us, then only God has the authority and right to decide what happens to us. Therefore, as creatures we have a duty to obey God, to seek out his will and pleasure to comply with that.. Without recognizing and accepting our relationship as creature beneath God the Creator, God will punish us. It is always His right and authority, what is just and right, that God judges His creatures, punishing the wicked and disobedient to His will (Rom. 1:18). For a creature, revenge, is sin, but God comes to injustice with justice, power and might, that being His right, His authority, and His duty, and moreover it is His responsibility. The wrath of God speaks about the outrage of the great King to disobedience and rebellion to His commandments. Men store up wrath against the day of wrath, Rom. 2:5.

Does God get angry? Yes.

John 2:14-17 14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: 15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; 16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise. 17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.

This passage speaks to us of the wrath of God. We declare that God can get angry, very angry. Much more just that God can get angry, the representation here (Ps. 69:9) is that God is consumed with zeal. This is part of his holiness, a deep foundational part of his character. Jesus did not have an out of control fit of anger, but he did what he had to do, what was a proper and “just” response of God to sin, i.e. anger. He could not be in the presence of such horrible sin without opposing it violently.

This anger, revenge, and punishment is always seen as coming out in full form at the end of the world (Matt. 3:7, Luke 3:7, 21:23), but sometimes God cannot wait that long, and punishes immediately (Ex. 15:7) , as in the case of Noah and the Flood , Sodom and Gomorrah ( Deut. 29:23) , etc. . Violations of the law (will) of God is what caused this wrath (Rom. 4:15).

Provoking the Wrath of God.

God is the Creator, and God demands worship from His creatures of His holy being. We are to rejoice en what God is, in His power, in His abilities, in his moral character, and in his grand acts. So a child of God should rejoice in the holy being of God (Deu 32:21 “They have moved me to jealousy with [that which is] not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with [those which are] not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.” (1Ki 16:26, 33; 22:53). The wrath of God is basically about the presence of sin in our lives, “to provoke me to anger with their sins” (1Ki 16:2) “all the evil that he did… in provoking him to anger with the work of his hands” (1Ki 16:7), “wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger” 2Ki 17:11,1 7; 21:6, 15. God created man a moral being, in which he could follow God with his own will, or decide to not to. But men decided to not obey this moral truth of God (Rom 2:8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, 9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil“. compare with Judges 2:20; 2Ki 22:13 “the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us… not hearkened unto the words of this book“) as their life, their hope, and their guide. So in Rom 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.”  So God has put himself against sin and sinners because of their rebellion (1Ki 21:22).

Sin “provokes” God to anger the God. Judges 2:12. But sin is a process of removing the importance and priority of what God is and what he has told us, which afterwards leads to worship of a false god, idolatry even if it is the worship of our will Judges 3:8.

The strongest case of the wrath of God (besides always disobedience in any form) is the lack of faith of Israel when they did not believe that God would open and cleanse the Promised Land for  them (Deu . 9:7). This case has the circumstances of the great works of God right before this, and even the very presence of God coming to earth to ensure these promises to Israel are fulfilled, yet the strong defeat of the Egyptians did not help them believe the Word of God. This lack of faith is really rebellion against God (Deut. 31:27, 32:6). This rebellion was accompanied by grumbling and complaints (Ex. 14:11; 16:2; “Taberah” Num. 11:1-5) , was also a direct denial of the statements of God (Massah, “Is the LORD among us or not? ” Exod. 17:7). Moreover there was also a statement or lack of faith that God would provide for them (“Who shall give us flesh to eat?” Num 11:4, 34). God saw these things as “a provocation” ( Deut. 9:8). There is the wrath of God as a father with his son Ps 89:38, and it is as the angry judge Isa 54:9.

Punishment in Hell.

The Bible proclaims that there is a “wrath of God” (“wrath of the Lamb” Rev . 6:16-17; 11:18), and this anger is upon all who refuse to believe in Jesus (“children of wrath” Eph. 2:3 , 5:6 , Col. 3:6, compare 1 Thess 5:19) to obtain eternal life (John 3:36; Rom. 2:5,8 ). This punishment is as much a product of the life of the person, as God’s reaction against his lack of faith in God’s Word and proclamations (Heb. 3:11, 4:3). The salvation of his soul is a salvation ” from the wrath to come” ( Matt. 3:7 , Luke 3:7 , Rom. 5:9 , 1 Thess 1:10). Revelation talks about God’s wrath poured out upon the inhabitants of the earth (Rev. 15:1). Psalm 21:9 “Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.”

The wrath of God is a fire.

From the Old Testament to the New and later times, we see the representation of this divine anger in the representation of “fire”, which “lights up” (Numbers 11:10, 33, 12:9 , 22:22; Deu. 29: 27, Josh. 23:16, Judges 2:20, 3:8, 6:39 , 10:7 , 2Sa . 24:1) against someone or ” burning ” (Numbers 11:1) or is “burning ” ( Deut. 29:24; “his fierce anger” 1Sa 28.18). The language of Deu. 29:20 is strange,  “The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.” Deu. 32:22-23 “For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell…I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them..”

To deny that God gets angry with sin (Rom. 1:18) and that those who refuse to receive salvation is to fall into a form of universalism, where everyone will eventually be saved, because no one experience punishment. This is not logical, nor is it biblical. Moreover Rom. 1:18 explains that godlessness and wickedness “suppress the truth.” In other words, injustice opposes justice, and therefore the two can not live together but are mortal enemies. God was angry with the Jews because they tried to stop people from entering into salvation (1Thes. 2:16). God has His instruments for this punishment and to effect this destruction, which is the place of hell, and effects of hell. Revelation speaks of “the wrath of God … the cup of his wrath” ( Rev. 14:10; 16:19) , “the great winepress of the wrath of God” (Rev. 14:19; 19:15) , and “seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God” (Rev. 15:7; 16:1) again appears to be an instrument of God (cf. Rom. 9:22 ” vessels” are equipment or instruments) to punish those who enter the misfortune of God’s wrath (Rev. 14:9-10 is ” worship the beast and his image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand.”)

Appeasing the Wrath of God

Even though it is within the right and authority of God to have and show his anger against si, the will of God also enters here in that once under the wrath of God, God is pleased that His children make intercession and plead with God to rescue them from this wrath. This example is very well seen in the case of Moises with the children of Israel in Exodus 32 (v10, 12, 19), and in Num 11:10. In this situation, God wants the children of God to seek to placate the wrath of God through their prayers. In doing this, these intercessors will bring about a relief from the wrath of God, and a blessing upon those rescued. In the process, worship of the moral character of God will be revealed. Exo 34:6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

While part of the trick here is that to placate the wrath of God one has to never get God angry at him in the first place (Lev 10:6). Prevention in provoking God’s wrath is based on listening and obeying God very early, intensely, and pro-actively (Lev. 26:28; Num. 1:53-54; 18:3-5). Specifically, the concept of anathema enters in here. Anathema is something dedicated to God for destruction or for the use of God, but which man takes for himself when he has no right to do so. (Deu. 13:17). For example, Achan in Ai, took what was dedicated by God for destruction (“Why hast though troubled us” Josh 7:25) and the wrath of God ignited against Israel (Joshua 7:1, 26). Other specific sins are mentioned which cause God to get angry (complaining against God Num 11:1; covetousness Num 11:33-34).

2Chr 12:12 And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the LORD turned from him, that he would not destroy [him] altogether: and also in Judah things went well.

If God’s wrath is raised up, one needs to take drastic steps to placate God. “Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away.” Num 25:4. “they raised oer him a great heep of stones unto this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger” Josh 7:26. 

The Wrath of the Devil. In Rev 12:12, it speaks of the great wrath of the Devil that he will show against the sons of God in the tribulation, because he knows that he will have little time after that. Equally Apo 12:17 speaks of this in the context of the wrath of the great Dragon against the woman.

Wasp

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Wasp.

These overgrown relatives of bees are known for their painful sting. Wasps are common throughout the Holy Land. Hornets are a large species of wasp. So savage were these insects when disturbed that Egyptian soldiers used hornets as a symbol of their military might. When the people of Israel were marching toward the Promised Land, God promised He would send hornets before them to drive the Canaanites out of the land (Ex. 23:28). Ancient writers claim that entire tribes were sometimes driven out of a country by wasps or hornets.

Source: [Anon-Animals]

Wild Beast

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The expression occurs twice in the D.V., but much oftener in the A.V., and R. V., where it is in several places a substitute for the awkward “beast of the field”, the Hebrew name of wild animals at large. The first time we read of “wild beasts” in the D.V., it fairly stands for the Hebrew word zîz [Ps. lxxix (Hebr., lxxx), 14], albeit the “singular wild beast” is a clumsy translation. The same Hebrew word in Ps. 49:11, at least for consistency’s sake, should have been rendered in the same manner; “the beauty of the field” must consequently be corrected into “wild beast”. In Is., 13:21, “wild beasts” is an equivalent for the Hebr. Ciyyîm, i. e. denizens of the desert. This word in different places has been translated in divers manners: demons (Isaiah 34:14), dragons (Psalm 73:14; Jeremiah 1:39); it possibly refers to the hyena.

Source: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_animals_in_the_Bible]

Worm

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Worm.

Worms have no backbone, legs, or eyes, although their bodies are sensitive to light and temperature. But they do play a useful role. They improve the soil by working decaying vegetation into the earth and aerating it with their tunnels.

The Bible speaks both literally and figuratively of worms. The word worm also refers to a worm-like creature, such as insect larva. For instance, the palmerworm, cankerworm, and caterpillar of (Joel 1:4) are all caterpillars, which is the larval stage of various moths. (The NKJV, however, translates these as various kinds of locusts.) Grub is another word used for worm in various translations (Is. 51:8), (NEB, NASB). (Job 7:5) and other passages, which refer to infestation of worms, probably mean maggots, the larvae of flies. Decaying matter often teems with tiny worm-like maggots.

Some worms, such as tapeworms and pinworms, are parasites which invade the human body. Thus Herod could be described as “eaten by worms” (Acts 12:23).

The common earthworm also appears in the Bible. (Micah 7:17) refers to worms (snakes, NKJV) coming out of their holes. Perhaps it was an earthworm also that God appointed to strike at the root of Jonah’s shade (Jon. 4:7). The psalmist lamented: “I am a worm… and despised” (Ps. 22:6). Job claimed kinship with the lowly worm (Job 17:14). (Isaiah 41:14) uses “you worm Jacob” as a metaphor of weakness. The Jews associated worms and fire with the place reserved for the ungodly dead Isa. 66:24; Mark 9:44,48.

Source: [Anon-Animals]

See also Lice, Maggots,

Wolf

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Wolf.

Wolves were a menace to the sheep farmers of Palestine. Man’s first dogs were probably tamed wolf pups. Perhaps this kinship enabled wolves to lurk near sheepfolds and gain their reputation for treachery.

Of his youngest son, the patriarch Jacob said: “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf” (Gen. 49:27). The Hebrew word translated ravenous means “to rip and tear,” indicating the bloodthirsty nature of the wolf. Wolves seem particularly cruel because they seek out the weak, old, and defenseless as victims. The flow of blood incites them to rip and tear even more with their powerful jaws.

In many Bible references, wolves represent ruthless enemies. Jesus warned of false prophets “who come… in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly… are ravenous wolves” (Matt. 7:15).

Source: [Anon-Animals]

The Wolf

The wolf is rather larger than our largest dogs, and looks somewhat like them; but he seems more wild, savage and cruel. The wolves go in large companies, making a terrible howling noise; and though they are in general cowardly, yet when they are very hungry they attack large animals, and even men. They almost always go out by night, and the Bible refers to this when it says, “Their horses are more fierce than the evening wolves.” Jacob, just before his death, said of one of his sons, “Benjamin shall raven as a wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at evening he shall divide the spoil.”

There were once a great many wolves in New England and in other parts of the United States, and some are left yet, although many have been killed or driven away. There are still great numbers of them in some countries. In England the month of January used to be called Wolf- monat, or wolf-month; “because,” as an old book says, “people are wont in that moneth to be more in danger to be devoured of wolves than in any season els of the yeare, for that through the extremity of cold and snow those ravenous creatures could not find other beasts sufficient to feed upon.”

A sad story is told of something that happened in Russia a few years since. A woman was one day riding on a sledge with her three children over a lonely road, when suddenly she heard the noise of wolves behind her. She was not very far from home, and tried to urge her horse on, to get out of their reach; but they gained upon her every moment, and were just on the point of rushing on the sledge, when the poor woman, to save the lives of the rest, caught up one of the children and threw it to the wolves. This stopped them but a short time; they devoured it at once and again ran howling after the sledge. The mother threw out a second child, hoping to escape with the other; but in vain. Again the cruel animals were close behind her, and to save her own life, hardly knowing what she did, she threw over her only remaining child. She succeeded in reaching home herself, in safety, but where were her children? She told the terrible story; but while she was endeavoring to excuse herself by telling of her exceeding fright and danger, a man who stood by struck her on the head with an axe and killed her at one blow-saying that a woman who would thus give up her children to save her life, was not fit to live.

The Bible tells us of a time yet to come, when “The wolf shall feed with the lamb.” Perhaps this will be exactly true of the animals in those days, though it now seems so unlikely; but I suppose it means also that wicked and cruel men shall become holy and Christ-like. Then all will be peace on earth, and “none shall hurt or destroy in all” God’s “holy mountain.”

[Cook, Scripture Alphabet of Animals]