Wait until your Daddy gets Home!
My mom put up with a lot - having 3 kids. She has survived the ordeal but not without some scars, and a few gray hairs. I don’t know how many times I was sent to my room and told to stay there until I was 18. I believe I got a few bruises myself.
When my mom had – had it up to here – there was one phrase that let me know I had really messed up. When she “Wait until your daddy gets home!” that, it was the last straw. I had danced on her last nerve and gone over the edge. It never came until after several warnings being given first.
It was going to be the wrath of mom, with punishment administered by my dad. When mom threw her ace. She had to carry through. She could not back down. She had to insist that I be punished. Other wise she would be powerless in the future.
Once you know that punishment is coming, does it bother you? It did me, especially as a kid. I really did not want to die….
The God of the Old Testament seems to act a little like this. Adam seems to start a patter that repeats often. This pattern of warning, and action by God for disobedience starts back in the Garden of Eden. Adam knew not to eat the fruit. When he took the bite, he disobeyed God. The punishment was eventually death, as a consequence of Sin.
The Noah story, the people were wicked and God saved a few righteous and the rest were washed away. Every thing started over.
In Exodus, when the covenant with God is broken, the people experience exile, famine, defeat and death.
People never learn, in all of the Old Testament the wrath of an angry God was so easily forgotten, maybe they thought it will never happen to them. After all, they weren’t that bad.
The prophets were used by God to tell the people they were approaching the last nerve of Divine patience. I believe all of us here know the basics of the prophet’s stories. The format is that the people were loyal and worshipful of God. Time passes and they drift off and get interested in other things.
You know, the have the kids sling throwing competition. The donkey races and of course shopping at the bazaar. And everyone has to make a living and not everyone can afford to take off on the Sabbath.
The people of God drifted and started valuing the other activities more than their relationship with God. Usually the slippage happened over a large of years. At some point God decides that is enough, it is time to correct their actions. He picks a prophet, sometimes the person is ready and other times they resist. Whatever the case they end up doing as God tells them.
They start telling it like it is and it normally makes the people mad. The story continues if you don’t change God’s gonna punish you…..
The prophet proclaims God’s message so long and nothing seems to be happening until the prophet looks like a fool. When people really begin to pay absolutely no attention….. Bang … Wrath …war…. Slavery… punishment….death.
The people are crying out with no recourse, and God is silent letting them wallow in the mess they made for themselves.
Eventually the people turn and again focus on the real God and not the idols in the world around them. But like a soap opera today it is not long until it starts again.
So what do you believe about the God recorded in the Old Testament?
(jealous, strict, hateful, loving) Do you feel there is a different between to God of OT and NT?
I believe that between the old and new Testament there is no difference in who God is and how he acts. God was and still is a loving God. His patience and warnings lasted 100’s of years sometimes. He tried to get attention of the people sometimes through a generation or two before the wrath came down. He wasted a lot of time and breath on the people in hopes that they would remember who God is, what He had done for them. He finally had to keep the punishment that was stated if the people did not change.
As a kid I knew most of the time Mom was bluffing. I knew that in a few hours, and at the worst days, that whatever punishment She gave in anger would fade. I would be out of my room, back watching TV, Riding my bike or going some place that I would never be allowed to go again.
You see my Mom Loves me, I am her son. She does not want me to suffer. She does not want to be thought of as mean. Mom can be a pushover if you use the sad face and the I’m Sorry voice. I can get way with attempted murder.
That is how a lot of people believe God is. Whenever we talk about God these days we stress that God is Love. Some believe that God changed how he acted in the OT. He became a kinder gentler God. And it does not matter what we do, he will love us anyway.
They are wrong! If they believe this there is more than a small chance they are going to know first had that the judgment of God which means Hell.
God has not changed. Our understanding of God has and for some people they still have it all wrong.
I believe that God still will use his power to take action when portions of mankind played on his last nerve. When men commit Genocide, when men ignore suffering, when men start to believe in their own power as supreme.
Look at Hitler’s actions and the resulting wrath of God.
If you want to see the wrath of God in action, turn on any of the news channels and watch the war coverage. Iraq is the area of the world that was called Babylon. Iraq’s army divisions are named for some the kings that God used to Conquer and punish Israel not to mention vast portions of that area of the globe.
Today the direction is going the other way. God is using us to do his work. Sadom is not a religious man. He places himself in the position of King, and tries to be as close to a God as he can make himself. His extermination of people without regard to the holiness of human life tells me where he places himself.
I doubt he sees this war as the wrath of God. But I suspect that some of the people that have been oppressed and barely survived the conditions might see it as a powerful statement from God.
The NT speaks of the wrath of God as being a judgment on the wicked and rebellious people. The ones that refuse to believe in Jesus Christ as the savior of the world.
I believe that God still punishes nations that are disobedient today. God has not changed. In the old and New it is not individuals that are a direct target for God’s wrath. When he selects individuals he is selecting his prophets and empowering them to give the news, good and bad.
If God is using us does that mean we are safe from wrath ourselves?
Unfortunately no. God can use anyone to accomplish his work, so while I hope we are being used because we are righteous I look at our culture and worry.
God is working in our world today, there are signs of Gods existence everywhere. Just nature itself is a proof of a power beyond comprehension and still some people don’t notice.
Not everyone knows that punishment is coming.
Just after Renee and I were married we were waiting at a stop light in our Toyota “something”, with 120K miles. We were waiting alongside a flashy Trans-AM with some Teenager at the wheel. He had eight cylinders; I had four. He had a high performance engine; I had a pathetically powerless engine. I knew full well that as soon as the light turned green, the driver of the Trans-AM was going to accelerate, and then cut in front of me. It had happened too many times before, I knew I did not stand a chance.
Nevertheless, when the light changed, I put my foot to the floor and gave that Toyota gave it all it had. In spite of my best efforts, the Trans-AM eased by me effortlessly. Renee knew exactly what was happening. Turning to me, she said, “You were trying to race him, weren’t you?” I could not deny it. I said, “Yes, and the worst of it is, he didn’t even know it!”
Some people are so comfortable with our world they never even consider punishment. They would fail to notice Jesus on the side of the road with a sign over his head that said who he is. And sometimes the Christians look at people living sinful lives and believe that what they are doing is fun and is pleasure and we even loose sight of the punishment attached. We feel like God has sent us to our room so we won’t have any fun.
There was a news report from Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The news commentator’s brief description of this annual event summed up the spirit of our age. Quoting one young person in New Orleans for the celebration, the commentator reported: “It is sin and degradation, and we love it!”
Many Christians look upon the sinfulness of our culture—with envy. Instead of grieving over the sins of others, as Lot did over the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. We are tempted to envy sinners, as though they are privileged to enjoy pleasures we Christians are denied. And so, we are tempted to believe that God is withholding something good from us. We try to console ourselves with the thought that though we must suffer now, we do so in order to enjoy better pleasures in heaven.
Some of the stuff that this world offers can look really fun, some of it has immediate consequences that we gloss over. Some are emotional and physical, some are deadly, we just forget that sin has consequence both now and eternally.
I am afraid there are going to be a lot of people surprised when it is time go before God and have to account for our lives. Some of us have suppressed the truth and we learned to act well and we are counting on the Loving God that will accept us no matter how we lived, what we did, said and taught. There will be people that will be considered good Baptist, good Presbyterian and even good Methodist that will meet a God. And realize that HE does not match their expectations of what God is like.
We will go expecting a God that has memory problems, or realizes he has miss directed anger and it will be ok…
I am really sorry for you if this is what you believe. It means that you have bought into what our culture is selling. The way everyone is a victim and everyone has rights to do say and act anyway they want.
Our God told us not to eat the fruit of this world. Not to be drawn into IDOL worship that other people find so satisfying.
There is a story about General Robert E. Lee. At one time a young soldier was brought before him because he was charged with some offense. The young man was so afraid that he was shaking. General Lee looked at him and said, "Don’t be afraid son, you’ll get justice here." The young soldier replied, "That’s why I’m shaking, sir."
The punishments I received from my dad. I really deserved them. They were for my own good. I never thought I would really believe that!!!
They went something like this: Dad came into my room, If I was not already crying, I would start. I would declare my repentance for my actions. (It was already too late. ) He would tell me to bend over his knees and to stop fighting. And I got a spanking.
There were times that I did not get what I deserved. There was a time to two when dad came into my room. All the same stuff with my actions and I heard the crack of the belt….. I screamed out but I did not feel the pain. I looked around and dad was snapping the belt against itself. I was not getting what I deserved. My daddy gave me grace because I was his son.
God offers all his children, His Grace as well. For us to really avoid the judgment of our lives we have to realize that we have drifted from God and taxed his plan. And until we repent and accept Jesus and rely on his roughhouses we aren’t in the family, we are not sons and daughters. Once we really accept being in the family we really repent when we do wrong. We share in the work, the chores in the kingdom and grow up and improve our lives.
The biggest difference is that we will notice God’s work on us. The more we try to break the cycle of disobedience the more we grow in the family of God.
ALL GLORY be to God!
