The Lord's Anger Series

Sermon Title: The Lord’s Anger

Scripture: 2 Kings 24:18—25:7

Theme: God’s anger most often takes the form of allowing our foolish choices in life to bear their bitter fruit. He doesn’t have to send lightning bolts or earthquakes. He simply allows us to make a choice and live with the consequences.

The sermon topic today is probably the most unpopular one in the Bible. We live in a “feely-touchy” time and even many Christians simply reject the idea that God has anger. Many will say that God is a God of love, and He would never punish anyone. Some parents even say that they never punish their children because “they love them too much.” The parents who say that will probably bring up maladjusted children who may have major problems in their lives.

Psychologists tell us that a very natural part of a child’s development is knowing that there are certain boundaries in life and that one might experience pain and suffering if he/she crosses those barriers. They further say that a child who lives with boundaries set by the parents actually feels loved, not hated, by his/her parents.

Regardless of how parents choose whether or not to discipline their children, the Bible is clear that God is willing and able to discipline His children. This discipline is not contrary to His love—it is a profound expression of it.

Hebrews 12:7 says: “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their fathers?”

One extreme is to deny that God would ever punish His children. The other extreme is to focus so much on the judgment of God that God seems to be a tyrant who delights in catching us in sin.

One of the most famous sermons ever preached was by Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards in Enfield, Connecticut on July 8, 1741. The sermon is “Sinners In The Hands of An Angry God.” Edwards describes God’s judgment of sinners in such a dramatic way that people in the audience were wailing and crying out for God’s mercy! Some even fainted.

The Old Testament shows us that God’s anger is sometimes expressed dramatically and powerfully. Sodom and Gomorrah were 2 evil cities filled with people who were guilty of every manner of idolatry and sexual immorality.

God sent Lot to warn them of His impending judgment, but the people refused to listen. In Genesis 19, He warns Lot to leave and then He rains down fire and brimstone from heaven and totally destroys these two cities.

In Exodus 7-11, God inflicts the Egyptians with 10 plagues as He seeks to break the Pharaoh’s will. God had sent Moses with a demand to the Pharaoh to let the Hebrew slaves go. Out of pride and arrogance, the Pharaoh refuses, and God sends suffering upon the Egyptians until the Pharaoh finally relents.

Sometimes, God’s anger is dramatic and explosive and is unleashed on pagan nations as well as Israel. This shows us that God is Lord not only over Israel but also over the nations of the world.

The passage we have read today describes the saddest event in the Old Testament. Babylon is building its empire that will control the entire Ancient Near East. The Babylonians lack one nation—Egypt. Judah lies in the path.

Although Babylon had a strong army, their preference in conquering nations was not to destroy them. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon and the leader of the army, seeks only to occupy Judah peacefully. He only wanted to make Judah a vassal state which meant that the people would not fight the Babylonian army, and Judah would pay tribute money to prevent Babylon from destroying them.

During this time, God had sent Jeremiah the prophet to warn the people of Judah that God’s judgment was coming on them because of their unfaithfulness to the covenant they had made with Him.

Jeremiah’s message is that God will allow Babylon to conquer them and that they should surrender to the Babylonians! We cannot imagine how unpopular such a message would be. It would be like a national leader today who calls upon our nation to surrender to the demands of the terrorists of the world and not to resist them when they enter our nation.

Because of this unpopular message, Jeremiah was hated and despised. He was imprisoned more than once and attempts were made to kill him. It is little wonder that he is called “the weeping prophet.” God called him to preside over the funeral of Judah!

While Jeremiah warns them that resisting Babylon is futile, the advisors to the king of Judah convince him to oppose the Babylonians. Apparently, they have become influenced by a fanatical kind of patriotism which maintained that since the Temple was in Jerusalem and God lived in it, He would never allow the pagans to conquer Jerusalem and the Temple.