God's Wrath

In our sermon today, there was something that struck me. The pastor was talking about our response to the message of Jesus. We can ignore it, avoid it, embrace it, fight against it, rebel, etc. We all know the responses.

But a revealing idea was shared.

If we choose to continually fight against, oppose, and reject the message of Christ, it is referred to as slowly filling up the cup of wrath: "In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last." (1 Thessalonians 2:16).

I never thought of this, but the pastor said sometimes God's judgement/wrath is expressed now. He doesn't always wait for Judgement Day. Sometimes, he gives us over to what we have chosen.

The example we see in the Bible is Pharaoh in Exodus. Throughout the whole book, God reveals miraculous things through Moses, but over and over again it says Pharaoh hardened his heart. He continually rejected God. And eventually, it changed to "God hardened Pharaoh's heart."

Pharaoh had filled up his cup of wrath to the brim so God went ahead and gave him over to it. Whereas usually God takes our cup of wrath when we ask Him to, God make Pharaoh take his own.

I guess it makes sense. Sometimes we get exactly what we ask for. If we keep rejecting and opposing God - we may just see His wrath now.