People Don't Listen

The wrath of God gets a lot of press by unbelievers and atheists. They like to claim that God is a petulant child, demanding, vengeful and sadistic. But they do so by cherry-picking ONLY the portions of the Bible that show God's wrath exhibited on unrepentant sinners. As if God in heaven just looking for someone to kill. What Bible critics fail to point out, however, is the often-repeated timeline, of God blessing and creating for mankind, mankind rejecting God's rule and law over His creation, mankind suffering the effects of ignoring that reign and law, God sending messengers to correct and rebuke them, men hardening their hearts and eventually paying the long-term costly price. Such is the case at the end of Judah's dynasty in the last chapter in 2 Chronicles:

The Chronicler does not want us to forget that while Nebuchadnezzar may have indeed laid a heavy punishment on God's people, it did not come without warning.

2 Chronicles 36:15–16 (ESV) The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. 16 But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against his people, until there was no remedy.

And the end of Judah is on display with saddening detail as all they had once enjoyed from God was not handed over to the foreign enemies against them:

2 Chronicles 36:17–21 (ESV) Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand. 18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. 19 And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels. 20 He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, 21 to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

What is Israel's end a picture of? It is a picture of this: Men do NOT listen to God. Oh, I know we think we do. But really, more often than we realize, we listen to a "god" of our own making. One who agrees with us and looks past our sins and really hates the sins in others. But the objective and certain God of the scriptures is unchanging and holy. He does not bend to our ideals and His reign and rule are unbreakable. We disregard Him at our own peril. 

So we have this planet covered in turmoil. Men hating each other, nations killing / enslaving each other. People attacking each other, even creation itself is at odds with peace. Why? Because of sin. And Israel had it all. They had the visible presence of God on the mountain and in the Temple (at Solomon's dedication). They saw the miracles, they were given the clear Law from heaven, and they were also tremendously blessed. Remember when Solomon made silver as common as stone in Jerusalem? What does Israel prove? Men do not turn to God and do not listen to God no matter what God provides for them. 

Our condition is far worse than we can imagine. We are utterly powerless to follow the Lord's ways, and no amount of external evidence or blessing will make set our hearts on Him. 

This is the reason the Gospel is the POWER of God unto salvation. The message that changes us from the outside is this: God, in Christ, has born our punishment and carried our curse upon Himself. He is the one who sets us free from our bondage to sin and waywardness. Without Him, we can do nothing Godward. But because of Him, our internal navigational compass is changed, and we are saved from the wrath of God. 

Paul expounds this beautifully to the Thessalonians: 

1 Thessalonians 1:4–5 (ESV) For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction... 9 you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.