"God's Awful Wrath" December 28 Reading: Revelation 16-17

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Today's Reading - Revelation 16-17


Background


This is the end, the very end. Seals have been opened and trumpets have been blown, but now the final bowls of God's judgment will be poured out on the earth in chapter 16 and God'sfinal judgment on the sinful world economic and religious system will commence in chapter 17.

God has judged the world before - the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Destruction of Jerusalem. But this is the final, cataclysmic judgment of God on this sinful world and it is awful and terrifying.

Devotional - God's Awful Judgment 

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a Living God.

Mankind has treated God with disdain, disrespect, and disregard since the Garden of Eden. He has loved us and worked to redeem us and draw us to himself, but we have rejected him and walked in sin. God can do no more than he has done to show his love but mankind continues to flaunt God's love and reject his grace.

But one day that will end. Humanity mistakes the mercy and forbearance of God as weakness, as if his slowness to impose judgment is a sign he is unwilling to do so. No, my friend, it is coming. A great tribulation is coming on earth when God will show this world that sin cannot and will not be tolerated! Bowls of God's judgment, described in Revelation 16, will be poured out on the earth and it will be destroyed. The economic and religious systems of this world, based on lies, on greed, on lust and on rebellion against him will come crashing down in an instant.

God is not to be treated lightly.

But remember this, as you ponder God's awesome, awful judgment on the world. As he pours out bowls of wrath on the earth and brings the world system to its knees, he is preparing the earth for his own reign of righteousness, peace, and glory. He is not judging the earth simply to destroy it, but to make it ready for the glory that lies ahead.

God's wrath always presages his glory. God poured out his wrath on Jesus so that he could display his glory in us, saving us by grace and making us fit for eternity with him. God will pour out his wrath on this earth to prepare the world for his millennial reign. He will finally pour out his wrath at the Great White Throne so that he can his redeemed can enjoy eternal rest unhindered by sin.

Even the wrath of God works his glory in this world.

Father, I thank you that your wrath against my sins was poured out on Christ. May we proclaim your love so that many may know Jesus and experience your glory, not your wrath. 

Think and Pray


Thank God for Jesus, who absorbed the wrath of God against you so that you could experience his glory!
Are you actively proclaiming the love of God to a world that faces his wrath?

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