The Wrath Of God

 Ezekiel 22:17-31

As children growing up in the church, we were taught to fear God, this same type of fear prevailed in our homes, we learned to fear our parent.  It was a type of fear that fostered respect.   For me it began in the early sixties, the relationship between parent and children was redefined, and the relationship between God and humanity was soon to follow.  In todays society  a child is likely to say to his parents, “If you put your hands on me, I will call 911.”  A parent spanking its child is likely to be arrested and thrown in jail. 

This revolutionary new thought process is love and punishment does not coexist.  Therefore, if I love you I will not punish you.  If I get angry with you and threaten to knock you out, I must come to you later and apologize because the Bible says, “get angry, but sin not.”  No consideration is given to the fact that the use of the whip was Jesus response to a certain situation.  But, if we teach the fear of God, we are afraid people will run from this angry God.  Society at large is suffering from the meaningless use or application of love with the fear of consequences.  Love is the means to achieving our ends. I love you is the epitaph of many committing murders.  

The point that I am trying to stress is that when we remove the fear of the parent from the home, we are more than likely to end up with an amplified problem, a problem that ends with a lack of respect.  When we remove the fear of God from within the heart, we are creating a group of people who have no respect for God or man.  I present to you, many of the younger generation. If love is to flourish and grow stronger there must be a balance between love and hate, good and bad with fear as the gatekeeper, with wrath as the instrument of punishment.  This we will later show is according to the Word of God.  If there is a fear of doing certain things because of the consequences, then this once was considered a healthy response to God and parenting. 

Now consider this.  In the movie, “The Usual Suspects” it was said, that the greatest trick the Devil pulled was to convince the world that he didn’t exist.  A search of the internet opened the doorway to the many comments of those who did not believe in the Devil or God.  The next greatest trick the Devil pulled was to convince church folk that the blessing of God was raining down upon them, thus if we are concentrating on the blessings of God we lose sight of the wrath of God.   When I stop and consider the things that are taking place today, I see  a God that is trying to get our attention.

To deny the existence of God or the Devil does not require a formal declaration of such, a simple denial of the attributes or the powers of God or Satan is all that’s required.  To take it one step further,  to trivialize the Word of God and to use his name in vain.  That in itself is a strange paradox, to deny the existence of one is to deny the existence of the other.  To deny the wrath of God is to deny the love of God.  To deny the existence of Satan is to deny the existence of God. Now, simply put, to define God simply as a God of love is to deny the attributes of God.   Respect for God cannot be achieved by our love for God alone, it is the fear of God that should direct our walk with God.  As David said in  Psalms 86:11,  Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.   A conclusion that I have reached is that there is very little fear of God in the world, in and out of the church.

The Devil and the Wrath of God are two subjects that are rarely talked about in church settings.  This creates a false illusion about the works of God and the purpose of God’s creation.  The false indoctrination began with the simple statement, “God is love” and ends with a conclusion that a God of love would not cast his wayward children into a lake of fire.  God’s love is so great  for his children that he will allow them to make mistake after mistake while gently guiding them back into the right direction.   This is not God's idea of effective parenting.  This is what God had to say about his children when he sought to establish his Will here on earth. Remember we must not divide and misapply the scripture, the process of establishing a Kingdom began in the book of Geneses and the end prophesies in the book of Revelation.

 Ezekiel 22:17-31  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, the house of Israel has to me become dross: all they are bronze, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.

18. Dross. . . Brass--Israel has become a worthless compound of the dross of silver (implying not merely corruption, but degeneracy from good to bad, Isa 1:22, especially offensive) and of the baser metals. Hence the people must be thrown into the furnace of judgment, that the worse may be consumed, and the good separated (Jer 6:29-30).

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Because you have all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. As they gather silver, and bronze, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in my anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in its midst. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be melted in its midst; and you shall know that I the LORD have poured out my fury upon you. And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto her, You are the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.

Eze 22:25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst of her, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst of her.

n. The false prophets have conspired together to make their doctrine more probable.and profitable

Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and the common, neither have they shown the difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

Eze 22:26, Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shown the difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. They have neglected my service.    I am profaned among them--They abuse My name for false or unjust purposes.

Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus says the Lord GOD, when the LORD has not spoken. The people of the land have used oppression, and committed robbery, and have oppressed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. And I sought for a man among them, that should build up the wall, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.

The final declaration:

Therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, says the Lord GOD. 

This was the final declaration to the Children of Israel, the final declaration issued to the church is in the book of Revelation.

Eze 22:31

v23-31 All orders and degrees of men had helped to fill the measure of the nation's guilt. The people that had any power abused it, and even the buyers and sellers find some way to oppress one another. It bodes ill to a people when judgments are breaking in upon them, and the spirit of prayer is restrained. Let all who fear God, unite to promote his truth and righteousness; as wicked men of every rank and profession plot together to run them down.