By: Gen. Jim – 5/15/22
The LORD hates as much as He loves. He gathers unto Himself & casts away as well. He shows pity & mercy at the same time He shows no pity or mercy. Many have a hard time with those “hateful” & “unloving” texts whereby the wrath/hate side of the LORD is revealed.
There is no question that God is love! But dear ones, that “loving” nature of His is worth looking into. In short, His “love” necessitates “hate” (or a softer word would be displeasure).
Does God get mad? Yes! Does God forgive & forget? Yes! Does God punish & damn? Yes!
You see, we have tons (hyperbolic) of Scripture plainly revealing both the Father’s & the Son’s true nature, as well as that of the Spirit of God.
Stirring up/Spreading
Look up the words stir/stirred/stirreth/stirs: “And the LORD of hosts will STIR up a SCOURGE…” – Isa 10:26. The Heb. word – ‘ûwr – means to wake up (lit. or fig.) stir up (‘ûwr) = to be bare, i.e. naked, i.e. to be stripped bare.
We read where the LORD STIRS up both His people & pagans/Gentiles to do His will. It says of Cyrus, king of Persia “… The LORD STIRRED up the (human) spirit of Cyrus king of Persia…” – Ezra 1:1. This stirring was for the purpose of rebuilding the destroyed temple at Jerusalem & the walls around the city. He also stirred up the captive peoples that had been carried away (70 years) to Babylon (some old timers & their children were stirred in their hearts/spirits to go to Jerusalem & start the building project).
Ezra 1:5 says, “Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah & Benjamin, & the priests & the Levites, with all whose SPIRITS God had MOVED, arose to go up…” [see also 2 Chron. 36:22] [see also Jer. 29:10 = after Israel’s captivity of 70 years, Jeremiah prophesied that the LORD would visit them, which He did by using Cyrus as “deliverer”].
There are plenty of instances where the LORD/Spirit stirs/stirred up the hearts/spirits of people for good & not evil. Equally, there are ample Scriptures where He/They stir up the hearts/spirits for evil, e.g. where God stirs up one evil nation against another or stirs up His people against wicked individuals/nations & vice versa. There are those sobering texts where the people of God “… mocked the messengers of God, despised His Words, & scoffed at His prophets, until the WRATH of the LORD arose against His people, till there was NO REMEDY” – 2 Chron. 36:16.
Before God’s WRATH was stirred up, Zedekiah, king of Judah “… did evil in the sight of the LORD his God… & rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar (whom the LORD stirred up to punish Judah) … moreover all the leaders of the priest & the people transgressed more & more, according to all the abominations of the nations, & defiled the house of the LORD which He had consecrated in Jerusalem. And the LORD God of their fathers sent warning to them by His messengers, rising up early & sending them, because He had compassion…” – 2 Chron. 36:14-15
Let it now be said, we are living in a generation, a nation where America has transgressed as much, nay, MORE than ancient Israel. The church is filthy today, therefore EXPECT God to STIR UP wrath against us. Some of us have cried out for years against this rebellion against His laws /commandments /morals.
Proof of His Wrath
“Therefore He brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young… & had NO compassion on young man or virgin, on the aged or the weak; He gave them all into his hand… they burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, & destroyed all its precious possessions… those who escaped… he carried away to Babylon… to fulfill the Word of the LORD…” – vv.17-21.
Do we really think that today’s sinful church/nation is gonna get by? The Spirit has told us time & time again that judgement is coming to America cause America has it coming!!!
Blah, Blah, Blah
We’ve all seen/heard these televangelists quoting their pet “prosperity” texts. I heard one say that it is a sin not to be rich! Really? Just where do we find ONE text declaring this? I’m waiting!
Listen, can we go on IGNORING God’s will & His repeated warnings without suffering terrible consequences? NO! The spirit of communism hangs over this God-forsaken nation like a dark ugly cloud. If we do not repent & turn from our wicked ways, the Lord will allow this evil to rule. While we can rejoice if certain politicians get into office that tend to be “moral & just,” men & women will never take the place of God’s rulership over us.
While Israels’ Chronicles of WOE, GLOOM, & DOOM end in amazing hope, e.g. to return to Jerusalem to rebuild after 70 years in captivity under Cyrus, but death & destruction came first. The hope to Rebuild/Renew/Recover/Restore was given to them. But the generation that rebelled were either killed or taken into exile. How many original Israelites actually returned? Few! Some have, generation after generation, fought to keep our constitutional rights, even these are under threat.
Apropos – It is God who moves, stirs the hearts /spirits /action of both the good & evil to do His will. We, as His people can stir up our hopes for a better nation. Our personal & national conscience can be stirred within us, for or against the Lord/nation. Paul, it is said, had his spirit “provoked (i.e. stirred) within him when he said that the city (Athens) was given (full of idols) over to idols.” – Acts 17:16. Are our hearts/spirits ever provoked over the sinfulness that covers our nation?
Getting Down Dirty!
You think the Lord continues to love us as we live like HELL? Sober up! Jeremiah 16:1-4 need to be pondered. Jeremiah wrote about his people dying GRUESOME death, “…their bodies not buried but shall be like refuse (i.e. CRAP!) on the earth, they shall be consumed by the sword, famine & their corpses shall be food for the birds & beasts.” – Jer. 16:4.
When the SH*T Hits the Fan!
The O.T. holds nothing back. The authors never put lipstick on the pig or perfume on the skunk. No sir! In Malachi 2:1-3 we read: “Listen, you priests – this command is for you!… make up your minds to honor My name… or I will bring a TERRIBLE CURSE against you. I will CURSE even the blessings… because you have not taken My warnings to heart,” vv.1,2. Many think God is only the “Blessing God.” Little do they know (or care) that He is also the “Cursing God.”
Listen to This
“I will PUNISH your descendants & splatter your faces with the manure from your festival sacrifices, & I will throw on you the manure pile,” v.3 (New Living Trans.). The NKJV uses “refuse,” other versions use “dung” (Heb. peresh = “excrement”). The “excrement” could be animal or human or both! Another Hebrew word is pârash, a prim. root; to separate, lit. (to disperse) or fig. (to specify; shew, sting, scatter, i.e. to show the anger of God by throwing “crap” on their faces, to sting them with humility, to scatter fecal matter upon their faces, upon those feckless, i.e. worthless people of God, so called.
Really Dude?
There are armies of preachers & prophets – so called that preach /teach /prophecy false doctrines etc. They try to convince their listeners/viewers/congregation that God is a God of love with zero judgment/punishment. Really dude. Just what Bible do you find these things? The New Queen James Version maybe? Certainly not from the originals.
Isa. 45:7 declares, “I form the light & create darkness, I make peace & create calamity” (“evil” in many versions, meaning (Heb. “Ra”) calamity, i.e. physical evils, never moral evils). Some versions use “woe”/ “chaos.” What? Yes sir, He is in total control (see my articles on Isa. 45:7). Better WAKE UP sleepy hearts, His judgements are upon us!
If?
If you think “evil” is not important, did you know that word is mentioned hundreds of times in both the OT/NT. The most used definitions (Hebrew) are “ra”/ “râ’a'”: “
“ra” = (evil) adversity, affliction, bad, calamity, displeasure, distress, grief, harm, mischief, misery, sad, sore, sorrow, trouble, vex, wicked, worse, wrong etc.;
“râ’a'” (evil) to spoil, break in pieces, make good for nothing, bad, afflict, mistake, break down, do harm, hurt, ill, mischief, punish, vex, do worse etc.
“re’a’” (Chaldean), corresponding. to “râ’a'” (Hebrew) = break, bruise.
So
So, you see, the LORD does bring “evil” upon His enemies because they do evil! So, “woe” is used over 100 times in both the OT/NT. There are several Hebrew words that define “woe” but only 1 in the N.T.
“woe” (Heb.) (most common is ‘ôwy = crying out, lamentation, oh! (Heb., hôwy = ah, alas, O!
“woe” (Greek), ouai = exclamation of grief (or evil). Greek/ “evil”: (several Gk. words can be defined): kakos = worthless (intrinsically), depraved, bad, evil, harm, ill, wicked;
kakōs = badly (physical or moral), amiss, diseased, evil, grievously, sick, sore;
ponēros = hurtful, degeneracy from original virtue, calamitous, diseased, derelict, vicious, facinorous, mischief, malice, devil, sinners, grievous, harm, lewd, wicked.
Fin
This small Bible study should convince us that God loves and He punishes as well. Some punishments are remedial; others are not. Sometimes He punishes partly, other times utterly. He is LORD, He does what is just & right. Jesus used the word WOE when addressing the religious hypocrites in Mt. 23, using the Gk. word ouai, i.e. exclamation of grief – He was not only angry but was grieved in spirit by their hardness of hearts. He used Woe 8 times, pointing fingers, calling names, pronouncing judgment upon them & their generation, AD 70 was fulfillment of His WOE pronouncement!