Andy Nagahara
(Psalms 21:8-13)
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What is The Wrath of God?
8 Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies; your right hand will seize your foes. 9 At the time of your appearing you will make them like a fiery furnace. In his wrath the LORD will swallow them up, and his fire will consume them. 10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from mankind. 11 Though they plot evil against you and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed; 12 for you will make them turn their backs when you aim at them with drawn bow. 13 Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength; we will sing and praise your might.
1. Are your enemies God’s enemies? (8)
Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies; your right hand will seize your foes.
2. Your anger and God’s anger (9)
At the time of your appearing you will make them like a fiery furnace. In his wrath the LORD will swallow them up, and his fire will consume them.
for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires (James 1:20)
“You have heard that it was said, `Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.」(Matthew 5:43-45)
3. The God of genocide? (10)
You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from mankind.
4. God’s anger and his almightiness (11,12)
Though they plot evil against you and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed; for you will make them turn their backs when you aim at them with drawn bow.
5. Is your praise fake or real? (13)
Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength; we will sing and praise your might.
Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD: “I will sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.(Exodus 15)
Summary
People in the age of the Old Testament assumed that their enemies were God’s enemies, because they recognized God as their racial god, only for their own. Therefore, when they faced downfall of their country they thought that it was God’s wrath shown to them for their betrayal. Jesus came into the world and reversed this idea. Through the crucifixion, he revealed that the common enemy of God and all human beings is “the original sin”. The depictions ” God’s revenge or wrath” like human emotions seen in the Bible indicate the writers’ cultural and linguistic limit. Nevertheless, it does not mean that the Bible is not the word of God. We must read the Bible based on God’s word and action when he expressed himself as Jesus. Otherwise, we will easily fall into misunderstanding.
For Discussion
1) Why are you (not) scared of God?
2) What is God’s enemy?