#DailyDevotion God is Love. God Is Also A Consuming Fire.
October 1st
Read Deut 3:1–29
Deu 3:1-7 “Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan. And Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. (2) But the LORD said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand. And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.’ (3) So the LORD our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people, and we struck him down until he had no survivor left. (4) And we took all his cities at that time—there was not a city that we did not take from them—sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. (5) All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many unwalled villages. (6) And we devoted them to destruction, as we did to Sihon the king of Heshbon, devoting to destruction every city, men, women, and children. (7) But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as our plunder.
It is reading like this from the Old Testament which oftentimes confuse them and make them turn away from the Holy Scriptures. “I thought God was a God of Love,” they say, “How can He be behind the killing of whole cultures, societies and peoples? Men, women and children it says He commanded the Israelites to slaughter.” Well, yes, it is true, God is love but is not only love. Our God is a God of wrath as well. The Lord had for 450 years after the witness of Abraham to them not laid a hand on them. They sinned and they sinned all the more. They sinned till their sins reached up to heaven itself. So the Lord sent the Israelites to destroy them and wipe them off the face of the map. It is a warning to us and the rest of the world.
You see, for the past 6000 years or so, the Lord has been proclaiming judgment and repentance, law and gospel. Every so often He wipes out a world, a civilization or two as a warning to the rest of us so that we would repent of our ways and trust in Him. Indeed, fairly specifically and systematically, He has messengers into the world for the past 2000 years calling us to repent of our sins and promising forgiveness to all who would trust that their sins are forgiven on account of the sacrificial death of His Son. Yes, this God of wrath so loves us and does not want to pour out His wrath on us that He pour His righteous wrath upon His own self, in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus has indeed suffered the full brunt and wrath which we all deserve, man, women and yes even child.
He did this because He is a God of Love. We know His Love for us only in Christ Jesus. But you see there is this. We have a last day on earth. When we breath our last we are set for judgment. Did we trust in the promise of the Lord, i.e. the free forgiveness purchased and won for us on the cross of Christ or did we decide that we were just fine without Jesus. Then there is the very last day when we are brought to judgment. If you trusted in Christ, you are pleasing to God and nothing you ever did wrong will be brought up. Christ is your righteousness. If you trusted in your own works or other gods, philosophies, or nothing well you will be judged according to your works. I got some bad news. Your works won’t be good enough. In fact everything you did apart from faith in Christ is sin and not pleasing to God. So like the people who were wiped out by the Israelites with utter destruction, you too shall be cast into the Lake of fire, far away from the Love of God, because that is what you wanted. You didn’t want to be with God in Christ Jesus. But also like the Israelites, if you faith and trust is in Jesus, you will enter the new heavens and new earth even as the Israelites entered into the promised-land. There is nothing stopping you from entering it. The Father wants all men to be saved and enter this promised rest. The price of admission has already been paid by Jesus.
Lord Jesus Christ, grant us faith to trust you are the Love of God toward us that we may escape the judgment of the world who refuses to trust in you. Amen.
ailyDevotion God Is Love. He Is Also A Consuming Fire