This is a ‘dark’ chapter. The author has a pretty bleak outlook on the state of Israel / Judah, and laments that God has destroyed them in His wrath.
“[The Lord] has bent his bow like an enemy… and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes in the tent of the daughter of Zion; he has poured out his fury like fire… The Lord determined to lay in ruins the wall of the daughter of Zion; he stretched out the measuring line; he did not restrain his hand from destroying… My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city… ‘Arise, cry out in the night…! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.’ ” (v4, 8, 11, 19 abr)
Similar to chapter 1, the author progresses from blaming God, to acknowledging the people’s sin and encouraging them to repent.
Confusion about the wrath of God is quite common: “If God is love, how can He also be wrathful?” It took me a while to reconcile this in my mind as well. Here just are a few of the things that helped me balance the ‘wrath of God’ with the ‘love of God’:
– God is just. Since God is righteous and holy, He must abhor sin and do what is necessary to discourage it. His wrath is directly proportional to sin. Did He punish Judah without warning? No, he gave them hundreds of opportunities to repent and follow Him, plus, He spares some of them to restore later. If God had wrath like a human, He might have destroyed Adam and Eve in the garden, or Noah’s family as well with the flood, and started over completely.
– We should fear God, and His wrath. God promises eternal punishment / separation from Him for those who refuse to repent and follow Jesus as King. He’s not being unreasonable in this; He can’t allow sin into His heavenly presence. Physics teaches that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction; if we push God away, He will push us away because of our rebellion / sin.
– God’s wrath against sin is a display of His love. God, like any caring parent, wants what’s best for His children. Do good parents punish their children out of love or out of anger? Humans are fallible, but ideally punishment is a show of love because we want children to learn from their mistakes (and / or their consequences) and succeed later in life.
– God’s wrath is satisfied in Christ Jesus. Jesus took all of our sin, and it’s penalty of death, upon Himself on the cross. God the Father’s wrath is satisfied by this payment for sin. If we accept Jesus as our Lord and Redeemer, repent of our sin, and follow Him as king, we are no longer under God’s wrath, but His grace / mercy. Note: prior to Jesus’ coming, God’s wrath against sin was sated in other ways (eg. keeping the law of Moses), so there will be people in heaven from before Christ.
I know this has gotten slightly longer than usual, so thank you for bearing with me. We’re still just scratching the surface on this topic, but I hope we can work toward reconciling that our “God of love” is also a “God of wrath”, which is not a theological contradiction. God has always been God, and always will be, for all of eternity – He is unchanging. Our perspectives and understandings of God can change, so I encourage us to dig deeper whenever we struggle to understand God or His actions. Everything will be made perfectly clear, in this life or in eternity, we just need to trust in Him.
Father God, our Gracious and Merciful Lord, we praise Your Loving name. Thank you for helping us to understanding who You are, and Your ways. Thank you for granting wisdom and understanding when we lack it, and bolstering our faith when understanding fails us. We commit to honoring and obeying You always, even though we don’t fully comprehend Your ways. May our obedience draw many more into Your loving presence. In the name of Jesus our Redeemer, who accepted Your wrath for our sin, amen.
~ Conqueror in Training