FBC Morning Light (8/4/2024)

Good Saturday morning, people of faith.

Nahum’s Warning of God’s Jealous Wrath

Our reading this weekend is in Zephaniah chapters 1 -3, Psalm 105, and then Nahum chapters 1 -3, and I'm going to be looking at Nahum chapter 1 as our primary focus. Let's start in verse 2. It says, God is jealous and the Lord avenges.

The Lord avenges and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserves wrath for his enemies. Interesting, the word wrath there, we often think as Christians that his wrath was satisfied on the cross, and we're going to talk about this in a little bit here.

Verse 3 says, the Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. The weather is at the Lord's command.

You could read that, you could interpret that that way, all right? He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and he dries up all the rivers. Bashin and Carmel wither, and the flower of Lebanon wilts. The mountains quake before him, the hills melt, and the earth heaves at his presence.

Yes, the world and all who dwell in it. Who can stand before his indignation? So as we see all of the great and mighty powerful things, or who God is in being great and mighty, who can stand before his indignation, it doesn't answer it, but it's very much implied.

There is no one who can stand before his indignation, and yet he reserves wrath for his enemies, and so the question is, who is it for which this wrath is reserved? Well, if we jump to chapter five of the book of Romans, it says in verse one, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, right?

And it talks in chapter five here about what God has done, it says, but God in verse eight says, but God demonstrated his own love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Then verse nine, much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

So the question becomes, have you been saved so that you are saved from that wrath that is going to be from him? And then if you're wondering whether or not all wrath has been satisfied on the cross, I'm going to have to say, sorry, but no.

Chapter 16 of the book of Revelation says, then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth. I believe that to be a future event.

God's wrath is stored up, as it says back in chapter two of Nahum, he says, and he reserves wrath for his enemies, those who are in open rebellion against God. You think of this world and what has happened recently with the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and how people from all over the world were watching people in open rebellion against God, God and against his order of things and making a mockery of sacred things.

Do you think that God is going to forget and just let that go? No, there is wrath that has been stored up for those who are in rebellion, yet for those who have placed their trust in Christ, that wrath is no longer a threat, that we now have peace with God through what his son has done.

And so the question for each of us today is, are we ones for whom wrath has been stored up or are we ones for whom God's wrath has been satisfied in our Lord Jesus Christ? For those of us who have placed our trust in Christ, listen to verse seven of Nahum chapter one says, the Lord is good, a stronghold in day of trouble, and he knows those who trust in him.

Hopefully he knows you today. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you so much that the wrath that was once stored up for us, that you snatched us away as one who's just saved from the fire, that we do not need to endure that wrath because there is no one who can stand before your indignation, that we all guilty, though we are all guilty, we have placed our trust in you as you have saved us and made us a new creation.

It's in your son's name, Jesus, we pray, amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.