Tuesday, March 5

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Leviticus 10:1-3

Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke of when he said: “Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.

When I was about 13 years old I spent most of one summer building model airplanes. Some of you might remember those plastic model kits where you glued together the pieces in a step-by-step process, then attached the decals, then painted the model to look like a World War 2 fighter plane. As I recall it took 4 or 5 days to build a plane and by the end of the summer I had 8 or 10 on my shelf. 

But somewhere along the line, probably from a vacation that took us through South Carolina where fireworks were legal, my brother and I had a stash of firecrackers. One day we decided we were bored with the model planes and we came up with what we thought was a great idea. We set up a card table in my bedroom, found some of my Mom’s dinner candles and some matches, got the planes and firecrackers and went to work. 

The idea was to attach firecrackers to the model planes using hot wax from the candles. Then, once we had all the explosives in place, we would go out in the yard and light the fuses and watch as the carefully crafted model planes were blown to smithereens. It was great boy-fun!

But then, as you might have guessed, something went terribly wrong. Our youngest brother, John, who was only about 2 years old at the time, toddled into the room to watch what his big brothers were doing. Naturally, his attention was drawn to the flame of the candle burning on the card table. While we were engrossed in our task, John picked up a firecracker and managed to light the fuse in the candle. I heard the fuse burning and turned just in time to grab the firecracker out of his hand and it exploded just as I threw it to the floor. No one was seriously hurt, but little John was understandably startled and started to cry. The sound of the firecracker and the subsequent wailing caused my father, who was downstairs and had no idea what we were up to, to race up to my room to see what had happened.

He surveyed the room and quickly appraised the situation. I have only seen my father really angry a couple of times in my whole life, and this is one of them. He took one look at the model airplanes, the firecrackers and the “unauthorized fire” of our lit candle and said, “How could you guys be so stupid!?” 

Needless to say, his wrath was not only justified, but resulted in a radical change in our behavior!

In Romans, the Apostle Paul writes:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. Romans 1:18-19

The wrath of God, properly understood, is more than anger; at least more than our human experience of anger. The wrath of God is an expression of the holiness of God. 

It helps me sometimes to think of God’s holiness as electricity. Electricity is a wonderful thing, but electricity is powerful and must be approached carefully. We must always approach electricity with respect for its nature and power, or else risk injury or even death.

Let’s say I get the idea in my head that it might be fun to stick a fork into an electrical outlet. When I do I get shocked and it hurts. Would I then assume that electricity was angry with me? Would I assume that electricity was somehow being unfair to me? Of course not! I would assume, instead, that electricity was just doing what electricity does! And I would understand that I had done something very foolish and had, therefore, experienced what could be called the “wrath” of electricity.

Wrath, fundamentally, is living contrary to the nature and command of God. Wrath is living in disobedience to God and his word; wrath is living outside the blessing of God; wrath is living without the forgiveness and grace of God.

Wrath, ultimately, is the state of living without God and is the definition of hell itself.

The good news is that God’s wrath is actually part of his love for us. He hates our sin because he loves us!

In Romans Paul writes:

But God demonstrated his love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! Romans 5:8-9

My Dad was angry about the firecrackers because he knew they could hurt us. My Dad’s wrath was the result of his love. Thankfully, our father forgave our foolishness and continued to love us as his children. 

The gospel tells us that through the cross of Christ God does the same thing!

Brian Coffey