I just finished rewatching the recorded Revelation Series, Chapter 10, presented by Open Table Conference. I especially loved after the presentation, the Zoom floor was opened for all the panelists to comment and add their questions/understanding. It’s truly wonderful to be able to listen as people dedicated to learning about God and sharing that understanding build upon their love and understanding as they are led by the Holy Spirit.

What struck me was we are watching after the recordings were originally aired. The recording was after Thanksgiving (it’s early June now) and one of the Pastors had been actively helping family members whose kids were killed in a mass shooting at a school by a 15-year-old with a handgun. We are now just past the Uvalde and Tulsa shootings. It seems so unreal. It truly feels like we are living in times of accelerated evil.

In talking about the concept of sin and how God chooses to act…is God arbitrary… was the concept of the passive wrath of God and the active wrath of God. A parallel thought is consent and participation by God. God consents to our free will, he loves us enough to not force us to choose His way. That free will leads to sin, the sin we see so prevalent today. The consequences of those choices we will experience individually and as a society. Consequences are passive wrath; the consequences can teach us not to sin by showing us what happens when we choose sin; think of an addict. They make the choices that lead to addiction and all the horrible consequences to themselves, their families, to society. The only way out of that awful reality by their own insistence is to hit bottom. Only then can they turn and see that God is there. He lets them hit bottom by their choice but He is there by His. Participation is God healing us from the consequences of the sins we choose. That is active wrath. God intervening in our life to prevent our destruction.

We need, truly need, to understand God’s wrath. God’s wrath is against sin. His love is for us. He will allow us to choose to hurt ourselves and others; only then can we begin to understand how destructive sin and its’ pain is. The only way we can learn…by our own choice…honored by God. God is not the author of sin but the Healer of it. The consequences of our sins will not have the last word. The Cross is the last word. Jesus willingly gave Himself to atone for the sins we commit and He did it out of His love for us and the Father.

At the end of Chapter of 9 are the sobering words: The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshipping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood – idols that cannot see or hear of walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts. That’s pretty stark. That is what God’s wrath is for. If it were not for His active intervention…His active wrath…we would be utterly destroyed by our sins. As one panelist said, God is not changing. He is eternally active. There is a mystery in all things including the infinite acting of God. God is eternal. Jesus told us My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working. John 5:17. They are actively working for us!