How the Wise Respond to God's Wrath

 A preview of February's email-only article.

Ben White

DO YOU EVER think about the wrath of God?

I know our heavenly father's final judgment is everyone's favorite pastime, but those who are wise do not shy away from the subject.

In this month's email-exclusive article, we'll examine Proverbs 16:14, its spiritual applications, and why God desires repentance, not penance.

Every month I publish an exclusive article for my email subscribers, and if you'd like instant, free access, fill out the form below. (If you are already a subscriber, check your inbox!)

Here's a snippet of this month's exclusive:

I LOVE THE multidimensionality of advice offered in the book of Proverbs. On the one hand the book provides practical guidance for life with passages like, "The slacker does not plow in season; at harvest time he looks, but nothing is there" (20:4, BSB). And on the other hand Proverbs pours out spiritual salves in verses such as "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life" (4:23). 

Often, you get both levels of insight within the same verse. 

Proverbs 16:14 is a good example: "A king’s wrath is a messenger of death, and a wise man will appease it." The verse may not seem too practical since we do not answer to kings. Nevertheless we all have authority figures in our lives--bosses and teachers to name a couple--who have the power to impact our lives. Their wrath may not bring about death in a literal sense, but a termination or failed course can ruin one's livelihood. As a result, we would do well to prevent, if possible, their ire and, if not possible, to appease it.

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The Only Thing Harder than Following God

I have a son who loves to do anything but go to bed when it’s time to go to bed. Perhaps you can relate.

On his way, he’ll find a piece of trash that needs to go in the garbage. Or he’ll pick up a toy and put it away. He does this every night even though I tell him explicitly to go to bed.

Jeremy Bishop

The activities he does aren’t intrinsically bad—picking up after yourself is a good thing—but the context makes them wrong. Essentially he’s doing the right thing the wrong way.

King Saul had this same problem.

The Best Way to Respond to Sin

In 2005 New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi apologized. That much we know. What, exactly, he apologized for is unknown. Here’s just a snippet of what he said:

"There's been a lot of distraction, definitely, over the last year, and I'm sorry for that, I really am.”(1)

Marc Bruneke (CC)

You see, Giambi's grand jury testimony in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) investigation had been leaked and published in the San Francisco Chronicle just a couple of months earlier. In the testimony, Giambi had allegedly admitted to injecting himself with anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.

But since none of this information was official or even supposed to be public, he couldn’t or didn’t want to say what he was sorry for. Admitting to the drug use would give the Yankees the opportunity to void his $80 million contract.

Fast forward a couple of years to 2007.