The Best Book I've Ever Read (Part 2)
The part that gave me pause ...
One summer evening, a thunderstorm loomed on the horizon. I love a distant display of lightning, but the dark clouds closed in fast. I was listening to the radio as I cleaned the house, and with each flash, static interrupted the music.
It wasn’t long before flashes of lightning and static became more frequent, and thunder crashed mere seconds after each flash.
It was almost here.
I decided to hunker down in the hallway. I felt a little foolish. I’m a grown woman. I like to think I’m fairly brave, but there I sat, knees to my chest, fingers in my ears.
The flash came—a blinding white light. My radio went dead, and the lights went out. The silence was deafening—for a millisecond.
CRASH!
An intense, angry blast jolted the house. The windows rattled, and the hall vibrated as thunder growled over me.
I thought of only one thing: The caricature of a lightning bolt hitting a stick figure from heaven—God striking someone down for disobeying Him. As the house shook, my mind raced to the way that the world has rejected God.
Churches today tend to focus on the kinder, gentler scriptures that speak of His grace and mercy. And we often sugarcoat our testimony with the sweetness of His lovingkindness. “God loves you, God is gracious, God is kind and merciful.”
All of those things are true.
But that night, as the floor trembled and darkness enveloped me, I felt the immense power of that single bolt of lightning. I felt a sliver of power compared to God's. It reminded me that with every passing moment, the day when Christ will return and righteously judge us all is drawing closer. When that day comes, will those who have rejected His love, mercy, and grace say to us, who knew of the wrath to come, “Why didn’t you tell me about His wrath?”
Could it be that while some are drawn to Him by His love, others will require the fear of God to recognize their need for a Savior?
What stood out to me in this read-through of the Bible is that God is not mocked and His wrath will and has come with a Holy fury. There are countless examples of this in the Bible. He did not slap those who continually disobeyed Him on the wrist and tell them to do better. He gave them a chance to obey, but they didn’t, and He destroyed them completely.
Why would He deal with us any differently? He won’t.
Perhaps we who know Him should season our witness with more of the full truth of His character—His righteousness and His justice—by sharing both the consequences of rejecting God and the benefits of accepting His grace and forgiveness.
Perhaps in the dark of night, when the earth shakes, and the radio goes dead, and the air is silent, that knowledge will seal in someone’s heart the need for a Savior and will cause some who are lost to be found.
Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.” Revelation 6:15-16
The fear of the Lord is a healthy fear. A reverent fear. It’s a good thing that leads us to acceptance of all the wonderful gifts He freely offers us.