They Deserve It

9/11/2009

Revelation 16:6 6 for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.” New American Standard Bible

I’ll admit I don’t understand a lot of the Book of Revelation. I’m not sure who are the characters are, and is Babylon a city, or a world system, or a culture, or what? I do not understand the nature of God’s wrath. God is gracious and loving and slow to anger, but when He does get angry, everyone knows it and His wrath once started, is unstoppable until it has satisfied His entire divine displeasure.

But here’s what I do understand: they deserve it. The wrath of God is poured out upon mankind because after thousands of years of evil upon evil and indescribable arrogance, they deserve it. After killing God’s prophets and mocking His Church, all the while insulting Jesus Christ by making His Name a swear word, they deserve it. And so, in wrath, God turns their playground against them so it is no longer fit for any more of the evil they are so good at accomplishing – they deserve it.

I deserve it too. I am entitled to nothing of God’s goodness and deserve all of His wrath. For the bottom line is this: I am a sinner. But as sinful as I am, God has extended His grace and asked, “Paul will you believe Me?” I do and I will, and I am saved from wrath because I have chosen God over the world. I haven’t overcome the world but Jesus has and I cling to Him because He did; therefore, though I deserve it, yet because of His mercy I am spared.

Father in Heaven,

You will bring the arrogance of mankind to an end; You will turn this paradise into a cesspool, and men will have to suffer the consequences of their actions. But before all that happens, before wrath and suffering and destruction You patiently offer grace to those who will believe in You. And You ask those who believe to stand against the evil around them as a testimony of Your goodness and love and the reality of Who You are. Help me this day to walk in righteousness and to hold out the offer of the grace that You proffer; spared I pray in Jesus’ Name, amen.