"....Do not be haughty but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either" Romans 11:20-21 nkjv.
Fearing God isn't some kind of antiquated superfluous concept, that we can just decide we won't be bothered with.
What a horrible attitude to have, also a very costly one. Person's who seem to not care about God, or think because they can't see Him with their eyes He's probably not real, hence not worth their time, is walking down a very slippery slope.
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 9:10
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments: His praise endureth forever." Psalm 111:10
"For wisdom is a defense as money is a defense, but the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who have it." Ecclesiastes 7:12
The fear of the Lord should be preached form the mountain tops. Many take each day for granted, arrogantly and foolishly many go about the day never giving a single thought as to how they were able to wake up, how they were able to arrive to work safely, and return home at night without a scratch. A pilot and passengers hop on board a plane and maybe a few would even consider that it is by Gods grace that the plane even enters the sky, and remains. Many hop off the plane and go about their business, how many give God the glory and thank Him for watching over them, not many, if any. Throughout biblical history God's wrath has been displayed in many way's, but today it's like people have forgotten and think He's that god that television shows and movies depict Him to be. He's not some guy sitting in the sky smoking pot wearing a white choir robe, or some guy in the sky with a baritone voice talking to people randomly, or some dude that delegates angles to come out of heaven and carouse with humans, and by the end of the movie the angel is deciding whether to be a human or to drag him/her self back to that insufferable perfect place called heaven. That's not God and angels don't conduct themselves like that. I'll tell you one thing, (who am I kidding I can never just say one thing, this lengthy blog is an example of that) but I will say this, if you trust Hollywood to teach you all about God, life and death, you will go through life completely misguided.
Many going about life with this very same attitude.
"Keep calm and don't care."
Some examples of Gods wrath and judgement as recorded throughout biblical history:
Genesis 7. God destroyed the entire earth with a flood, only 8 lives were spared. Think about it, out of the many people who lived all over the face of the earth only 8 lives were spared.
Genesis 19. God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Two cities filled with people and only Lot and his family were spared. Not even ten righteous were found in two cities. Many believe those cities were destroyed primarily because of homosexuality, in fact many don't even say anything beyond that when talking about the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah, all they say is that gay people were there and God destroyed them because of that. It's the usual reference many go to when talking about the the rewards of homosexuality if it doesn't cease. God has never destroyed an entire city (Ever) because of a single act of iniquity. In the book of Ezekiel God explained why He destroyed Sodom. Read Ezekiel 16:49-50, you might be surprised at His reasons, and how many of us are guilty of what God truly destroyed them for.
And God's judgement had not ended there, He commanded Lot's family not to look back once they fled the city, but Lot's wife looked back and was turned to a pillar of salt. ouch!
Exodus 12:31 God freed the Hebrews from Egypt, but although they had seen God's power in Egypt, although they had seen the Red Sea part and crossed through it and the Egyptians in hot pursuit perish in it, although they had eaten manna from heaven, although they had been covered by God with a cloud by day and a fire by night they still did not enter into the promise land, because of their disobedience they experienced God's wrath. Deuteronomy 3:23-29 shows that not even Moses entered the land promised. In Joshua 3 the the fourth generation of Hebrews finally enter the land promised as was prophesied in Genesis 15:16, God told Abraham that it would be the fourth generation. Do not take this as to say God did not keep His covenant since the generation that leaved Egypt did not enter, on the contrary He kept His word and the Hebrews did enter, in spite of what the others did, God kept His word to His people.
Numbers 11 The people complained about only eating manna so God sent quail, so much quail that when it came from the sea it was about two cubits above the surface, that's approximately 36 inches. It was all around the camp. "...and the people stayed up all that day, all night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail (he who gathered least gathered ten homers).." Ten homers is about 12 to 20 bushels in modern day measurements. ".and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague. So he called the name of that place Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had yielded to craving". God had brought those people out of Egypt, literally their food fell from the sky, they had water, they were no longer in bondage, yet they still we're ungrateful, so they experienced God's wrath.
Numbers 16. The story of Korah, Dathan and Abiram and the rebellion they orchestrated against Moses and Aaron. These guys were just haters to be honest, their kind of like some people we all can relate to having known at one time or the other, persons that just see everything going good for you or see that you have been given an important position in your company or church or local bowling team and their just jealous it's not them getting all the attention so they wanna try and mess everything up, by causing everyone to lose trust in you. Thing is, Moses and Aaron weren't seeking glory for themselves, like many who have been given gifts or talents from God tend to do, no Aaron and Moses simply were being obedient and through their obedience and humility they were commended by God and the people listened to them because they knew that God placed them in charge. Oh, let me not forget to mention, Korah were sons of Levi so they had an important position as well, but that wasn't enough they wanted to be the big bosses running the show. Sounds like anyone you guys know? They started disrespecting Moses, he sent for them and they didn't come, long story short, and it is a long story, all the men Korah and their households were swallowed up into the ground and the earth closed over them, all who was with Korah perished that day. "..All who were around them fled at their cry, for they said 'Lest the earth swallow us up also'". Numbers 16:28-34. But God wasn't done yet, "..a fire came out from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering incense."" Numbers 16:35. Read Numbers 16 to get the full story, it's really amazing!
Acts 5. The story of Annanias and Sapphira speaks volumes to those who think they can deceive God. Seriously God is everywhere, I don't know why anybody at any point could possibly think there is something they can hide from God. He can read our minds and hearts, He knows all that will be, during our lives and after, He was here from the beginning of time, He's the creator of time. One of my favorite scriptures is in Isaiah 43:13 where God say's, "Yes, before the day was, I am He." It was His Spirit that hovered over the face of the waters in Genesis 1:2. "For of Him, and through Him and to Him, to Whom be glory forever, amen." Romans 11:36. It would be unwise to think one can deceive God, even Satan that devil know's God cannot be deceived, guess nobody gave Annanias and Sapphira the heads up. They of all people should know that God watches and know's all things, they were believers after all. They lied to the Holy Spirit when they were asked if they had given all the money they sold their land for. They withheld some and gave the rest as to appear as kind as the others who had property and sold it to help others in need, but God had seen all of it go down, yet Annanias and his wife still lied and were struck dead on the spot, the very second they lied about what they did. When I was a little girl and I was telling my friends something and they perceived it might not be true, they would say by whom do you swear that your telling the truth? And if your lying you'll be struck down. Of course it would be by that lighten bolt people think will flash and strike somebody dead if they tell a lie. Well, Annanias and Sapphira kind of had that happen to them, minus the theatrics a lightning bolt would bring. They died instantly, the very second the lie left their lips! Don't you want to thank God right now for His grace and mercy, because if that still happened today, I doubt anybody would be alive to be reading this, I doubt I would even be writing this, I doubt the computer or internet would have gotten invented because those guys would have been dead or never even born because their parents would have been struck dead. We've all told a little white lie, or any kind of lie before, yet here we are still alive, Gods mercy and grace is indeed amazing and He is worthy to be praised.
(I just recently added all the info beneath the pic because I wanted to give more examples of God's wrath.)
I could really go on and give you example after example of God's wrath, I might even write a part two to this sometime in the future God willing. The biggest example I can think of to let you understand God's wrath is when He allowed the Chaldeans to take the Israelite's into captivity in Babylon. These were Gods chosen people, but they went astray, they always went astray in their hearts, Hebrews 3:10. God suffered long, He sent prophet after prophet to warn them because of His love, you can read of it in Ezekiel and many other books in the Old Testament, but they still did not listen. He loved His people so much He kept a remnant, He did not destroy all, He gave them a choice to save their lives yet again by telling them to allow the Chaldeans to take them into to captivity, although they would be slaves they would be alive and God promised eventually they would return back to their home as freemen, but many did not listen and were destroyed by famine, pestilence and the sword. It is important to fear and love God, fearing Him is profitable, as suppose to fearing man, which profits you nothing. God has yet again given an opportunity to save our lives, by losing it we save it, meaning if you want to gain what God has in store for those who love Him you must be willing to deny yourselves the things in this life that are keeping you away from eternal life, Matthew 16:25. God out of His immeasurable love has been suffering long with this world not wanting any to perish, 2 Peter 3:9, but the Day of Judgement is still ahead, we must take God seriously in His promises (fear and trembling) because it is not to be counted as slack, a thousand years is but a day with Him and a day is a thousand years. 2 Peter 3:9
"For whatever things we're written before were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." Romans 15:4
