What Does the Old Testament Teach about God’s Wrath?

What Does the Old Testament Teach about God’s Wrath?

Zechariah 11:15ff says this: “And the Lord said unto me, ‘Take unto you yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd, for, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that stands still [that is, he’s not going to do the work that a shepherd is supposed to do], but he shall eat the flesh of the fat and tear their claws in pieces.”

In other words, this foolish shepherd is going to devastate the nation of Israel. He’s going to tear it to shreds. And then God says in verse 17, “Woe to the idol shepherd.” The word “idol” in the Hebrew is referring to one who is not a god but is worshipped as a god. “Woe to the idol shepherd that leaves the flock. The sword shall be upon his arm and upon his right eye; his arm shall be clean dried up and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.”

Here God is foretelling the future Antichrist. Notice, He is saying, “I will raise up this foolish shepherd who will tear the nation of Israel to shreds.” God says He is going to use the Antichrist as His tool to persecute the nation of Israel severely during the second half of the 70th week of Daniel 9. Because of that, Israel will be backed so tightly into a corner that it will have no means of escape from total annihi­lation unless it repents of all its rebellion against God and willingly acknowledges God’s Son, Jesus Christ, as its true Messiah and Savior.

God will use the Antichrist as His tool to break Israel’s stubborn rebellion against Him and bring Israel into right relationship with God—through repentance—by the end of the 70th week of Daniel 9.

Would God cause nations to wage war?

In reading from Revelation 6, we note that the second seal removes peace from the earth and people will be killing one another. In other words, there is going to be warfare upon the face of the earth.

When you go through the Old Testament, a number of times God declares that the removal of peace, or the lack of peace, in the world is an expression of His wrath or judgment upon the earth. By contrast, He declares that the presence of peace is evidence of His blessing upon the earth.

So this removal of peace will be an expression of God’s wrath upon the world. Granted, that removal of peace will involve human instruments, as with the beginning of birth pangs—wars, rumors of wars, nations rising against nations.

But when you go to the Old Testament, God indicated He raised up the Assyrians to wage war against the northern Kingdom of Israel as the rod of His wrath against the northern Jews for rebelling against Him. God indicated that He raised up Babylon to wage war against the southern kingdom of Judah as an expression of His judgment or wrath upon the southern kingdom of Judah. The wrath of God is often carried out through those kind of human instruments, as in nations waging war against each other.

Would God ever use famine as an instrument of His wrath upon the world?

When we come to the third seal, again from Revelation 6, the third seal brings famine upon the face of the earth. Once again, when you go through the Old Testa­ment, a number of times God indicates that famine, lack of food, is a form of His wrath or judgment upon human beings here on the face of the earth.

It’s significant to note with the third seal in Revelation 6, that John said in verse 6, “I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, ‘A measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny and see you hurt not the oil and the wine.’” The implication is that the speaker is the one who is authoritatively controlling that famine. He’s determining how scarce food will be and therefore how much food will cost and He’s determining what is not to be harmed and what will be harmed.

Now, who is that person who is determining that? Well, the person has the voice that John heard from the midst of the four beasts. If you go back to Revelation 4 and 5, you’ll find that God the Father is seated upon a throne in Heaven in the midst of the four beasts and you also see that Christ the Messiah, the Lamb, is standing there before the throne in the midst of the four beasts. So the voice here is either that of God the Father or of Christ the Lamb. They are in control of that famine, which would indicate, again, that this is an expression of God’s wrath or God’s judgment upon human beings upon the face of the earth.