We focus so much on the love of God because we have an intense desire to be loved, to be made much of someone that can change our lives. I wonder however if we also long for a God of wrath but do not even realize it. To serve and only love a God who loves everyone, all the time, no matter what, wouldn’t that be a bit of a problem.
Suppose one day I am at the fall fair with my son. He has just turned 6 and to him he has just become a man. I give him five bucks to get us an ice-cream and some little vendor. He goes and stands in line with the $5 bucks dangling from his fingers. Standing in line dwarfed by adults He kind of stands out in this big forest of trees.
Off to the side a young man, disheveled, eyes darting about and beads of sweat forming on his brown on this autumn day, is staring at my son. Before I know it he lunges at my son creating a sea of confusion tackling him to the ground stealing my 6 year olds ice-cream money. Would should I do as a father, what should my response be, what is my course of action?
To answer that question maybe I should place myself in the position of the child who needs his fathers protection from a drug crazed addict in need of a fix. As I am attacked what do I wish the response of my Father would be who is waiting for me on the picnic bench. I would hope that my father would become concerned and angry enough that he would protect me, that he would arouse himself from his vantage point and fight for me, I am his family, his flesh and blood. I would hope that he would use his energies to aggressively encourage my assailant to leave me alone.
As much as we want a loving God we also desire a God of wrath who will be for us, protect us, guard us, fight for us and destroy our enemies. We desire someone who will fight on our behalf and this has been most greatly displayed in God sending the great warrior and king Jesus Christ who not only has loved me but has loved me so much that he died and rose again that he might forever conquer and destroy my enemies with the fierceness of His wrath. Is that not good news...that if God is for me who can be against me.
