Daily Lesson for Sabbath 25th of January 2025
Read for This Week’s Study: Psalms 78:1-72; Jonah 4:1-4; Matthew 10:8; Matthew 21:12-13; Jeremiah 51:24-25; Romans 12:17-21.
Memory Text:
“But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them. Yes, many a time He turned His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath” (Psalms 78:38, NKJV).
Though God’s compassion is often celebrated, many find the idea of His wrath disturbing. If God is love, they think He should never express wrath. That notion, however, is false. His wrath arises directly from His love.
Some claim that the Old Testament God is a God of wrath and that the New Testament God is a God of love. But there is only one God, and He is revealed as the same in both Testaments. The God who is love does become angry at evil—but precisely because He is love. Jesus Himself expressed profound anger against evil, and the New Testament teaches numerous times about the righteous and appropriate wrath of God.
God’s anger is always His righteous and loving response against evil and injustice. Divine wrath is righteous indignation motivated by perfect goodness and love, and it seeks the flourishing of all creation. God’s wrath is simply the appropriate response of love to evil and injustice. Accordingly, evil provokes God to passion in favor of the victims of evil and against its perpetrators. Divine wrath, then, is another expression of divine love.
*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, February 1.
Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-05-the-wrath-of-divine-love/