37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 38 Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 39 For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
Wrath from God is not without balance. The judgment of God is always accompanied by the message of repentance, either implied in the character of God or stated overtly as in this passage. Following the most condemning message for their impending rejection of their Messiah, the Lord revealed that His anger for them is borne out of compassion and He longs to show mercy—and therefore He provides a way of escape from divine judgment.
The tone is that of a grieving mother, who mourns for her erring chicks. God’s anger is not capricious, without just cause, to satisfy a mere whim or neurotic impulse of a dysfunctional deity. Some today view God as a frustrated deity who reacts in knee-jerk impulses when he doesn’t get his way with humans, so he uses force. But that is not the God of the Bible. Others, trying to tame God down, selectively choose only those biblical passages that fit their image of a peace-loving, moralistic preacher of love. True, “God is love” as John wrote in 1 John 4:8, but, as we have seen, He is not to be trifled with. Rejecting Him comes with great consequences in terms of God’s anger.
Because only God can comprehend the full import of His anger on sinners and the justified consequences, how awesome it is that He “… is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). The judgment of the law is the same as on those who reject Jesus as Messiah, “For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Heb 2:2-3).
For the Jewish nation, that salvation will come only when they are ready to say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” By quoting from Psalm 118:26, Jesus showed that Israel has a future; God did not dismiss them and replace the nation forever with the church, as some would teach today. Paul explained it this way, “I say then, they [i.e. Israel] did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous” (Romans 11:11). God will once again restore the nation, but not until they are willing to accept their Messiah.
Father, thank You for Your faithfulness. In wrath, You still remember Your promises. Your anger toward Your people is always motivated by compassion.
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