The Fury of God
Deuteronomy 7:1-11
Intro:
We love songs about God’s love mercy and grace. We don’t hear many songs extolling God’s fury. God’s love is immeasurable. Wouldn’t the same apply to His fury?
Fury = wrath but I like fury better. There used to be a TV show about a horse called Fury when I was a kid.
These days many of the ideas and words that have to do with God have become trite. One of the most biblically unacceptable words is one of the most popular in our culture today….IDOL (“American Idol”)
God is no longer seriously associated with this word / idea – FURY
1.
Hurricanes,
etc have fury - God is love
a. It is a challenge for anyone to contemplate the fury of God
b. Like His love it is infinite compared to ours. How do we comprehend it?
c. How do we reconcile it with His love?
· Many do not believe in Hell or Heaven
· Many believe in Heaven but not Hell
· I don’t know of anyone who believes in Hell but not Heaven.
· Most of us lack the appropriate respect for God’s nature.
2.
Deut 7:1-11
a. Covenant
words
b. Made
with His covenant people
c. Context
goes back to 5:1 includes 10 commandments
d. Note
5:2 “not with our fathers” cf 7:7-9
e. Covenant
with Abraham was that God would make a covenant with his descendants.
f.
This is a separate but integral covenant
g. Covenant
with Abraham was separate but integral with covenant to Adam (Gen 3:15)
h. Covenant
with Adam in Gen 3:15 is separate yet integral with Covenant in Gen 2:17
Illust:
· A Kitchen is a separate yet integral part of a house.
· A child is separate yet integral part of family.
3.
The
Mother of all Covenants: “The soul That Sins Will Die”
a. Ezek
18:4,20
b. Cf Rom 6:23; Gal 3
a. But why does He promise to reward the
Hebrews and punish the Canaanites?
b. Why
do the Hebrews get to destroy the Canaanites? In fact
they are commanded by God to destroy the Canaanites. In the same context of 10
Commandments (“Thou shalt not kill”) they hear they
are to utterly destroy the residents of the promised land.
c. Is
this Calvinistic election? God just decided it would be that way?
d. No: He did not. He does nothing (to us) without revealing it
first. (It is a different matter what He does to His Son.)
2. We
opened the door to death even though God warned us not to.
a. He
opened the door to life through His Son (Gen 3:15)
b. He
worked out that promise throughout history
c. It
involved an earthly kingdom through which King Jesus would eventually reign
d. Abraham
opened the door to his descendants being that kingdom through his faith. Deut
7:8
e. Jewish
legend says God asked others to be the Father of His nation but only Abraham
was willing.
f.
Other nations rejected God.
g. If you reject God you choose death.
h. If you choose death that is your choice not
God’s.
3. Hebrews
existence meant the promise of God was safe
a. Their
existence was a holy existence 7:6
b. Holy
means separate
c. God
would drive out all those who rejected God
d. If
they are not driven out they will contaminate the people of God
e. If
they allow that then God will destroy them too.
f.
We are to be holy also 2 Cor
6:17,18
g. We
are a separate yet integral part of God’s creation.
h. We
are the sheep / they are the goats. Mat 25:31-46.
4. Conclusion:
a. Let
there be no doubt that God will exercise His wrath when He comes in judgment.
That wrath will be unleashed upon all those who reject Him
and that is their choice. We need to warn people about that coming
wrath. Ezek 3:18ff
b. God never destroys the faithful and He never rewards or punishes anyone without first warning us and giving us the chance to repent. 2 Peter 3:8,9
c. We get to experience the scope of God’s love and fury at the cross. How far will love go? He sends His own Son on our behalf. How far will his fury go? He put His own Son to death .
i. He so loved the World that He gave us His Son so that we would not die.
ii. He so hated SIN that he put His own Son to Death.
d. The
astonishing thing is that when He comes in judgment there will be some who will
go to Heaven with Him. They will not get what they deserve.