So, the anger of the LORD burned against His people, and He abhorred His own inheritance. — Psalm 106:40
The name Yahweh is taken from the tetragrammaton YHWH, which in most Bible translations was replaced with the LORD. These four letters translate to the name Yahushuwah (also Yeshuwah or Yeshua), which means God is salvation.
Many refer to Yahweh as The Storm God, or that Yahweh is a God of wrath. Some Christians even teach that God created and predestined some people to go to hell after they die, which is false. There’s even a more dangerous tactic used by Satan to get many Christians to fall away, and this same tactic is used on unbelievers. Some not only fall away, but they hate God because Satan works in them to portray God as some kind of an evil monster who kills men, women, and children for no reason.
In the New Testament, we’re told that God is love, and Jesus Christ, who is God in human form, gives us a command to love one another. The God we read about in the Old Testament is the same God in the New Testament. Let’s listen to the so-called Storm God in Exodus:
but showing loving devotion to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments. (Exodus 20:6)
Now let’s listen to Jesus Christ:
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. (John 14:15)
The real question is, do people love God or hate him? Let’s understand that Israel is a microcosm of the human race and the human condition. The same judgment Israel faced is coming on the entire human race at the end of time. Now let’s explain why God brought judgment on his people.
This city must be punished; there is nothing but oppression in her midst. As a well gushes its water, so she pours out her evil. (Jeremiah 6)
In Ezekiel 22, God calls Jerusalem a city of bloodshed. They were worshiping idols and false gods, and they were killing and sacrificing their babies in the fire to a demon god.
What would we do if we saw people killing their babies? Would we give approval, or would we be a storm god? God warned Israel time and time again to stop their abominations.
I have spoken to you again and again, but you would not listen, and I have called to you, but you would not answer. (Jeremiah 7)
God sent in the prophets, but they were run off or killed.
I have sent you all My servants the prophets again and again. (Jeremiah 7)
The Israelites were dishonoring their parents, oppressing the fatherless and widow, and exploiting foreigners. There was violence and blood in the streets, they were profaning God’s sabbaths, and they were committing all kinds of sexual immorality, even incest:
One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another wickedly defiles his daughter-in-law; and yet another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter. (Ezekiel 22:11)
Israel was also involved in conspiracy to commit murder, that is, “Taking bribes to shed blood”. They were involved in usury, excess interest, and all other kinds of dishonest gain. God had already warned them in the law (Leviticus 20) not to do these things.
In Canaan, God told Israel to devote the people to destruction because they were defiling the land with abominations such as bestiality, adultery, incest, and sacrificing their children to demons.
They shed innocent blood—the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. (Psalm 106:38)
Here’s God warning the Israelites in advance:
24 Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves. 25 Even the land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants. 26 But you are to keep My statutes and ordinances, and you must not commit any of these abominations—neither your native-born nor the foreigner who lives among you. 27 For the men who were in the land before you committed all these abominations, and the land has become defiled. 28 So if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it spewed out the nations before you. 29 Therefore anyone who commits any of these abominations must be cut off from among his people. (Leviticus 18:24-29)
God devoted some people to destruction for their abominations like he did Sodom and Gomorrah, and most likely Pompeii and Herculaneum. When God brings evil, it’s justified. When Satan brings evil, like killing or harming children, it’s unjustified. This is called pure evil, and it’s from Satan. Even though God knows about it, he’ll let it happen as long as it doesn’t interfere with his will (see Ezekiel 13:19), because he’s going to make everything right in the end. God has something better than this life. But when children die, they’re saved because they don’t know good from evil, as we’re told in Deuteronomy 1. So, it’s better to die and go to heaven as a child rather than to grow up and go to hell. Satan’s tactic to portray God as an evil monster that kills for no reason leads people off the narrow road to eternal destruction.
Heaven and hell are real, and when we die, we’re going to get the best thing imaginable or the worst. God has promised eternal life for those who are saved in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross as the sacrifice for our sins. Sacrificing animals in the Old Testament was just temporary until the Messiah came, and these animal sacrifices never pleased God, as we read in Hebrews. But when we accept Christ as our Lord and savior, we turn from wrongdoing and do the right thing in life. We continue to do our best in this fallen world, obeying God’s commandments, knowing that when we die, we’ll not only live forever, but we’ll avoid the terrible fate of eternal hell. So, let’s not wait until the end begins to call on the Lord. Nothing in this dying world is worth an eternity. Let’s choose wisely.
Futile World 