The satisfaction of God's fury.
This is a most awful subject. Gladly would we leave it alone. Oh for a fresh sight of God's eternal love, instead of this horror of great darkness, this vision of wrath and judgment unrestrained and fully satisfied! Yet the fearful words are before us and they invite our earnest regard.
I. GOD'S FURY IS FEARFULLY PROVOKED BY SIN. It is only against sinners that these dreadful words are written. The righteous may share the temporal calamities that smite the wicked (Ezekiel 21:4), but they incur none of the wrath of God that lies behind those calamities. Nevertheless, as we are all sinners, there is little comfort in this thought. Consider how greatly sin provokes wrath.
1. It is committed in full daylight. The Jews possessed the land. We know Christ. We cannot plead ignorance. Even the heathen have accusing consciences.
2. It is committed against love. We sin against our Father, to whom we ewe everything, and who has been infinitely gracious to us.
3. It is committed in spite of warnings. Israel had her grand procession of minatory prophets from Elijah to Ezekiel. We have the warnings of the Bible.
4. It is committed without necessity. There is a better way and a happier. Nothing but the most wilful perversity can make us choose the evil path. A saving hand has been held out to protect us. When we sin we reject that help.
5. It is committed after God's long suffering has been tried. He has long refrained from punishing. Yet men have made his long suffering an excuse for greater sin. Thus they have "treasured up wrath for the day of wrath."
II. GOD'S FURY CANNOT BE RESISTED.
1. It cannot be opposed by men's powers. The sinner has to contend with the Almighty and the All-wise. The stoutest must fall in such a contest, and the most cunning must fail in the foolish attempt to outwit God.
2. It cannot be opposed by any excuses. Unhappily, there is no doubt as to the guilt of the sinner. He had opportunities of return, and he rejected them. Conscience must paralyze resistance.
3. It cannot be opposed by God's love. There is no schism in the nature of God. Love itself must approve of wrath directed against hardened impenitence.
III. GOD'S FURY WILL BE SATISFIED.
1. It will not fail. Nothing that God attempts can fail. This we may infer as a conclusion from the observations under the previous head.
2. It will not endure forever. When it has accomplished its work it will rest. It may be that some of the results of it will endure forever. The slain man will not arise again on earth, but he is not being killed continuously. The ruined city may never be rebuilt, and yet the earthquake that overthrew temples and palaces has long subsided, and all is now still and calm.
3. It will be satisfied when it has accomplished its end. God's fury is not like his love. It does not spring unprovoked from his own heart. It is roused by sin, and when it has punished sin, it is satisfied. But this is the most awful satisfaction of it. There is another satisfaction, viz.:
4. It will be satisfied when it is propitiated. This is not stated in the verse before us. But it is the burden of the gospel. Christ our Advocate propitiates the wrath of God (1 John 2:1, 1 John 2:2). Then if we have confessed our sin, and sought the saving help of Christ, we need fear the wrath of God no longer. It is satisfied.