Wrath of God

Here is the master key to rightly understanding the destructive "wrath of God" so rampant and widespread in the Old Testament.

The Old Testament uses the term "the wrath of God" to describe what the New Testament calls "the works of Satan."

Their problem was one of definition and differentiation. The Old Testament saints had a largely UNDIFFERENTIATED view of God and Satan. They believed Satan was God's "left hand," His "angry voice," His official "minister of wrath, His obedient "death angel" who always was just carrying out the Lord's express orders.

Old Testament saints wrongly included Satan in their "functional" definition of God. Whenever there was temptation, destruction, wrath, and death, all activities which the New Testament would later assign to Satan, the Old Testament would instead attribute these destructions to God Himself. They would not pray against the wiles of the devil, the way the New Testament instructs, but would rather beg God to stay His own wrathful hand. Satan was nowhere in their causative equation. God was the ONLY cause of both good and evil.

The New Testament, by contrast, better DIFFERENTIATES the identities of God and Satan. What is joined at the conceptual hip in the Old Testament is gradually separated and severed in the New. Jesus, it could be argued, IS the DYNAMIC DIFFERENTIATION of God's image from Satan's image. He is the refining fire which burns all the unworthy attributes the Old Testament God out and away from the pure and perfect divine nature.

So, when we see the Old Testament appears to say "by the letter" that:

-- "the Lord said" this or that horrible thing

-- "the Lord did" this or that horrible thing

-- "the Lord commanded" people to do this or that horrible thing

KEEP THIS KEY IN MIND. Their functional definition of "the Lord" in the OT often included BOTH the attributes of Yahweh and the attributes of Satan. "The Lord" could refer to God's saving virtue OR to Satan's killing wrath. They were wrongly joined at the conceptual hip. But Jesus came to forever separate and sever their connection.

Once we know the "personality" of Jesus, we will never again be able to assign the "functionality" of Satan to our heavenly Abba." When Jesus said He saw Satan falling from heaven, one aspect of that is that He saw all satanic qualities, which the Old Testament wrongly projected onto Abba's image, drop off and crash to the ground.

How to read bible

But aren't we supposed to read Scripture "precept upon precept and line upon line"?

No. In fact, this is the way we're NOT to read the Bible.

There are several famous teaching ministries with the word "Precept" somewhere in their title or mission statement. These ministries draw that term from Isaiah 28:13. Their focus is to teach the word of God "precept upon precept, line upon line" using what they call "Inductive Bible Study." The key to rightly reading the Bible, these ministries hold, is to convert all the Scriptures into a system of orderly precepts using rules of logic .

Here is the ironic catch.

The very passage these teaching ministries use to name themselves or their hermeneutics is quoted COMPLETELY out of context. The Isaiah passage, in point of fact, warns us NOT to read Scripture "precept upon precept, line upon line," for to do so will cause us to "fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken."

Here is the full passage:

"Therefore shall the word of Jehovah be unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little; THAT they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken."

Just as 2 Corinthians 3:6 warns us to NOT read Scripture "by the letter, for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life," this Isaiah passage warns us to NEVER read the Bible as mere precepts to be systematically arranged according to the logic of men. To do so will cause us to fall backward and be taken by snares of spiritless literalism.

Thus, the very usage of Isaiah's term "precept upon precept" by well known ministries to self-label violates their own central rule of interpretation which forbids taking any scripture out of context. "Precept upon precept" is, in the context of this passage, a bad thing and not a good thing. Now, some of these ministries have certainly blessed many, but not BECAUSE of their precept-based focus, but DESPITE it.

Go figure. And, in fact, the context of this Isaiah 28:9-13 passage reveals another dynamic truth.

"For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, to whom He said, 'This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest, and, This is the refreshing:' yet they would not hear." Isaiah 28:11–12

Paul quoted verse 11 above in 1 Corinthians 14:21 right in the middle of his teaching on tongues. This is the only New Testament reference to this Isaiah passage that I am aware of, so what is said here is crucial. His point is amazing. The people who only read the Bible "precept upon precept, one upon line" are unable to "hear" supernatural knowledge revelation from the Holy Spirit through the gift of tongues, an experience Isaiah prophetically calls a "rest" and "refreshing."

But, because those who read the Bible "by the letter" choose to view God's word as mind-formulated precepts rather than spirit-quickened rhemas, they will not be able to hear the teachings of the Holy Spirit, and so will fall backward and be snared.

Nothing is more offensive to the legalistic mind than relying on tongues and their interpretation. Paul is promoting BOTH tongues and their wonderful "interpretations" as well when he quotes this Isaiah passage.

This doesn't mean we still don't fervently esteem and meditate on Scripture, but it does reveal that the catalyzing agent of all heavenly revelation has got to be the Holy Spirit alone. It's the supernatural "way" we receive from God here that matters, not some man-made rule of interpretation we are chained to follow. Jesus said the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth, not the Scriptures. Romans 8:14.

Once we contrast how striving, soulish and self-willed "precept upon precept, line upon line" Bible reading truly is when compared to Holy Spirit-quickened glowings and showings, then we see the need to open ourselves to God's supernatural way of "revelating" over our own natural way of "precepting." This is the "rest" and "refreshing" these two passages open for us.