Who Warned You to Flee from the Wrath to Come?

Sunday, February 13, 2022

John the Baptist was just slightly older than Jesus, related to him. But John was different from Jesus. John was different from most people, what with his leather belt and the locusts and and honey. He wandered the land, living off the land, and had little to do with the niceties of life. He was concerned about something else. People’s eternal destiny.

Prophetic figures are often quite different. They don’t fit well in this world. They have a view of another world. Further, they don’t say what’s on their mind. Rather, they say what is on God’s mind. And it most often does not match what is being spoken on the street.

It’s easy to ignore a prophet. It was easy to ignore John. He was strange. And yet, there was something compelling; something urgent about his message that rang true. And many people responded, and believed, and were baptized.

The religious leaders were curious in a critical sort of way. They were listening to see what John got wrong, and were not considering that he could be right. And so it was to them that John posed this important question: “Who Warned You to Flee from the Wrath to Come?”

Now let’s leave the 1st century and come to the 21st century. “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Maybe no one. Maybe you have only heard the silly mantras of the world, like “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die;” or “follow your passion” or “if you only believe, it will happen.” You are not aware of a warning of a coming wrath. If not, you’ve not read the Bible or heard someone actual tell what the Bible says. Or, you’ve read and listened with your ears closed, like John’s religious leaders.

In the Old Testament, God warned Lot to flee from the coming wrath. Lot responded with a lot of “not so fast” and “not so far.” His wife hesitated, and the coming wrath caught up to her. That story, true as it is, is just a small picture of what John the Baptist spoke of at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, which culminated in His death, which in itself was a pouring out of the wrath of God, sparing those who would believe in Jesus.

Who warned you? Did you listen? Have you responded by trusting the salvation that God has provided in Christ, and in Christ alone? Because the Bible says, it’s coming. God’s wrath is still coming.

“how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.” (1 Thessalonians 1:9–10 ESV)