September 17, 2026
Thursday, September 17
When Moses asked God, “Show me your glory,” God didn’t respond with a spectacular visual event. There were no lightning bolts. No holy fires. No angelic choirs. Just a voice saying that He is a God of mercy, who loves to forgive sin, and He’s also a God of wrath, who must punish evil. How do make sense of this? So far, we’ve seen that God’s wrath is not emotional or volatile, like our anger. We’ve seen that God’s wrath is motivated not by selfishness or wounded pride, but by love.
Today, let’s talk about justice. What would you say about a judge who acquitted a serial child molester who was guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, because he and the defendant were of the same race? You would say he shouldn’t be a judge anymore. You’d probably want that judge to go to jail.
What would you say about a teacher who allowed a bully to blatantly abuse and terrorize kids in her classroom, because she thought, “He’s just misunderstood. He just needs to be accepted”? You wouldn’t want your kid in her classroom.
What would say if you heard that a dictator who had committed genocide and started a destructive war, a modern-day Hitler, was allowed to live in peace and prosperity? You’d want to send Seal Team Six to drag him out of his comfy lair.
These tendencies are true whether you are old or young, rich or poor, Democrat or Republican, Christian or non-Christian. We know, as part of our DNA, as a vestige of being made in the image of God, that evil must be punished. To let it pass is an offense against the victims. It’s telling those molested children, those terrorized school kids, the families of the dead that they don’t matter. God must punish evil, or He would not be just. So God’s wrath is not the emotion of anger, as if God blew His stack. It is His settled opposition to evil. It is His determination to make sure sin gets paid for, once and for all.
But what about the kinds of sins you and I commit? We understand why God needs to punish pedophiles and evil dictators, but surely none of us has ever done anything that bad. Scripture tells us that God is absolutely holy, and so all sin is really, ultimately, against Him. You might say, “Why would that be true?” Well, let me ask you this: If someone breaks your child’s heart, does it hurt you? If someone says something cruel about one of your parents, does it make you angry? If someone you love harms themselves in some way, do you suffer with them? Now get this: God is infinitely more invested in every single person in this world than you and I are in the most intimate people in our lives. He is so invested in you that when you sin against yourself, He takes it even more personally than you do.
Plus, He is a holy God who created a perfect world. Every sin we commit is not only a deep wound against someone He loves more than life itself; it’s also adding to the moral pollution of the world God created, the world that was meant to display His glory. So He takes every sin to heart. Romans 3:25 says, “in His divine forbearance, He had passed over former sins.” God didn’t destroy us as each sin piled up, adding to that infinite debt against us. He didn’t make us pay, but sooner or later, someone would get served with that bill. What was God to do? We’ll see tomorrow.
“Lord, I praise you that you are a just God. I thank you for promising that no one ever really gets away with evil. I wish it were that way in our world now. But until it is, I am grateful to know that good will triumph, and evil will be punished, every time. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Conroe
More from Pastor Jeff at his website: jeffbergerwriting.com
