Wrath and Chocolate

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]


While baking the other day, I licked some stray cocoa powder off my finger (I’m comfortable with my less-than-hygienic baking practices!). I was expecting the usual, all-together chocolate experience – the sweetness makes the bitterness just right - rich and complex. I was abruptly reminded that cocoa is unsweetened! Thanks to some quiet time in the Old Testament prophets, the cocoa incident made me think of God’s wrath. 

If someone asked me to describe God, I’d probably talk about His love and grace, His mercy, and His faithfulness. It’s not likely that I would burst out with, “God is so awesome! He avenges His foes, and will not leave guilty people unpunished!” Those things are very true, and in some circumstances they would be very comforting. But generally, God’s wrath makes us a bit uncomfortable, right? I want to describe God in the ways I would like people to describe me. My anger is not a good thing, and I’d rather not have it in the description. Sin always seems to be tangled up in my anger! My anger is selfish and prideful; it rises from out of the hidden impatience and jealousy that lurk in the still dark parts of my heart. God’s anger has none of those issues, because He is wholly good. “No one is good – except God alone.” (Mark 10:18) He is not like us (Psalm 50:21), He is perfect, completely without sin.

God’s wrath is nothing like mine.

Just prior to the cocoa incident, I had read the first chapter of Nahum. The first six verses are striking, a fog-horn-loud reminder of why we need God’s grace and mercy! Here’s a quick sampling: “…the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath,” (v 2) “…the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished,” (v 3) and “Who can endure His fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him.” (v 6)

In my particular printing of the Bible, these verses nearly claim the entire first column of the book. One lone verse is set apart below: “The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble.” (Nahum 1:7) The first time I read through the verses, I skimmed over this verse – compared with the less-familiar terrain of God’s wrath, the declaration of His goodness seemed commonplace; but it’s not! Nahum is sharing about God’s jealous anger and His righteous vengeance. Then he is inspired to write, “the LORD is good.” All of the anger, vengeance and punishment discussed in these verses can be trusted in God’s hands, because He is good.

As I stood with my unpleasant tasting cocoa in my mouth, I thought of how without sugar, chocolate is hard to swallow. If I did not trust God’s goodness, His wrath would be hard to swallow. It’s the totality of God’s character that makes Him holy and righteous!

When Jesus is our Savior, we can rest knowing that God has a merciful plan for the wrath that we deserve (…and we do deserve wrath – check out Romans 3:9-20). Romans 3:24-25 (NIV) says, “[We] are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood…;” an alternative translation of verse 25 says, “God presented him [Jesus] as the one who would turn away God’s wrath.” In God’s goodness and love and justice, He sent Jesus to take the wrath we are due. God is so good!

Pastor Dirk mentioned this week that God’s wrath comes up more times in the Bible than His love, yet God’s wrath is never absent of His love. God’s wrath is never like unsweetened cocoa – bitter, divorced from His love, only wreaking havoc. His wrath is a part of His love. “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) I can trust God’s wrath – even when I don’t understand it, or don’t have any idea what He’s working out – because He is good, He is light, and He is love!


[Robin Bupp is married to Caleb, and they are from many places east of the Mississippi (but are calling Michigan home for the foreseeable future). A former high school science teacher, Robin is slowly turning the two Bupp kiddos into tiny nerds while they teach her lots of things, including humility and patience.]