God's Wrath?

God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. (Psalm 68:6 NIV)

Read carefully the verse above.  God SETS the lonely in families.  God LEADS the prisoners with singing.  But there is no God action when it says, "the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land."  What did they rebel against, I wonder?  Perhaps they rebelled against being SET in a family or LED out of prison... so they are left behind.  God doesn't force us into greener pastures if we insist on living in a wasteland.

This "God of wrath" that we hear so much about in the Old Testament... I do believe he is a god made up in the minds of humans who need someone to blame for the sun-scorched circumstances they find themselves in.  The rebellious don't need to be punished by the hand of God.  They have punished themselves.  God has everything good to offer us... family, broken chains, abundant life.  But if we rebel, we find loneliness, bondage and desolation.  Only because we choose it.  Only because we insist on doing it our own way.  Only because we can't let go of the things God tells us will hold us back.

God's wrath?  No.  God's heart breaking?  Yes.  Any parent knows the pain of watching their children make wrong choices.  They don't need to be punished.  The consequences are almost always more punishment than we could dish out.

Following God is not always the easy way.  And yes, bad things will still happen.  But the hope and the deep-in-the-soul joy that we always carry with us will keep us out of the desolate, sun-scorched land.  We will always have a family in Christ's family.  We will always be free from the bondage of sin.  We will always have within us that well-spring of abundant life.  Why would we choose anything else?

Father,
Thank you for loving us even when we choose wrong.  Thank you for continuing to offer us cooling water even when we choose the drought.  Amen.