People think that God is only kind, loving, and good — but they avoid the part of God’s character that is strict justice. We see this even in Christian countries, where most people who claim to believe in God still behave as devils. They are selfish, arrogant, proud, unloving, and unkind. We have seen that these are the very things that bring the wrath of God upon a person and upon a nation. Let us find out five ways God’s punishment falls on the wicked.
1. How God’s Punishment Falls on the Wicked — Israel’s Deportation.
Did you ever have your parents repeat something to you so many times, and after you refused to obey, you were surprised when you received a spanking? Did this ever happen to you as a parent? This is exactly what happened to Israel. God’s punishment fell — and it fell powerfully.
Samaria, which is the northern kingdom of Israel, was deported — and not by just anyone, but by the cruelest of people, the Assyrians, who would skin men alive. The entire north of Israel was left empty. In fact, when the king of Assyria repopulated Samaria with foreigners, lions came and attacked the people. When this was reported to him, the Assyrian king sent a priest of Israel to teach the people how to worship God — and the lions withdrew.
God’s judgments come when a person or a country has passed the limit of His forbearance. This means that many people and many countries are doing evil, yet they have not yet passed that limit. Are you close to crossing that line? Is your country close to receiving God’s judgments? Why does God not punish immediately? Because the person or country can still repent.
2. How God’s Punishment Falls on the Wicked — The French Revolution.
When the papacy killed fifty million Huguenots, Albigenses, and medieval Protestants, it seemed as though God was not punishing them. Yet years later, God’s punishment fell — at the French Revolution, it was the Catholic priests who were led to the terrible guillotine and killed. The Bible says in Galatians 6:7: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.”
We see that God does not judge as men do. God’s punishment falls slowly — yet when it falls, it is terrible. Hebrews 10:31 says: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Many people do not fear God because they have never fallen into His hands, or they do not recognize God’s judgment as coming from Him.
The more God loves someone, the faster the judgments fall. The less God loves someone, the slower — but the stronger — the punishments fall. If you have not received any punishment from God, it does not mean you are doing well. In fact, most people do not know that they are doing evil. The main reason is that they do not read the Bible — the book of truth that will judge every man’s mind.
It will not be God’s fault if they do not read the Bible, because:
- God, through the Holy Spirit, touches every man’s heart.
- Nature speaks of God.
- God speaks through our conscience and tells us what truth is.
1 Timothy 4:2: “Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.”
Follow God and the calls of the Holy Spirit — because if you follow this corrupt and wicked society, you will be destroyed. The Bible repeatedly says that our society is ready to be thrown into the flames.
Galatians 1:4: “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world.”
The prophet Ellen G. White writes in The Great Controversy, page 286:
“When France publicly rejected God and set aside the Bible, wicked men and spirits of darkness exulted in their attainment of the object so long desired — a kingdom free from the restraints of the law of God. Because sentence against an evil work was not speedily executed, therefore the heart of the sons of men was fully set in them to do evil. Ecclesiastes 8:11. But the transgression of a just and righteous law must inevitably result in misery and ruin. Though not visited at once with judgments, the wickedness of men was nevertheless surely working out their doom. Centuries of apostasy and crime had been treasuring up wrath against the day of retribution; and when their iniquity was full, the despisers of God learned too late that it is a fearful thing to have worn out the divine patience.
The restraining Spirit of God, which imposes a check upon the cruel power of Satan, was in a great measure removed, and he whose only delight is the wretchedness of men was permitted to work his will. Those who had chosen the service of rebellion were left to reap its fruits until the land was filled with crimes too horrible for pen to trace. From devastated provinces and ruined cities a terrible cry was heard — a cry of bitterest anguish.
France was shaken as if by an earthquake. Religion, law, social order, the family, the state, and the church — all were smitten down by the impious hand that had been lifted against the law of God. Truly spoke the wise man: The wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before Him: but it shall not be well with the wicked. Proverbs 11:5; Ecclesiastes 8:12-13. They hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord; therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. Proverbs 1:29, 31.”
3. How God’s Punishment Falls on the Wicked — Jehu.
When Jehu completed his cleansing of evil — something rarely seen in all of Bible history, and which could perhaps not happen today since the world is no longer a theocracy but governed by presidents — God said in 2 Kings 10:30: “Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in My eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.”
The prophet Elisha anointed Jehu king of Israel at God’s command. What exactly did Jehu do that was precisely what God had in mind? Jehu shot Joram with a bow. Then the eunuchs threw Jezebel from a high window. Israel had been filled with idolatry and evil. When God anoints a righteous leader as king, it means God means business.
The seventy sons of Ahab were then killed. Then Jehu went to the city and staged a false feast to Baal. All the prophets of Baal came to the feast, and through this deception Jehu had them all beheaded. Thus Israel was cleansed from idolatry. Only after all of this did God say, “You have done all that was in My heart.”
Why does God not cleanse all evil today? Because the world is no longer a theocracy where the prophet and the king are messengers of God.
The Bible says in Revelation 6:15-17: “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of His wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand?”
God’s punishments will fall on earth. The prophet Ellen G. White said that when God’s judgments begin to fall, there will be no respite until the end. Upon whom will God’s judgments fall? Upon the wicked. Who is a wicked person? A wicked person is someone who:
- Is unrighteous.
- Does not love God.
- Does not love other people.
How can we fail to love other people? Someone who is proud cannot love himself and others at the same time. Someone who is selfish cannot love God, others, or himself. Every time we see a proud person in the Bible, it is an evil person.
God’s judgment will fall more and more. Are you protected by Jesus? Do you have the righteousness of Jesus? If you prefer your own righteousness, you are separated from Christ. If you refuse the truth given to you, you are refusing Jesus.
Luke 21:36: “Watch therefore and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
God’s judgments will be so powerful — God’s means of waking people from their spiritual sleepiness and apathy — that Luke 21:26 says: “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”
2 Kings 9:17-37 and 2 Kings 10:1-36
“When the lookout standing on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu’s troops approaching, he called out, ‘I see some troops coming.’ ‘Get a horseman,’ Joram ordered. ‘Send him to meet them and ask, Do you come in peace?’ The horseman rode off to meet Jehu and said, ‘This is what the king says: Do you come in peace?’ ‘What do you have to do with peace?’ Jehu replied. ‘Fall in behind me.’ The lookout reported, ‘The messenger has reached them, but he isn’t coming back.’ So the king sent out a second horseman. When he came to them he said, ‘This is what the king says: Do you come in peace?’ Jehu replied, ‘What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me.’ The lookout reported, ‘He has reached them, but he isn’t coming back either. The driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi — he drives like a maniac.’
‘Hitch up my chariot,’ Joram ordered. And when it was hitched up, Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah rode out, each in his own chariot, to meet Jehu. They met him at the plot of ground that had belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. When Joram saw Jehu he asked, ‘Have you come in peace, Jehu?’ ‘How can there be peace,’ Jehu replied, ‘as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?’ Joram turned about and fled, calling out to Ahaziah, ‘Treachery, Ahaziah!’
Then Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in his chariot. Jehu said to Bidkar, his chariot officer, ‘Pick him up and throw him on the field that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I were riding together in chariots behind Ahab his father when the Lord spoke this prophecy against him: Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, declares the Lord, and I will surely make you pay for it on this plot of ground, declares the Lord. Now then, pick him up and throw him on that plot, in accordance with the word of the Lord.’
When Ahaziah king of Judah saw what had happened, he fled up the road to Beth Haggan. Jehu chased him, shouting, ‘Kill him too!’ They wounded him in his chariot on the way up to Gur near Ibleam, but he escaped to Megiddo and died there. His servants took him by chariot to Jerusalem and buried him with his ancestors in his tomb in the City of David. Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she put on eye makeup, arranged her hair, and looked out of a window. As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, ‘Have you come in peace, you Zimri, you murderer of your master?’ He looked up at the window and called out, ‘Who is on my side? Who?’ Two or three eunuchs looked down at him. ‘Throw her down!’ Jehu said. So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot.
Jehu went in and ate and drank. ‘Take care of that cursed woman,’ he said, ‘and bury her, for she was a king’s daughter.’ But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing except her skull, her feet, and her hands. They went back and told Jehu, who said, ‘This is the word of the Lord that He spoke through His servant Elijah the Tishbite: On the plot of ground at Jezreel, dogs will devour Jezebel’s flesh. Jezebel’s body will be like dung on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, This is Jezebel.’”
“Now there were in Samaria seventy sons of the house of Ahab. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria: to the officials of Jezreel, to the elders and to the guardians of Ahab’s children. He said, ‘You have your master’s sons with you and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weapons. Now as soon as this letter reaches you, choose the best and most worthy of your master’s sons and set him on his father’s throne. Then fight for your master’s house.’ But they were terrified and said, ‘If two kings could not resist him, how can we?’ So the palace administrator, the city governor, the elders, and the guardians sent this message to Jehu: ‘We are your servants and we will do anything you say. We will not appoint anyone as king; you do whatever you think best.’
Then Jehu wrote them a second letter, saying, ‘If you are on my side and will obey me, take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel by this time tomorrow.’ Now the royal princes, seventy of them, were with the leading men of the city, who were rearing them. When the letter arrived, these men took the princes and slaughtered all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel. When the messenger arrived, he told Jehu, ‘They have brought the heads of the princes.’ Then Jehu ordered, ‘Put them in two piles at the entrance of the city gate until morning.’ The next morning Jehu went out. He stood before all the people and said, ‘You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him, but who killed all these? Know, then, that not a word the Lord has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail. The Lord has done what He announced through His servant Elijah.’ So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends, and his priests, leaving him no survivor.
Jehu then set out and went toward Samaria. At Beth Eked of the Shepherds, he met some relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah and asked, ‘Who are you?’ They said, ‘We are relatives of Ahaziah, and we have come down to greet the families of the king and of the queen mother.’ ‘Take them alive!’ he ordered. So they took them alive and slaughtered them by the well of Beth Eked — forty-two of them. He left no survivor.
After he left there, he came upon Jehonadab son of Rekab, who was on his way to meet him. Jehu greeted him and said, ‘Are you in accord with me, as I am with you?’ ‘I am,’ Jehonadab answered. ‘If so,’ said Jehu, ‘give me your hand.’ So he did, and Jehu helped him up into the chariot. Jehu said, ‘Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord.’ Then he had him ride along in his chariot. When Jehu came to Samaria, he killed all who were left there of Ahab’s family; he destroyed them, according to the word of the Lord spoken to Elijah.
Then Jehu brought all the people together and said to them, ‘Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much. Now summon all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests. See that no one is missing, because I am going to hold a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone who fails to come will no longer live.’ But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the servants of Baal. Jehu said, ‘Call an assembly in honor of Baal.’ So they proclaimed it. Then he sent word throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; not one stayed away. They crowded into the temple of Baal until it was full from one end to the other. And Jehu said to the keeper of the wardrobe, ‘Bring robes for all the servants of Baal.’ So he brought out robes for them.
Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rekab went into the temple of Baal. Jehu said to the servants of Baal, ‘Look around and see that no one who serves the Lord is here with you — only servants of Baal.’ So they went in to make sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had posted eighty men outside with this warning: ‘If one of you lets any of the men I am placing in your hands escape, it will be your life for his life.’ As soon as Jehu had finished making the burnt offering, he ordered the guards and officers: ‘Go in and kill them; let no one escape.’ So they cut them down with the sword. The guards and officers threw the bodies out and then entered the inner shrine of the temple of Baal. They brought the sacred stone out of the temple of Baal and burned it. They demolished the sacred stone of Baal and tore down the temple of Baal, and people have used it for a latrine to this day.
So Jehu destroyed Baal worship in Israel. However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit — the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan. The Lord said to Jehu, ‘Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in My eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.’ Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit. In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead, from Aroer by the Arnon Gorge through Gilead to Bashan. As for the other events of Jehu’s reign, all he did, and all his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? Jehu rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son succeeded him as king. The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.”
4. How God’s Punishment Falls on the Wicked — The Flood.
The flood is a great example of God being long-suffering and patient — and of that patience having a limit. The people who heard Noah thought he was crazy. Some followed society because they trusted the scientists of the day more than God. They listened to men more than to God. They preferred the applause of men over the approval of God. Yet God’s judgment was about to fall.
John 12:43: “For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” This is the state of the world today. Do you love people’s applause more than God’s approval? Then you belong to this world — you are on the side of evil.
God’s punishment fell in the flood, yet for 120 years nothing happened. People truly thought Noah was out of his mind — which God would wait 120 years before bringing judgment? Yet God’s punishment fell so completely that everyone died except the eight persons in the ark. Will the same thing happen today? Yes. Matthew 24:37: “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of Man.”
The world today is in the exact same condition as it was in Noah’s day. People do not care about truth. They think truth is whatever they choose to believe. They have dishonest and lying spirits. They do not care to be honest and sincere. They simply want their own way. This is very evil, very wicked.
They think that vice — such as apathy, not loving others, being cold and uncaring — is a virtue. Romans chapter one says they changed the truth of God into a lie. Today, if you meet most people — especially the young — they truly believe that being unloving, uncaring, and cold is a sign of strength and virtue.
And not only that — they will persecute you, become very angry with you, and reject you if you do not follow their evil ways. And these people are not only in the world. They are in the church.
1 Peter 4:4: “They think it strange that you do not run with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you.”
5. How God’s Punishment Falls on the Wicked — When Jesus Returns.
When Jesus returns, it will be chaos. Most cities will be upside down. Many islands will have disappeared. The financial system will have collapsed. Ellen G. White says there will come a time when money will be worth nothing. God’s punishments are about to fall on the earth and upon individuals. God’s judgments, which have long lingered, will not be delayed much longer. Why not repent and ask Jesus every day to clothe you in His righteousness? Why not read the Bible and Ellen G. White’s books every day and pray that you may have a deep, loving connection with God before it is too late?
Ellen G. White writes in The Great Controversy, pages 614-615:
“When He leaves the sanctuary, darkness covers the inhabitants of the earth. In that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor. The restraint which has been upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has entire control of the finally impenitent. God’s long-suffering has ended. The world has rejected His mercy, despised His love, and trampled upon His law. The wicked have passed the boundary of their probation; the Spirit of God, persistently resisted, has been at last withdrawn. Unsheltered by divine grace, they have no protection from the wicked one.
Satan will then plunge the inhabitants of the earth into one great, final trouble. As the angels of God cease to hold in check the fierce winds of human passion, all the elements of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old.
A single angel destroyed all the firstborn of the Egyptians and filled the land with mourning. When David offended against God by numbering the people, one angel caused that terrible destruction by which his sin was punished. The same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God commands will be exercised by evil angels when He permits. There are forces now ready, and only waiting the divine permission, to spread desolation everywhere.
When God’s presence was finally withdrawn from the Jewish nation, priests and people knew it not. Though under the control of Satan, and swayed by the most horrible and malignant passions, they still regarded themselves as the chosen of God. The ministration in the temple continued; sacrifices were offered upon its polluted altars, and daily the divine blessing was invoked upon a people guilty of the blood of God’s dear Son and seeking to slay His ministers and apostles.
So when the irrevocable decision of the sanctuary has been pronounced and the destiny of the world has been forever fixed, the inhabitants of the earth will know it not. The forms of religion will be continued by a people from whom the Spirit of God has been finally withdrawn; and the satanic zeal with which the prince of evil will inspire them for the accomplishment of his malignant designs will bear the semblance of zeal for God.
As the Sabbath has become the special point of controversy throughout Christendom, and religious and secular authorities have combined to enforce the observance of Sunday, the persistent refusal of a small minority to yield to the popular demand will make them objects of universal execration. It will be urged that the few who stand in opposition to an institution of the church and a law of the state ought not to be tolerated; that it is better for them to suffer than for whole nations to be thrown into confusion and lawlessness. The same argument many centuries ago was brought against Christ by the rulers of the people. It is expedient for us, said the wily Caiaphas, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. John 11:50. This argument will appear conclusive; and a decree will finally be issued against those who hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, denouncing them as deserving of the severest punishment and giving the people liberty, after a certain time, to put them to death. Romanism in the Old World and apostate Protestantism in the New will pursue a similar course toward those who honor all the divine precepts.”
Ellen G. White continues in The Great Controversy, page 654:
“When the voice of God turns the captivity of His people, there is a terrible awakening of those who have lost all in the great conflict of life. While probation continued they were blinded by Satan’s deceptions, and they justified their course of sin. The rich prided themselves upon their superiority to those who were less favored; but they had obtained their riches by violation of the law of God. They had neglected to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to deal justly, and to love mercy. They had sought to exalt themselves and to obtain the homage of their fellow creatures. Now they are stripped of all that made them great and are left destitute and defenseless. They look with terror upon the destruction of the idols which they preferred before their Maker. They have sold their souls for earthly riches and enjoyments, and have not sought to become rich toward God. The result is, their lives are a failure; their pleasures are now turned to gall, their treasures to corruption. The gain of a lifetime is swept away in a moment.
The rich bemoan the destruction of their grand houses, the scattering of their gold and silver. But their lamentations are silenced by the fear that they themselves are to perish with their idols.
The wicked are filled with regret, not because of their sinful neglect of God and their fellow men, but because God has conquered. They lament that the result is what it is; but they do not repent of their wickedness. They would leave no means untried to conquer if they could.
The world sees the very class whom they have mocked and derided, and desired to exterminate, pass unharmed through pestilence, tempest, and earthquake. He who is to the transgressors of His law a devouring fire is to His people a safe pavilion.”
Repeat after me:
Father God, I see that I am a sinner. Forgive my sins. Help me to have a relationship with You and to not follow this world, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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