“Because there is wrath, beware lest He take you away with one blow.” Scripture does not present this warning as theory, but as a present and personal danger.
In view of this terrific fact, sinners are even now threatened with God’s wrath. Yes, they are by nature “children of wrath.” It is true that God’s wrath now slumbers for a while, because this is the day of salvation. It is true that the time for the full and final and open manifestation of God’s wrath has not yet arrived. It is true that sinners often defy God now with apparent impunity. “Yet they say to God: Leave us alone! We have no desire to know your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?” (Job 21:14, 15).
Let all such heed the Divine warning, “Because there is wrath, beware lest He take you away with one blow.”
Sinner, do not be deceived, God is not mocked. “O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! To Me belongs vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste!” (Deuteronomy 32).
The sinner is treading a path more slippery than ice, and unless he forsakes it, in due time his foot shall slide. The bow of God’s wrath is already bent! The arrow of His vengeance is even now fitted to the string, and nothing but His infinite forbearance stays its release.
My reader, the only reason why you have not already been cast into Hell-fire, is because it has been the good pleasure of the Most High to stay your doom. Flee then from the wrath to come while there is yet time.
“O man, do you think that you shall escape the judgment of God?” (Romans 2:3). Did Adam escape the judgment of God? Did Cain, Pharaoh, Achan, Haman? The only reason God has not “taken you away with one blow” before this, is because He endures with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.
The time of the sinner’s opportunity for fleeing from God’s wrath is exceedingly brief and limited. The sad and tragic thing is that so few realize it. The sinner sees little cause for alarm and fails to apprehend his imperative need of promptly believing and repenting. He imagines himself secure. He goes on in his sin, and because judgment against his wicked work is not executed speedily, he increases in his boldness against God.
But God’s ways are different to ours. There is no need for God to be in a hurry — all eternity is at His disposal. When one man robs another, instantly the cry is raised, “Stop thief!” lest he should soon be out of reach. When a murder is committed, the hounds of the law at once seek to track down the guilty one. A reward is offered lest he should succeed in escaping justice. But it is different with God. He is in no haste to execute judgment because He knows that the sinner cannot escape Him. It is impossible to flee out of His dominions. In due time every transgression and disobedience shall receive a just recompense of reward.
“Because there is wrath, beware lest He take you away with one blow!” The immediate reference is to death — the removal of the sinner from this earth to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire. Scripture furnishes many solemn examples of God’s stroke suddenly cutting off sinners from the land of the living.
“Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord!” (Leviticus 10:1, 2).
Again, “Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. In the same hour fingers of a man’s hand came forth, and wrote on the wall of the King’s palace. And this is the writing that was written, You are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting! In that night was Belshazzar the King of the Chaldeans slain” (Daniel 5).
Unsaved reader, you may be enjoying the health and strength of youth, yet, you know not how soon the dread summons shall come, “This night shall your soul be required of you.”
Arthur W. Pink, born in Nottingham, England, in 1886, pastored churches in Colorado, California, Kentucky and South Carolina. His works are now in the public domain.
