One chief reason why God wrote the Bible was to warn the sinner of the awful consequences of sin, and to bid him flee from the wrath to come. Our text is one of these warnings. There are many such scattered throughout the Bible. We mention one or two at random. “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23). “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb.9:27). “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5). “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb. 2:3).

II. A Solemn Warning

In view of this terrific fact, “Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee away with His stroke.”

Sinners are even now threatened with God’s wrath, yea, they are by nature “children of wrath.” It is true that God’s wrath now slumbereth 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 it has not yet arrived. It is true that sinners often defy God now with apparent impugnity, and because of this the wicked spread themselves like green bay trees. “Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, and what profit should we have if we pray unto Him?” (Job. 21:14, 15). Let all such heed the Divine warning, “Because there is wrath, BEWARE lest He take thee away with His stroke.” Sinner, be not deceived, God is not mocked. “O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Is not this laid up in store with Me, and sealed up among My treasures? To Me belongeth 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” (Deut. 32:29, 31-35). The sinner is treading a path more slippery than ice, and unless he forsake 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 forebearance 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.

“And thinketh thou this, O man that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?” (Rom. 2:3). Did Adam escape the judgment of God? Did Cain, did Pharaoh, did Achan, did Haman? The only reason God has not “taken thee away with His stroke” 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 accepting Christ as his Saviour. He imagines himself secure. He goes on in his sin, and because judgment against an evil 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 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 thee away with His stroke.” 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 out of the land of the living.” “And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censor and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord” (Lev. 10:1, 2). Again, “Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the King’s palace. And this is the writing that was written, Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting In that night was Belshazzar the King of the Chaldeans slain” (Dan. 5). Unsaved reader, you may be enjoying the health and strength of youth, yet, thou knowest not how soon the dread summons shall come, “This night shall thy soul be required of thee.” Turning now to the last clause of our text, we have mention of:

“Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee” – Job. 36:18