And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One sitting on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" Rev. 6:16, 17.
It was a defining moment of my life. Fifteen years and two months old, I was at a teen camp for boys and girls ranging in age from 13 to 15. While I'm not sure if I was the oldest in my group, if I was, it was by a couple weeks at the most. As our unit prepared for bed that first Sunday night, one thing was missing. We had not yet had a counselor assigned to us. That may sound like a teenager's dream vacation, but it was a bit unsettling nevertheless.
At 2:00 in the morning a group of counselors gently shook me awake, took me outside the cabin, and told me that the camp staff had chosen me counselor of my unit. What a daunting task! I was roughly the same age as my group, and they would wake up thinking I was just one of them. How would I assert any measure of authority?
The ultimate challenge occurred a couple day later. A 14-year-old locked me in the bathroom of the cabin at a crucial point of the day. When he refused to open the door at my request and then my command, I broke out with a crash. In a rage I ordered him to take off his shoes and run 10 times up and down a gravel path on a nearby hill. After a couple trips his feet were scratched and bleeding a bit.
I was mortified as I realized that I had overdone the punishment. But if I went back on my sentence no one in the unit would respect me. Instinctively I made a decision. I joined him in his punishment, finishing the 10 laps up and down the hill with him. That week I had no further trouble with my unit, and the camper who locked me in the bathroom became my most admiring and loyal subordinate.
The concept "wrath of the Lamb" sounds like an oxymoron. Can you really imagine a "raging lamb"? What would that look like? The slain Lamb, of course, represents the cross. The wrath represents God's unwillingness to compromise with sin. On a very small scale my experience with the camper mirrored the problem God had in the universe. The "campers" were rebelling. While He could back off on His authority, that would lead to chaos. But simply being the "Great Counselor" would mean everyone would serve Him out of fear.
So at the cross He joined us in reaping the consequences of sin. In so doing He won the love of the universe as well as its respect. And in the end a "raging Lamb" who brooks no compromise with sin, yet identifies with the sinner, proves able to heal a broken universe.
Lord, I respect Your integrity, and love You for Your sacrifice. I want to be like You in my treatment of everyone I meet.
It was a defining moment of my life. Fifteen years and two months old, I was at a teen camp for boys and girls ranging in age from 13 to 15. While I'm not sure if I was the oldest in my group, if I was, it was by a couple weeks at the most. As our unit prepared for bed that first Sunday night, one thing was missing. We had not yet had a counselor assigned to us. That may sound like a teenager's dream vacation, but it was a bit unsettling nevertheless.
At 2:00 in the morning a group of counselors gently shook me awake, took me outside the cabin, and told me that the camp staff had chosen me counselor of my unit. What a daunting task! I was roughly the same age as my group, and they would wake up thinking I was just one of them. How would I assert any measure of authority?
The ultimate challenge occurred a couple day later. A 14-year-old locked me in the bathroom of the cabin at a crucial point of the day. When he refused to open the door at my request and then my command, I broke out with a crash. In a rage I ordered him to take off his shoes and run 10 times up and down a gravel path on a nearby hill. After a couple trips his feet were scratched and bleeding a bit.
I was mortified as I realized that I had overdone the punishment. But if I went back on my sentence no one in the unit would respect me. Instinctively I made a decision. I joined him in his punishment, finishing the 10 laps up and down the hill with him. That week I had no further trouble with my unit, and the camper who locked me in the bathroom became my most admiring and loyal subordinate.
The concept "wrath of the Lamb" sounds like an oxymoron. Can you really imagine a "raging lamb"? What would that look like? The slain Lamb, of course, represents the cross. The wrath represents God's unwillingness to compromise with sin. On a very small scale my experience with the camper mirrored the problem God had in the universe. The "campers" were rebelling. While He could back off on His authority, that would lead to chaos. But simply being the "Great Counselor" would mean everyone would serve Him out of fear.
So at the cross He joined us in reaping the consequences of sin. In so doing He won the love of the universe as well as its respect. And in the end a "raging Lamb" who brooks no compromise with sin, yet identifies with the sinner, proves able to heal a broken universe.
Lord, I respect Your integrity, and love You for Your sacrifice. I want to be like You in my treatment of everyone I meet.
RSS Feed
