The Messiah and His Fury
In our back yard we have three sheep, and recently two of the ewes gave birth to beautiful lambs. Those precious creatures are a delight to watch as they skip, hop and run gracefully across the grass, their tender trusting nature evident as the children take them up in their arms. Apart from Luke (Act 8:32) and Peter (1Pe 1:19), the only other NT writer to reference Christ directly as “Lamb” is John. Luke and Peter both use this term once, but John 31 times, 29 occasions being found in the concluding book of the Bible.
Perhaps one of the most unexpected statements of Scripture is found in Revelation 6:16. When we think of a lamb, adjectives such as “sweet,” “tender,” “light-footed,” “gentle” or “harmless” fill our minds. But John writes concerning “the wrath of the Lamb.” Maybe in human wisdom we might have thought “wrath of the Lion” would be more suitable, but the Holy Spirit distinctly chooses the title “Lamb.” Examining the context of the verse, we note the Great Tribulation has almost run its course. In holy patience, God suffers long with the evils of this world. Beginning in Genesis 3, the unrelenting tide of evil stained and spoilt every part of His glorious creation. The climax was reached when humanity led His Son as a Lamb to the slaughter, spitting in the face of the very Creator, mercilessly torturing that Blessed One before spiking Him to a tree to die.
In our previous article we observed the noun use of the word “Messiah.” An equally profitable study is to trace the use of the Hebrew verb mashach. In the synagogue in Nazareth, our Lord Jesus read the section of Scripture from Isaiah 61:1-2, famously closing the book before He read about “the day of vengeance of our God” (Luk 4:17-20). Isaiah highlights that the “anointed” (mashach) Messiah who came to “proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” is the very same one who sovereignly administers the “day of vengeance of our God.” In Revelation 5, John notes that the worthy one who takes the title deeds to the universe is the “Lamb” who had been slain. It is therefore the “Lamb” that has the exclusive right to judge this world. As the Lamb of God that “taketh away the sin of the world” (Gen 22:8; Joh 1:29), He alone bore the wrath of almighty God in its undiluted intensity (Psa 88:7). He alone, then, must righteously execute divine vengeance upon an ungodly world. The nations shall drink of “the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath … poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation” (Rev 16:19; 14:10; see also Isa 34).1 For Israel, the “time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer 30:7) will be a cup of trembling (Isa 51:17), inconceivably arduous and painful, but He will sift them until only the wheat remains (Mat 3:12).
The Messiah and His Feelings
Never does our Lord act out of malicious intent or careless indifference, and His identity as “Lamb” reminds us that although there is righteous anger, and the dispensing of deserved judgment, it’s ever effected from a tender heart. Although God “will by no means clear the guilty,” His attitude toward sinners is “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exo 34:6-7). As sinners saved by grace, it should cause us to bow and worship.
Reading Luke 4:19-20 and noting when our Lord precisely closed the book, we witness the heart of God, who would have all men to be saved … not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (1Ti 2:4; 2Pe 3:9). What must it have been to hear the Saviour sob with grief over the nation, lamenting, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes” (Luk 19:42). We see the same heart displayed as our Lord closed His final public address to the multitude prior to Calvary. Having pronounced eight uncompromising woes upon those wicked religious leaders, He concluded, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Mat 23:37).
Interestingly, myrrh, that costly fragrance extracted from a thorny tree and crushed to produce a sweet perfume, is emblematic in Scripture of the sufferings of Christ. It is associated with His birth (Mat 2:11), life (Luk 7:38), death (Mar 15:23), burial (Joh 19:39) and High Priestly ministry (Exo 30:23ff. – that with which Aaron and his sons were to be “anointed,” mashach). Lastly, Psalm 45:8 links myrrh with His second coming, indicating that there will be grief and sorrow as our Lord comes to rescue His people. Fascinatingly, when the Gentiles bring their gifts to the Lord in the Millennium, they bring gold (His deity), frankincense (His humanity), but no myrrh. Instead, humanity shall pray and “shew forth the praises of the LORD” (Psa 72:15; Isa 60:6).
The Messiah and His Forgiveness
When David returned to Saul from defeating Goliath, he took with him the head of the giant, the evidence of death. When our Lord Jesus entered back into heaven, He also took with Him the evidence of His death. If His blessed nail-pierced hands and feet proved He had been to the cross, it was the spear-pierced side that proved He actually died (Joh 19:34). Upon resurrection, as proof to the fear-stricken disciples that it was truly Him, our Lord showed His spear-wounded side, also inviting Thomas to feel the mark, causing him to confess, “My Lord and my God” (Joh 20:20-28).
So, then, what a wonder it will be when Israel finally gazes upon the spear-pierced Lamb, recognising He was wounded for their transgressions.
Those who set at nought and sold Him,
Pierced and nailed Him to the tree,
Deeply wailing, deeply wailing,
Shall their true Messiah see.2
Zechariah 12 foretells that Israel shall mourn bitterly that they ever rejected their Messiah. If the offer of forgiveness began the grace of God that it will end likewise.with the Jews in Jerusalem (Act 2), such is
The children of Israel and Judah shall come together weeping, and they shall go and seek the Lord their God (Jer 50:4). With the wrath of the Lamb abated, and full repentance and forgiveness known, our Lord will “pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications” (Zec 12:10). For Millennial days Israel shall sing a new song (Isa 26).
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the KJV.
2 Charles Wesley (1707–1788)
