and you perish in your rebellion
Text: Psalms 2
**Cheek kissing is a ritual or social kissing gesture to indicate friendship, family relationship, perform a greeting, to confer congratulations, to comfort someone, to show respect. Cheek kissing is very common in the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, the Low Countries, the Horn of Africa, Central America and South America. In other countries, including the U.S. and Japan, cheek kissing is common as well at an international meeting between heads of state and First Ladies[1] or members of royal and the Imperial families
Story:
Nails in the Fence
There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.
The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.
The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there.”
The little boy then understood how powerful his words were. He looked up at his father and said, “I hope you can forgive me father for the holes I put in you.”
“Of course I can,” said the father.
I shared this story to highlight the importance of the rash or hasty words we use. Words which impacts those around us. Many times, I find that I am preaching to myself too when I am writing notes on what I feel I should share in a sermon and the subject of Anger, is what I would like to speak about today. Anger itself is neither good nor bad. Anger weilded wrongly is bad. Anger used lawfully, or divinely can be an instrument of healing, a call for repentance, a chance for wayward individuals to turn from a path that leads to destruction.
Obviously there is a place for rebuke, a place for redirection in the body of Messiah for those in leadership, those leaders who are distraught about the condition of the people who are caught in either the snares of the devil or even worse, outright sin.
Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
Ephesians 4:26
There are many careless expressions people use daily, our words have impact, and power in the ears of the hearer. They can be use for good or ill. And most importantly, they can set things in motion in the spiritual realm.
- Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. (Proverbs 18:21)
- Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Colossians 4:6)
Today, I would like to talk about another type of Anger. A righteous and a just anger. I am speaking of the Anger of Yahweh Himself towards his people who are going astray continually. Or His anger poured out on His enemies- those who completly reject him.
- You alone are to be feared. When You are angry, who can stand before You? From heaven You pronounced judgment, and the earth feared and was still when Yahweh rose up to judge, to save all the lowly of the earth.- Psalms 76:7-9
- For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down. Psalms 18:27
- God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. Psalms 7:11
The scriptures are replete with examples of Yahweh exercising his holy and righteous anger on a disobedient nation. The Anger of Yahweh can even spill out upon individuals in a spectacular type of Judgement. Pharoah king of Egypt, is one such example of this. The scriptures even seem to imply that Pharoah was “kept” from altering course even after all the signs and judgements on egypt were manifest to him.
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
19You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
Romans 9
In this example Pharoah continues to rebel and fulfill a desire of Yahweh to punish Egypt for enslaving and mistreating the Israelites. The situation was so dire be the time Pharoah was willing to finally LET THE PEOPLE GO that the scriptures imply the Egyptians were literally throwing their valuables at the Israelites urging them to make haste and leave Egypt.
Other examples of Yahweh’s righteous anger has caught my attention of recent time. As I have listened to the psalms repeatedly, Psalms 2 stands out in my mind. There is so much in this chapter that I would like to high light some things that demostrate who the Anger of Yahwel is triggered, and how it manifests upon the unredeemed.
Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
2The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against YAHWEH and against his Anointed, saying,
3“Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.” (tower of Babel Imagery)4He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
5Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
6“As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.”7I will tell of the decree:
YAHWEH said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you. (So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. Heb5:5)
8Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
9You shall breakb them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”10Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
11Serve the MASTER with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
12Kiss the Son, (the Jews says this is Jacob based on Hosea 11:1 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.” However, We beleive there is a higher meaning “When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.)lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
Psalms 2
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (*him cannot be the Nation of Israel because History is replete with israel being punished over and over, needing refulge themselves many times)
Several things are show in this passage.
- The nations of the earth are engaged in a continual warfare against the Most High because of chiefly the works of the Adversary, who blinds the minds of men in power – “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Messiah, who is the image of Elohim.” – 2 Corinthians 4:4
That Nations will continue to Rage against the Great El Elyon, until he finally dispenses His judgement aupon them as seen in Revelations –
- “The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.” Revelation 11:18
Second Example, being “given over unto the power of the devil, which is SIN”:
Romans 1:26-31For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents. 31They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.
Segue :Conditions of the earth in this present time-
Globally, the average level of acceptance for LGBTI people has increased since 1980.
https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/global-acceptance-index-lgbt/
Abortion one of the Leading Global Causes of Death in 2021 with 43 Million Killed. Globally, there were more deaths from abortion in 2021 than all deaths from cancer, malaria, HIV/AIDS, smoking, alcohol, and traffic accidents combined, according to Worldometer statistics.
Worldometer statistics
Although data from the Uniform Crime Reports are complete only though 2020, local data that now are available suggest that in many areas of the country, violent crime increases have continued into 2022. There also have been several recent mass shootings, defined by four or more deaths from a single shooting incident. Mass shootings account for a tiny fraction of all homicides but add dramatically to the visibility of gun violence.
https://crim.sas.upenn.edu/fact-check/violent-crime-increasing
As a well keeps its water fresh, so she keeps fresh her evil; violence and destruction are heard within her; sickness and wounds are ever before me.
Jeremiah 6:7
The earth also was corrupt before YAHWEH, and the earth was filled with violence.
Genesis 6:11
For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Matthew 24:37
A call to return:
The world seems to be hurtling out of control. Yet YAHWEH has it well in Hand. In fact the RIGHT HAND OF HIS POWER has it well in Hand. Let us prepare our hearts for these coming times of trial. the bible tells us to:
YAHWEH said to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand
until I make Your enemies
a footstool for Your feet.”a
2YAHWEH extends Your mighty scepter from Zion:
“Rule in the midst of Your enemies.”
3Your people shall be willing
on Your day of battle.
Arrayed in holy splendor, from the womb of the dawn,
to You belongs the dew of Your youth.
4YAHWEH has sworn
and will not change His mind:
“You are a priest forever
in the order of Melchizedek.”b
5The MASTER is at Your right hand;
He will crush kings in the day of His wrath.
6He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead;
He will crush the leaders far and wide.
7He will drink from the brook by the road;
therefore He will lift up His head.
Psalms 110
Let us prepare our hearts for these coming times of trial. And in the meantime, the scriptures tell us to “amerliorate Creation” as as far it remains with us. What does this look like? What is the chellenge for us today and throughout this week?
“Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed”
Heb. 12:12–13
Final Blessing:
May YAHWEH grant healing of body, soul, and spirit to all those who KISS THE SON, and love HIM.
Hebrew Messianic Israel 