Does God's wrath have a purpose?
Text: Habakkuk 3
Hosts:
Tim DeFor
Vicki Hitzges
Nathan Norman
Narrator: Brian French
The CrossTalk Podcast is a production of CrossTalk Global, equipping biblical communicators, so every culture hears God’s voice. To find out more, or to support the work of this ministry please visit www.crosstalkglobal.org
Produced by Nathan James Norman/Untold Podcast Production
© 2026 CrossTalk Global
Brian: As a Christian and as a pastor, I like talking about God's love, how he created everyone in his image, and how he is the Good Shepherd who seeks out the one lost sheep from the 99. But as a Christian, and as a pastor, it is sometimes hard to talk about God's wrath, his horrifying justice, his terrible judgment. I'm not comfortable with it, and frankly, it scares me. As Christians, we know that one day everyone will face judgment before God. But we also see glimpses of his divine wrath in this life. Whenever natural or man-made catastrophes strike, people often wonder, and I often wonder, Is this God's wrath? Are we facing judgment? I can't fully answer that. I don't think anyone can. But what I do know is that God's justice is worse than all the calamities happening now, and that should scare us all. So what is the point of God's terrifying wrath? Is it to keep people afraid of him? Is it because he's angry with us, to scare us away from sin? If God is so loving, why does the Bible talk about his terrifying wrath? If you want to find out, be sure to listen in. Welcome to Crosstalk, a Christian podcast whose goal is for us to encourage each other to not only increase our knowledge of the Bible, but to take the next step beyond information into transformation. Our goal is to bring the Bible to life into all our lives. I'm Brian French. Today, while Dr. Kent is away, Vicki Hitzges, Nathan Norman, and Tim DeFor conclude their short series through the book of the prophet Habakkuk. If you have a Bible handy, turn to Habakkuk chapter 3 as we join their discussion.
Nathan: Oh, Vicki and Tim, when people hear the term God's wrath, what do they think?
Tim: Oh, I think we think of sudden anger. You know, something set him off. And of course, we do that in part because that's what we witness other people doing. And that's what happens to us. I think maybe they think of God being finicky and fickle, looking for reasons to punish people.
Vicki: Well, back up. I think of God's wrath that way. Not the finicky, fickle part, but when people have violated His law, at least after a while, he gets angry. Are you saying you don't think that's what that means?
Tim: No, I'm not. That's not the question. The question is when people hear the term, what do they think? I don't think I'm trying to make—
Nathan: There's no wrong answers here. It's an open-ended question.
Tim: I think that's what you're saying.
Vicki: Well, my answer is I think he's put up with it long enough and he's done.
Tim: Which is different. Like putting up with something versus something just happened. He didn't see it coming. He just, you know, reacted reactive. That's the sudden anger.
Vicki: Like, okay, okay.
Tim: What just happened? Like explosive, sudden anger that didn't build up. It's just like, I think. So do you want to, do you want to rerecord?
Vicki: No, I like that. But just shorten it. Yeah, I really do. It's real. Yeah.
Tim: Yeah. I think of catastrophic events. Like when, when catastrophic events happen, then some people might think, well, that's God. He's, he's mad at whoever lives in that area.
Nathan: Yeah. Yeah. And I, even in my own life, right, when catastrophic things happen, I'm wondering, is, is God angry at me? Am I being punished for something? Am I being disciplined for something?
Tim: Yeah.
Nathan: Yeah. Wrath is not a positive thing that I want to run to on a regular basis. Uh, over the last 2 weeks, we've seen Habakkuk complain to God. First, he complained to God about the injustice in Judah, and when God told Habakkuk he was going to bring discipline through the Babylonians, Habakkuk objected to using the evil Babylonians to discipline God's people. But God assured the prophet he will bring ultimate judgment to the Babylonians. But now Habakkuk is understandably terrified of God's wrath, of his justice. Vicki, you want to read us Habakkuk 3:1-2?
Vicki: Sure. It says, a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. According to Shugianoff, he says Habakkuk prayed this: O Lord, I have heard the report of you and your work. O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years, revive it. In the midst of the years, make it known.
Nathan: 'in wrath remember mercy.' So he's seeing God's just terrifying wrath, his terrifying justice. I'm going to come and I'm going to discipline harshly Judah. Ah, I'm going to come and decimate the Babylonians after that. And he says, 'In your wrath, in your justice.' He doesn't say it's wrong. He doesn't say you're not justified. But in your wrath, remember mercy. Tim and Vicki, what is mercy and when is a good time to ask for it? Either, either from people, you know, individuals or, or God? What is— let's start with what's mercy? What is that?
Tim: It's an act of grace. I think it's withholding or stopping or reducing anger or some sense of payback.
Vicki: Punishment.
Tim: Yeah, giving somebody else a second chance. I think that's what mercy is. It's withholding potential punishment that is deserved. And when to ask for it— it's first of all when you realize you've made a mistake, when, uh, and more than a mistake, when you've done something very wrong, uh, when you realize that the consequences of not humbling yourself before whoever it is that knows that it's better to do it before the punishment than after.
Vicki: That's right. Yeah.
Nathan: Yeah. Vicki, can you think of good times to ask God or other people for mercy?
Vicki: Well, I'm thinking if, if they, whoever they are, are really angry at me, that's not the best time to ask for mercy. It seems like when people get caught and they realize, oh, everybody knows, that's when they do ask for mercy.
Nathan: Yeah.
Vicki: But like Tim said, the best time ideally would be that you feel convicted and you say, you know, I did something I'm ashamed of.
Nathan: Yeah.
Vicki: Please forgive me.
Tim: Before it's too late. Yes, that's definitely the best time.
Nathan: Yeah. I tell my children that mercy is you not getting grounded after you curse me out. Grace is me taking you for ice cream. Right after, right? So mercy is not getting what you deserve, and grace is getting what you don't deserve.
Vicki: Yeah, that's good.
Tim: That's good.
Nathan: Okay, so he says, in your wrath, remember mercy. And then Habakkuk has a vision of God's beautiful power moving upon the earth. Uh, Vicki, uh, read verses 3 and 4 here.
Vicki: Okay, it says, God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount peren, selah. His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. His brightness was like the light rays flashed from his hand, and there he veiled his power.
Nathan: Okay, so we, we, we see this kind of movement of God. It's beautiful, and there's also power behind it, right? Just raw power. So it's beautiful, but we also know it's dangerous as well. What in our own lives, what is beautiful but potentially dangerous? What examples can you guys think of?
Tim: Oh, we'd go out. We live in Nebraska, and when we found out there was a tornado in the area, we would do the dumb thing and go outside and go out on the porch and look in the direction to see if we could see it. Because even though it's like terrifying, it's just this incredible beauty of this amazing power.
Brian: Yeah.
Tim: And, and sometimes there's hail and sometimes there's things. Yeah, don't do it.
Vicki: You shouldn't tell people that, Tim.
Tim: It's a dumb thing to do, but it—
Nathan: don't do it, but you'll never have this chance again.
Tim: Yeah, well, you have the chance once and there's a reason for that.
Vicki: Uh, I live very close to a suburb of Dallas called Addison, and they may have the largest, best fireworks display in the nation. They're known for it. It's called Boomtown, and that's beautiful. But every once in a while, something goes wrong. I don't know that it's gone wrong in Addison, but you hear about people getting blown up, and, you know, and I mean, fireworks can be deadly.
Nathan: Yeah, yeah, good example.
Tim: Yeah, lava rivers, like, uh, beautiful but not a good place to swim. Terrible. Yeah.
Nathan: Yeah, good examples. Good examples. And great job. My hat's off to both of you for neither saying, you know, oh, beautiful but potentially dangerous, and making the, you know, a hunky guy or a beautiful woman joke. So, but Habakkuk, he sees God is beautiful, but he's dangerously powerful, like a tornado, like a lava river, like fireworks. Beautiful, but powerful, dangerously so. And the vision shifts to see God's terrible wrath. Tim, you want to read verses 5 through 12? It's a little bit of a longer read here.
Tim: Before him went pestilence and plague followed at his heels. He stood and measured the earth. He looked and shook the nations. Then the eternal mountains were scattered. The everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways. I saw the tents of Kushan in affliction. The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord? Was your anger against the rivers, or your indignation against the sea, when you rode on your horses on your chariot of salvation? You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah. You split the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and writhed. The raging rivers swept on. The deep gave forth its voice. It lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their place in the light of your arrows as they sped at the flash of your glittering spear. You marched through the earth in fury. You threshed the nations in anger.
Nathan: This is an interesting vision that God gives Habakkuk. Habakkuk says, 'in your wrath remember mercy.' And then God shows him his beautiful power coming through and this terrifying image, right? If I'm saying, 'Hey, calm down, I need a break, you're overstimulating me, I'm really scared,' right? God goes, 'Oh, I will show you how terrifying I am.' What's the point of this? Why is God showing Habakkuk, his terrifying justice, his terrifying wrath.
Vicki: Why were these just thoughts Habakkuk was having in his head when he was talking about the rivers and the seas?
Nathan: No, I think he's seen a vision, a prophetic vision. I think it's almost in the genre of apocalyptic literature where you see highly metaphoric or symbolic images, physical images to represent the spiritual realities. I think he's— But he's He's seeing this stuff in his head, right? I don't know. I've never had such a vision.
Brian: Okay.
Nathan: You know, Paul was confused because there was times where he's like, "Yeah, I don't know if I actually went up to heaven or if this was a vision in my head. I don't know. This is what I saw. This is what God showed me." So it might have been in his mind. I don't get the sense that he fell asleep and this was a dream. I don't know if he felt raptured somewhere and then he sees this happening before him. I tend to just personally think that he blinks and this is what he sees, as if he was standing on the shores of, uh, of the ocean and this is all the horrifying things happening. Um, can you guys think of real-life catastrophes that are terrible and terrifying that we see today that are just, just scary, scary, scary?
Vicki: Oh yeah, um, the week we're recording this, that huge, like, I don't know how many stories of water came crashing through. Where was that?
Nathan: At Nepal and China?
Vicki: Yes, yes, yes, yes. And, um, it was amazing. And all kinds of people died, and it just happened like they're just walking around and then bam, all this water comes up.
Nathan: Yeah, just terrifying, right? I, I was listening to some Americans who were there, and they said, "We saw the water coming, and people who ran left, we never saw again, and the people who ran right survived." Just—
Vicki: Unbelievable.
Nathan: Split-second decision. Horrifying. Terrifying.
Vicki: We have a wildfire going on right now near Dallas, very near Fort Worth, and they can't put it out. And you think about all the people that live over there, and they're concerned about it and worried about it, and people fighting it. You know, that's a catastrophe and it's terrible.
Tim: Yeah, I think of tsunamis that just come and like that, like kind of like coming down from Nepal, coming down from the top, and then tsunami is up from the bottom. And like, where do you go if, if up is bad and down is bad? Like, it's got to be terrifying. And even things like those are all water images, which is partly what Habakkuk uses. But then there's also things like volcanoes that erupt and, and earthquakes, earthquakes where the earth just splits. Yeah. And those things are sudden and amazing and huge. There's also things that aren't as sudden, like a, you know, a dust storm that— well, it's kind of sudden, but, but it's super dry and a dust storm comes and there's sand flying everywhere. And there's— they call them black blizzards where Oh, wow. It's just like you can't see at all because it's just like, how terrifying.
Vicki: Yeah.
Tim: Yeah.
Nathan: You mentioned tornadoes earlier. That's scary. You can go online and you can watch people driving through wildfires for their lives. Just, just nightmare level stuff. And, and I think the point that Habakkuk is making, or rather God is making through Habakkuk here, is that his wrath is worse. The justice of God is even more terrifying than all of this. So what's this? What's the point? Why does God hate us? Is he just trying to scare us? What is the point? What is the purpose of God's terrifying wrath? Because remember, Habakkuk started this saying, in your wrath, remember mercy. And God goes, oh, wrath? Like this?
Tim: So you rat.
Nathan: I'm really scared, God. Oh, oh, you've seen nothing yet. You think you know fear? Let me show you fear. And he shows him.
Tim: Ah, why? Why?
Nathan: What is the point? Why are you showing me this? What is the purpose of this? And we find the answer in Habakkuk's vision in chapter 3, verses 13 through 15. Vicki, you want to read that for us?
Vicki: Sure. He says So this is Habakkuk talking about God, and he says, "You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
Nathan: You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters." So this text is not a theological discourse on God's wrath, but in this context and in this time, the purpose of God's wrath is to save his people. The reason why God is showing how wrathful, how terrifying his justice is to Habakkuk, is to show that his wrath is to save his people. There comes a point where evil is so bad that God directly intervenes. And so it does serve the purpose of, okay, God does care about sin and he will bring justice into the world. I should repent and I should follow after him.
Tim: Absolutely.
Nathan: That is part of the reality of his wrath. We should be scared of God in one sense that, yes, he does care about sin and righteousness. And I should run from sin and cling to him. But in this context, in this text, God is saying his wrath, all that he's shown Habakkuk, has one laser focus. It is ultimately to save his people, to save his people from themselves and to save them from their enemies. We see God's wrath intervening directly in human history at particular points and moments in time. But I think this also has the end of the world in view, uh, the day of the Lord, the return of Christ. The point of God's terrifying wrath, the purpose of God's terrifying wrath, is to save his people. So we return to Habakkuk's original situation, yet somehow him realizing that in your wrath remember mercy, and God says, yeah, My wrath is for the good of my own people, so that people will change and they will follow after me, and so that my people are rescued from the evil of this world. And we see Habakkuk's changed. He's transformed from seeing this vision. Vicki, you want to read us 16 through 19?
Vicki: Sure. He says, I hear and my body trembles. My lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones. My legs tremble beneath me. 'Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there will be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the deer's. He makes me tread on my high places. To the choir master with stringed instruments. Well, there's a non sequitur, right?
Nathan: Right.
Tim: Yeah, I agree. It doesn't flow as far as a thought. It's a strange jump to a new thing. You're absolutely right about that. I mean, it seems like it doesn't make sense, but it does. It doesn't make sense as far as like that's what he's communicating about, but it does make sense that he put that in there because it's something for all people to remember. So it's like, let's put this in the hymnal and this is going to be remembered, it's going to be sung, this is going to be a reminder for God's people going forward.
Nathan: Yeah, it's interesting. A lot of our modern worship does not talk about God's wrath on behalf of his people, right? It's wrath saving us. It doesn't. Now, I will say as a connoisseur of all genres of music, that heavy metal— actually, Christian heavy metal gets this right. Uh, there's a group called Becoming the Archetype that has, uh, has a number of songs about the coming of Christ and the terrifying wrath that comes with him and judgment against the world and God saving his people. It's interesting to me that that genre, uh, can have so many songs about God's wrath. Actually, maybe it's not interesting, maybe it's, it's obvious. Uh, but then that our kind of modern worship or Christian, popular Christian music, you know, often fails to delve into this deeply. Right. I couldn't think of a worship song to sing along with Habakkuk 3.
Tim: There's even a Christian heavy metal band called Heaven's Wrath. Like, that's the name of the band.
Nathan: Yes. And yeah, anyway, but it's amazing. Like, we read this and go, oh, oh, we should, we should be singing this. So let's go back and sing it. No, but it's incredible here because Habakkuk, at the end of all of this, he's not super comfortable, but he says, I hear my body trembles, my lips quiver at the sound. Rottness enters my bones, my legs tremble beneath me. He's experienced God's terrifying wrath and he is like visibly shaken. And he says, even though I have nothing right, there's no figs, no olive, My people will be taken into captivity by the Babylonians, and it's going to be a time that I'm going to have to wait for the Babylonians to face their judgment. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation, my salvation right now, my salvation in the future to come. He is my strength. He makes my feet like the deer's. He makes me tread on my high places. He rejoices even though he has nothing. Because he is confident that God's rescue is coming. This terrifying, horrifying power is for him, not against him. The point of God's terrifying wrath, the purpose of wrath in this text, is for God to save his people. We've seen God's wrath deliver people in history before. In Exodus, God used his terrifying wrath to rescue his people from enslavement in Egypt. And look, we don't know why God allows all the natural catastrophes in this world, uh, or why he allows tyrants and evil people to persist, but we should still rejoice. Because at the end of Habakkuk's vision, he has nothing, but he still rejoices in God. Why? Because now he knows every bad thing that has happened to God's people God will use for his glory and for our good. The purpose of God's terrifying wrath is to save his people. Just one thing: make sure you're on God's side. It's easy to do. Trust that Jesus died for your sins and rose again, and then you're on God's side. You repent of your sins and turn to Christ. Repent and believe in Jesus.
Brian: Habakkuk discovers the purpose of God's terrifying wrath When God shows his wrath, he wants to save his people. God's wrath is mighty. Make sure you're on God's side. The Crosstalk Podcast is a production of Crosstalk Global, equipping biblical communicators so every culture hears God's voice. To find out more about this educational nonprofit organization, please visit www.crosstalkglobal.org. CrossTalk just finished successful trainings in Bucharest, Moldova, Southern California, Kansas, and Kenya, and we're getting ready for trainings in Cuba and Nepal in the fall. Help us train the next generation of biblical communicators. All you have to do is click Donate in the show notes and make a donation of any size. You can also support this show by rating it on whatever platform you're listening to us. Be sure to join us next week as we begin a new series in another book of the Bible. You won't want to miss it.
Tim: Is it okay if we're building the plane as we're flying?
Nathan: As long as it doesn't crash.
Vicki: Say my point. Just say my point. If you understand it, I'm good with what you've got. Do you understand where I'm tripping up here?
Nathan: Yeah, you're, you're, uh, it's anthropomorphism because when you're angry—
Vicki: That's exactly right. It's my anthropomorphism showing up again.
Nathan: Yes, that darn anthropomorphism.
Tim: There's a, there's a cream for that, I think.