Pieter_Schoubroeck_-_De_verwoesting_van_Sodom_en_Gomorra
Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven.
Genesis 19:24
God is good but he is
not
safe. He is not a cosmic Santa Claus or a benign grandfather or a cuddly teddy bear. He is the Lord! He is the Sovereign Ruler of the universe. He is the Judge of all the earth. He is a consuming fire. He is most holy.
He will judge sin. Don't kid yourself. Sooner or later, he will judge sin. Our only hope is to run to him as Savior before we face him as Judge. If we flee to him as Savior, then "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1) and we have "passed from death to life" (John 5:24).
In Genesis 19 we read of God's severe judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. The sin of these cities is proverbial. God's judgment was breathtaking, as well as sobering.
We don't understand God's judgment. Not really. It is his mysterious work. But because he is good and because he is just and because he is holy, God
must
judge sin.
It helps to think of an extreme example: Adolf Hitler exterminated six million Jews with horrific, brutal deaths. Moreover, his acts of war led to the deaths of
fifty million
people who died in World War II. If God does not judge Hitler, if Hitler faces no accountability for his unspeakable atrocities, then we would have to question the goodness of God. Would a good God, a moral God, a holy God,
not
judge Hitler? Would a good God treat a Hitler and a Mother Teresa the same? Of course not!
Down deep, we know that God must judge evil, that somehow it is only right for God to judge. We just don't understand some of his judgments that seem so severe.
But God is God and not me. God will not fit inside my tiny box. He is the God of all creation and he does as he chooses. He is just, and he will do what is right and fair and good.
Make no mistake. He's the Judge. He is not to be trifled with!