The Day of Wrath

“But seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said to them, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matthew 3:7)

This was John the Baptist speaking to the Pharisees and Sadducees who came to watch the baptism. They were not interested in repenting from their sins and John knew it. They just had to know what John was about. He calls them out for what they are, hypocrites. Later after Jesus begins His ministry, He also calls them out. “Offspring of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:34) The Pharisees adhered to the oral and written Law but placed emphases on the doing of it, not faith in God. The Sadducees only adhered to the written Torah, the first five books of the Bible strictly. Jesus called them out for their hypocrisy and because they were evil and unrepentant in their hearts. Jesus told them exactly who they were. “You are of the devil as father, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and did not abide in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.” (John 8:44)

The Pharisees were the leading religious-political group which formed during the time of the second temple. They always judged a person if they were not adhering strictly to the oral and written Law. But they were more interested in the external observance rather than faith in God and the condition of the heart. The Sadducees were also a religious-political group, but much newer and first appear in the New Testament. They strictly adhere only to the Torah and ignore the prophecies and writings of the prophets, including the psalms. This may be why many Jews today do not read the prophesies of the prophets. If they had they’d recognize Jesus as their Messiah. So, both the Pharisees and Sadducees were out looking at the baptisms taking place and actually trying to find fault.

The day of wrath was known to the Jews of that day. To us, it’s the day Jesus sets foot again on earth and is known as the Second Coming of Jesus. This is not the rapture when the saints meet Jesus in the air. This is the event in which Jesus comes with judgement for His enemies. Zephaniah prophesied about it. “The great day of Jehovah is near; it is near and rushing greatly, the voice of the day of Jehovah. The mighty man shall cry bitterly there. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of waste and ruin, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the ram's horn and alarm against the fortified cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring distress on men, so that they shall walk with the blind, because they have sinned against Jehovah. And their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung.” (Zephaniah 1:14-17) Isaiah prophesied about it. “Howl! For the day of Jehovah is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore all hands shall be faint, and every man's heart shall melt; and they shall be afraid. Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them. They shall be in pain like a woman who travails. They shall be amazed at one another, their faces like flames. Behold, the day of Jehovah comes, cruel and with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land waste; and He shall destroy its sinners out of it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations shall not give light; the sun shall be darkened in its going forth, and the moon shall not reflect its light. And I will visit evil on the world, and their iniquity on the wicked. And I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease and will lay low the pride of tyrants.” (Isaiah 13:6-11) And he continues. “So, I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall move out of its place, in the wrath of Jehovah of Hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger.” (Isaiah 13:13) Paul preached about it and wrote to the Romans about it. “But know that the judgment of God is according to truth on those who practice such things. And, O man, the one judging those who do such things, and practice them, do you think this, that you shall escape the judgment of God? (Romans 2:2-3) Continuing he writes, “But according to your hardness and your impenitent heart, do you treasure up wrath for yourself in a day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each according to his works; indeed to those who with patience in good work are seeking for glory, and honor, and incorruptibility, everlasting life. But to those who indeed disobeying the truth out of self-seeking, and obeying unrighteousness, will be anger and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man who has worked out evil; of the Jew first, and also of the Greek.” (Romans 2:5-9)

There will be some after the rapture who will believe in the Lord and obey His commandments. These are the ones Paul writes about that are “patience in good work are seeking for glory, and honor, and incorruptibility, everlasting life.” Those who are raptured are spared and taken out before the judgement of the world.

In short, the Pharisees and Sadducees were recognized as children of the devil. Such are all evil doers and sinners. John wrote, “In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the Devil: everyone not practicing righteousness is not of God, also he who does not love his brother.” (1John 3:10) They are the ones reserved for God’s Day of wrath.