“I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not” (Jude 5).

The picture of a loving Savior holding a child in arms is a fitting one for Jesus, but some recoil when contemplating the same Lord also bringing judgment and destruction. The verse for today depicts Him as both Savior and Destroyer.

Jesus does not delight in the death of the wicked, to be sure, but He does and will destroy those who remain in unbelief. As Supreme Judge, He will say to those on His left, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire . . .” (Matthew 25:41).

David wrote, “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way” (Psalm 2:12). Paul, a thousand years later, wrote that Jesus (with His mighty angels) will take “vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (II Thessalonians 1:8).

Few, if any, reading the account of David and Goliath, pity the death of the mocking giant. He deserved what he got; justice was done. God’s people rejoice in the vindication of truth.

There is tremendous evil in today’s world. We query, “What is this world coming to?” It is coming to the Day of Judgment! Vengeance belongs to Jesus; He will repay. He “treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” (Revelation 19:15).

David valiantly brought down Goliath and became a great king. His position, however, was much lower than that of Jesus, for the Lord “hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:16). Praise God that His Son is both caring and just! PGH