#52 Do Not Say, “Oh, God Will Not Be So Angry”In our Gospel lesson a special example of God’s dreadful judgment is given on His beloved and most holy city of Jerusalem and His own peculiar people, which city was His own house and home and which people were members of His own family. Jerusalem was like a second heaven, in which God dwelt with His holy angels, the true worship was instituted, almost every prophet lived and found His grace, and finally Christ the Son of God Himself lived, died, was buried, arose again from the dead and poured out His Holy Spirit. This city was indeed overwhelmed, as it were, with holiness, so that the like has not been in the whole world nor will be to the end of time. All this, however, could not save the city, because the inhabitants thereof did not accept nor follow the Word of God, who so strictly adhered to His Word that His beloved city had to be made desolate. How much less will He spare other cities which are nothing compared to Jerusalem, and other nations which are not as near unto Him as the Jews, who are His blood relations.
Therefore we should pay attention to this example of the wrath of God, and guard against despising His Word, so that we may not say, as we are apt to do: Oh, God will not be so angry, nor will He punish so severely. If He destroyed His holy city of Jerusalem, which was His most precious jewel upon earth, leaving no stone upon another, because the people who heard His Word were not benefited by it, we need not expect Him to spare us, if we are guilty of the same transgressions. Jerusalem was swept away entirely, so that we could not say that one house was left standing. (Luther’s House Postil, Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity, Volume 3, p. 748)
