The Visit with Jacob about God's Wrath 

By April, Jesus and the apostles were several months into their first public teaching work that had begun in January 27 CE. While in Jerusalem, Jesus was invited to lodge with Flavius, a Greek Jew, for one or two nights a week while the rest of the apostles returned to Bethany each night. Flavius’ home became a secret meeting place for prominent Jews who wished to meet with Jesus. One such man was Jacob, a wealthy Greek Jew from Crete, who met with Jesus in this private setting that the apostle Andrew had arranged.

During this meeting, Jacob expressed his confusion about some of the Master’s teachings about the kingdom of God. His main concern was the difference in the way Jesus portrayed the heavenly Father and the way the prophets of old portrayed him. Instead of adopting the old scriptural descriptions of God as a wrathful and jealous Deity, Jesus taught something new: God as a loving and compassionate Father who loves and accepts all who wish to enter his heavenly kingdom.

Jesus’ explanation of his teachings about the heavenly Father caused Jacob to believe; by the end of the meeting, he asked Jesus to lead him into the kingdom.

Jacob said to Jesus: “But, Rabbi, Moses and the olden prophets tell us that Yahweh is a jealous God, a God of great wrath and fierce anger. The prophets say he hates evildoers and takes vengeance on those who do not obey his law. You and your disciples teach us that God is a kind and compassionate Father who so loves all men that he would welcome them into this new kingdom of heaven, which you proclaim is so near at hand.”

Jesus first explained to Jacob that God has never changed, but the way that people view him changes according to the understanding that they have about God in any one time and place. The old scriptural understanding of God was a reflection of the people of those olden times – Moses and the olden prophets. Even so, this understanding had grown with some of the later prophets, like Isaiah, who grasped more of the truth of the heavenly Father. But now, Jesus told Jacob, “I have come to reveal the Father more fully and to demonstrate his love and mercy to everyone.”

The new gospel of the kingdom, personified in Jesus, portrays God as a loving Father and all of his beloved children as spiritual brethren and is a message of joy and goodwill for all people. As more and more people embrace these new teachings, it is inevitable that their old ideas about God will be elevated into a new understanding of God. The old ideas of God as a stern and jealous judge will be replaced with the uplifting revelation of God as a loving Father. As people begin to see the connection between the Fatherhood of God and the love he has for all of his children, relationships among all people will improve for the better. Parents and children will love each other more as they themselves experience this fatherly love for themselves. Jesus told Jacob that while God loves his entire family of children as a whole, the Father loves him as an individual, just as Jacob loves his own children as individuals. And as a loving father himself, he should now accept the fact that God loves him the same way that he loves each of them.

Sometimes, when our children are young and impetuous, they may require discipline. This can cause a child to fear their father and his anger because they cannot discern the father's love, causing him to reprimand his child, unable to understand that it is for the child’s own good. But when children grow up, it would be foolish to maintain such childish ideas; a mature person understands that parental correction is born of the father’s love – not anger or vengeance.

Similarly, as times change, people should learn to perceive God from a more mature viewpoint; continuing to see God as Moses and the prophets did does not reflect the centuries of progressive encounters with God that have occurred since then. Jesus told Jacob that in this new light, he should be able to see God as no one has ever been able to see him before. And once he can accept the love of the heavenly Father, he will joyfully enter the Father’s kingdom, knowing that the God of mercy reigns there. And his joy will only increase as he allows the will of such a loving Father to dominate his life and actions.

Jacob replied to Jesus that he believed him; he asked Jesus to lead him into the Father’s kingdom of love.

When we view the life and teachings of Jesus, we can likewise upstep any of our old ideas about God that engender fear. We can abandon old ideas about the Father’s will being distasteful or running counter to our happiness. Joy will be the result of allowing the Father’s “will of love” to become the dominating influence in our lives because our heavenly Father is the God of love.

When we are in doubt as to whether we should be afraid of God and his imagined wrath, we have only to remember the superb life of his Son. Throughout his life, Jesus portrayed the heavenly Father only in terms of love and mercy. And he said more than once, “When you have seen me you have seen the Father.” This is indeed a bright light with which to examine God's true nature.