Look at what the Bible says about YHWH's wrath. It is strong and frightening. Some wish to make YHWH
one-dimensional: "YHWH is love" - as if love were His only quality. That is not the picture we find in
Scripture.
Psalm 7:11 says that, ―God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day"
Nah 1:2 says, ―God is jealous, and the LORD avenges; The LORD avenges and is furious. The LORD will
take vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies."
It is in the New Covenant as well as the Old, ―For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness" (Rom 1:18)
The reason for this horrifying wrath is the horrid, offensive nature of sin. YHWH hates sin. It deserves to be
punished. It should be punished. YHWH is just; it will be punished. Nah 1:3 affirms, ―The LORD is slow to
anger and great in power, And will not at all acquit the wicked." YHWH cannot simply overlook sin. He is too
holy to just pretend it didn't happen. He is not a Santa Claus figure – who for all the threatening about being
nice still comes any way.
Y‘shua‘s substitutionary work on the crucifixion stake made Him the object of YHWH's wrath:
On the crucifixion stake, Y‘shua was experiencing sin for us. ―For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin
for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor 5:21).
Notice the stunning words the Scriptures use to describe the experience of Y‘shua (emphasis added)...
―Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, 'Cursed is
everyone who hangs on a tree')" (Gal 3:13)
(4) ―Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows...
(5) He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our
peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed...
(6) ...the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.‖ (Isaiah 53:4-6)
(10) ...it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an
offering for sin." (Isaiah 53:10)
One key word to explain what happened at the stake is propitiation: ―And He Himself is the propitiation for
our sins" (1 John 2:2). The word means to turn away wrath by sacrifice, and thus make YHWH favourable
toward us. In pagan religions, it‘s like the tribe throwing the virgin into the volcano. Is this a Biblical concept?
The difference between that and pagan tribesmen chucking the girl down the volcano is that, first, the
volcano deity is a fictional character; and second, true Deity has come Himself to be the sacrifice. Y‘shua
turned the wrath from us by absorbing it in Himself. He exchanged His righteousness for our
unrighteousness.
The context and nature of Y‟shua‟s experienceWas Y‘shua Actually Forsaken?
Y‘shua was in some way forsaken, in that He actually experienced the wrath of YHWH on the crucifixion
stake.
Y‘shua, as a Man, had lived in continuous fellowship with the Father: ―And He who sent Me is with Me. The
Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him." (John 8:29). Yet now on the
crucifixion stake, His fellowship with the Father is broken. There is a thick darkness covering the day (verse
45). It is not merely the absence of light; it is spiritual and it is thick. Y‘shua is experiencing the wrath of
YHWH as our substitute – the wrath which we deserved. The word He uses for this He takes from Psalm
22:1 – forsaken. ―My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
"I remember, also, that our blessed Lord had lived in unbroken fellowship with God, and to be forsaken was
a new grief to him. He had never known what the dark was till then: his life had been lived in the light of
God... His fellowship with the Father was of the highest, deepest, fullest order; and what must the loss of it
have been? We lose but drops when we lose our joyful experience of heavenly fellowship; and yet the loss is
killing: but to our Lord Jesus Christ the sea was dried up I mean his sea of fellowship with the infinite God." -
Charles Spurgeon.