For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
I find it amazing that in this day in age where people can’t believe there’s a place of everlasting torment, a place of judgment, a place called hell, that in this verse at least, there may be more than one hell. It goes also with the territory though, that in people’s ignorance and contempt for God’s judgment, there also lies an obliviousness and disdain for God’s love. Consider these scriptures:
God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: (1 John 4:16,17)
Notice the phrase God is love and the phrase the day of judgment are in the same thought here? God’s wrath is as thorough as His love. Both will reach down into the furthest depths. The Bible says that “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3)
God’s anger shall burn unto the lowest hell. But God’s love will shine through the highest heaven. “Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee…” (1 Kings 8:27) Paul said that he knew a man that was “caught up to the third heaven.” (2 Corinthians 12:2) Even the third heaven cannot contain the love of God. And if there’s a fourth or a fifth heaven, God’s love will deliver us there and beyond.
“This life is but the threshold of our existence, — a breath; we gasp once here and live forever.” Edward D. Griffin.
The wrath of God and the love of God will both extend into and baptize our immortal existence with such an intense reality it will make our time here on earth but a brief figment of our imagination. How low is the lowest hell? John said, “I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and great chain in his hand.” (Revelation 20:1) The lowest hell? Where he who falls in will sink deeper and deeper into misery yet never find the bottom. He’ll look back at the first million years of torment and say “My agony has just begun.”
Yet how high is the highest heaven? “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” (Romans 5:20) The Psalmist said, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell… Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Psalm 16:10,11) O that we might realize now, today, here on this earth, what Paul spoke of, “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” (Ephesians 3:19)
I know that there is somewhat of a mystery concerning our future. For John has said “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.” (1 John 3:2) Paul said, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18) Yes, it truly says in the scriptures as Paul quotes, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)
But Paul has also said, “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:10) Just as God can open the eyes of a lost man so that he can see the wretched state of one’s soul, he can also reveal to the saints of God the blessed state their eternal soul. “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:” (Ephesians 2:6)
If a fire is kindled in God’s anger unto the lowest hell, then what is born in God’s love unto the highest heaven? Elisha prayed, ” LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw…” (2 Kings 6:17) Would God show us those great and mighty things?
The Bible says of Stephen, “But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” (Acts 7:55,56)
“Did I not say to you that if you should believe, you will see the glory of God?” Jesus, (John 11:40)
John said, “And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God…” (Revelation 21:10,11)
Would you pray today, “Open thou mine eyes…” (Psalm 119:18)