The King’s Wrath, Part 1 | A Gospel Study

“I don’t know. Be careful. He could hurt you. He could destroy you.”

“He’s one you don’t want to make angry. His bad side – just… never, ever do anything to get yourself on his bad side.”

The bride-to-be tossed in her bed, trying to ignore the voices slowly shattering the fairytale dream that was almost hers.

Loved, treasured, adored by the king! She had found the one her soul loved, and for so long he seemed like the perfect man. There had always been rumors about his… less gentle side. But she had given little thought to them – until she’d seen his wrath herself. Those enemies of his… captured… judged… condemned… destroyed…

She squeezed her eyes and her blanket, then violently threw the covers off. A delightful chill shot up her body as her feet hit the stone floor. She exited the balcony doors that gave her room its open and airy feel.

One breath of the night air was enough to ease her emotions. The breeze teased the skirt of her nightgown before continuing on to play in the trees around her. She remembered when her heart was as carefree as the wind. Confident in her king. Delighting in his love. She sighed and leaned against the stone balcony rail. Would she ever be able to feel that way again?

That fierce look of judgment in his eyes flashed through her mind again. She closed her eyes against it, but couldn’t let it go. She fought the rising feeling of terror.

That is, until she was suddenly given every reason to be afraid.

Strong hands grabbed her from behind. They clamped over her mouth and pinned her arms to her sides. The shock of the moment immobilized her and by the time she had enough awareness to fight back, two others were upon her, holding her as the first tied her secure.

She thrashed and made every noise she could force out, but it wasn’t enough. Before she even had a chance to look at her captors, one of them struck her on the head, harder than she’d ever been hit before. As her body went limp and her mind blacked out, she stopped struggling altogether.

Faces of angry men filled her mind’s eye. Blurred, indistinguishable, but all striking fear into her heart. Cruelty, hatred, wrath. The faces shone with it. Then like a bolt of lightening the faces came into sharp focus. The faces were all of the king.

Her eyes snapped open and she gasped as she was startled out of her dream. The uncomfortable feeling of something covering her mouth almost choked her. Her body hurt all over. Everything was dark and dank and moving past her. She tried to find purchase on the ground to stand, but as she flailed about she came to the realization that she was being dragged somewhere.

Two men carried her by her arms through a passage below the earth. It screamed dungeon, the same message screamed by the chains on her wrists and gag around her mouth.

Panic rose in her heart. She screamed and she fought, but she was powerless. Each of the men was twice her size and strength on his own, and all her struggling did was make them angry.

They yelled at her. They hit her. They dragged her over to a dank cell and threw her inside. Bars of iron shrieked to a shut behind her.

“Time that king knew our wrath” she heard one of the men say. The other laughed as they walked away.

She lay in the dirt of that cell and could think only of wrathful men and the pain they were causing her.

Wrath! If only there were no wrath! Then her heart wouldn’t be torn, these enemies wouldn’t hate her, she wouldn’t be in this prison, she would be…

Doomed.

The thought widened her eyes and silenced her sobs. Without wrath, she would be doomed. Because her hope now was the wrath of the king.

In her mind’s eye she saw a king with no wrath.

“What? My bride has been kidnapped?” The king rises from his throne. “Because I am loving and good and powerful… I shall kindly ask the kidnappers to return her!

“What’s this? They refuse?” The king sits back down on his throne. “Did you bribe them? They still refuse? Oh. Well. Guess I’ll need to find a new bride, then…”

She might have laughed if her situation were different. She knew this wasn’t the scene at the castle right now. She knew the king’s love for her would ignite his wrath for her captors. Suddenly his wrath became her greatest comfort.

This is part three of a study of the Gospel I’m doing with Grace over at Following Him Beside Still Waters! The theme this time was “The Fall – Sin and the Wrath of God.” I’ll post the rest of the story along with some thoughts on God’s wrath on Monday. Check out the lovely poem Grace did for part three here: Craving – A Poem