Photo from: https://www.fullofeyes.com/project/exodus-2511-romans-325/

I cower under its gaze

Anger radiates in burning rays

Fear and terror my companions

Assaulting me with the force of battalions

The heat of wrath burns the air

As I seek to hide the unseen stare

Shame and guilt rightfully mine

Guilty am I of many a crime

The anger and wrath justified

For the offenses I seek to hide

None can accuse Him of sinful anger

Thus, no defense is found in the matter

He is right, I am wrong

Condemned am I in this anger so strong

Rebellion and mutiny, the grand coup

Drenches my record through and through

A total rejection of His rule

Kinging self like an utter fool

My wrongs warranting righteous anger

My sentence sealed in the matter

Crushed beneath the weight of it

Cowering and waiting judgment, I sit.

But then I feel a shift, a diverging

The gaze of anger shifting and turning

It’s oppressive weight suddenly gone

It’s attention to another now drawn

Cautioning a glance up, I raise my eyes and see

In the distance the object of focus instead of me.

On a hill, far away, a crude wooden cross stands

The object of torture and death by cruel men’s hands

Hanging upon it, a masculine form

Now the center focus of this righteous storm

From this distance, only but a shadow

Darkness lay heavy all around masking daylights glow

Fear descended upon my heart

Threatening to rip me apart

What evil is this to divert such wrath

From one such as I fully deserving that

Even as I watched, full vent of rage descended

Crushing the one hung there, just as intended

I turned away, unable to bear the sight

Feeling as though that should be my plight

Moments later, I felt, more than saw, this anger abate

Without looking, I knew the final fate

This man died a horrific death for evil

He died as a condemned criminal

Glancing up one more, I expected to see that cursed hill

But was met only instead by a face of compassion so still

Gone was the hill and this scene of death

Gone was the anger and rage invoked by sins debt

Instead an invitation was extended

The way now open, the way of wrath ended.

I brave a look into these eye’s steady gaze

Immediate shame and fear locking me in their maze

The grace and mercy I witness there

A clear invitation with me to share

Guilt and confusion wash through me and fill my mind

Shame and guilt that I should be the focus of one so kind

Breaking my gaze away, I start to turn

But am stopped by the intense gaze of this loves’ burn

Locked am I to this gaze of His

Transfixed and anchored here to this

The heat and warm of this love rivaling the former wrath

Unable to break gaze now, I marvel what I am looking at

After holding me transfixed for this long moment

He pivots now, exposing the hillside of punishment

His face of love fully exposed

Sits paired with the scene of wrath deposed

Then I understood, in a startling moment of clarity

Then I understood, love and wrath lacked polarity

It was love that produced such wrath on that hill

It was love that crushed this one to death so still

It was my sin, my wrongs that was the object of this wrath

But another bore them for me in the sovereign’s just bath

Perfect love and perfect wrath united as one

To satisfy justice for every wrong I had ever done

The invitation before me now clear

Repent, believe, and come near

This divine king desiring closeness so dear

Offering to wipe the slate clean and clear

An invitation made possible by this death

An invitation made possible by the settling of this debt

A substitute paying the price I owed

Mercy paid the price even as wrath and blood flowed

This one stood in my place of wrath and justice

So that I might stand in the place of love so wondrous

This hillside of death before me

Is the mercy seat opening the way to thee

This one crushed upon the evil piece of wood

Displaying the highest and greatest good

Such mercy, such wonder!

To rip and rend righteous wrath asunder

How could I resist or deny such grace

So kneeling down, I chose surrender and embrace!

Michael Stitzel