The Wall Street Protest and the Wrath of God

I guess most ordinary people sympathise with the frustrations expressed by the so-called 'Wall Street Protesters' camped out in the major financial centres of the world, including London. We're frustrated because the same people whose greed and malpractice caused the banking crisis are still heading up the banks and still earning vast and immoral sums of money because, 'you have to pay top dollar to get the best people' (even if these people have a track record of utter failure).
No, we might not agree with the way the protesters are ging about it, and no, we may not agree with the anarchic, new age or extreem environmental philosophy of some of them, but all of us who are paid normal salaries and had no experience of banking knew 15 years ago that ever-increasing house prices would all end in tears and we're angry that none of these bankers could see what we all saw.
But what has all this got to do with the wrath of God?
Well, in Jeremiah 6, the Lord expresses his anger with the oppression, false-dealing, greed, unjust gain and complacency of his people. Society had degenerated into the haves and the have-nots - something that should never have happened among God's people. And God is angry at this, so he warns that he will punish his own people for their disobedience and rejection of him and his word. A stronger nation will attack and besiege the capital city, Jerusalem.The description of what will happen is terrifying.
Now there are a number of trajectories here:
First, we know that the NT application of this will be to the church, and to Christians, not the nation. And we're reminded that we must not be those who participate in injustice, greed and oppression because we follow in the steps of the Servant King. But we also acknowledge our guilt, for we have participated in these things. And the astonishing thing is that the horrors of which Jeremiah speaks were poured out on Jesus at the cross. To grasp the magnitude of his sufferings, we need to hear just how angry God was with his disobedient people, and how great was the just penalty - war, desolation, separation from the restraining hand of God, the unleashing of evil. And that's what Christ suffered on our behalf.
Second, as we look at the protests against the abuses of capitalism, we must not allow our sense of outrage to lead us into ungodly rage. Yes, we need to use lawful means of protest to uphold justice and to defend the poor and the oppressed, but we must not fall into the very same trap of greed that swallowed the banks - could it be that we're actually feeling resentment and envy rather than righteous anger? Fortunately God's wrath won't break out on us as it did in the OT because Christ has paid our penalty, but it's only when we realise that that we're motivated to honour and follow him.
And so, third, we must remember that the words of Jeremiah are addressed to God's own people. We cannot expect non-Christians to follow God's paths of humilty, sacrifice, and love to the same extent as those who have been filled and empowered by the Spirit of God, to produce the fruits of the Spirit. This should spur us on to greater urgency in evangelism. Protests are all well and good, but whatever might result from them, it cannot have the transforming power of the gospel.
Fourth, in the end, ungodliness, wickedness and greed will continue until the renewal of all things at the end. Until then, we work, pray, preach, love, give. Until that great and glorious day we must do all we can to be salt and light in a dark and godless world. With God's help we can mitigate the effects of evil but he will not finally do away with them until the end.