Be Not An Example To Others

There is another kind of "fear and trembling" [Phil. 2:12], one that, so far from diminishing the assurance of faith, the more firmly establishes it. This happens when believers, considering that the examples of divine wrath executed upon the ungodly as warnings to them, take special care not to provoke God's wrath against them by the same offenses; or, when inwardly contemplating their own misery, learn to depend wholly upon the Lord, without whom they see themselves more unstable and fleeting than any wind.
John Calvin - The Institutes of The Christian Religion 3.2.22

This is one example you do not want to be. And it is the easiest for any of us to be. Not the good, the bad and the ugly. The before picture. The sinner. The proud and self sufficient. If God chose any of us to be an example of divine wrath, would we have a shred of a basis to complain?

No.

Because we are all that He calls us in that circumstance. That there are not more examples of divine wrath and less of divine mercy is only due to one thing.

Divine grace.

We could, I could, easily be this example. Oh, that a merciful Lord and Savior does not require that, but takes it on Himself.

There are many examples to be in life, let's all try harder not to be this one.