EMOTIONS OF GOD #2/4
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
DIVINE ANGER
August 10, 2003
Text: Numbers 32:1-15
Earlier this summer, amid all the typical fanfare and hoopla, a movie was
scheduled to make its debut. The main character in this movie who, in
times of uncontrollable anger, becomes a green monster, of sorts. Yes,
its The Incredible Hulk. Of course, the Hulk is not just a movie; it has
been a comic book character for a long time and was a TV show for a brief
while. I dont think that the movie version has done too well.
I havent seen it, so I cant comment too much on its content.
Nevertheless, Im not certain that many of us care to get too excited
about a person with uncontrollable anger. I wonder if one of the reasons
that it doesnt sell well is because most of us have experienced
explosive, out-of-control anger. Either we are guilty of it or have
witnessed it in someone or both. At any rate, we are very aware that an
angry person is an unpleasant person, even if they stop short of turning
into a green Hulk.
Of course, our experience with human anger causes great discomfort and
misunderstanding when it comes to dealing with the concept of Gods
anger. Typically, we dont do a very good job understanding this emotion
of God. As Christians filled with the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ,
it is sometimes difficult for us to accept that God expresses emotions
such as jealousy and anger and, even more frightening, acts on those
emotions.
My purpose in this series on the emotions of God is to remind us that God
experiences real emotions. Whether they make us uncomfortable or not, God
is not some unfeeling neutered spirit. God feels. He is a person - a
divine person, yes, but a person nevertheless. God feels, and the
expressions of Gods emotions are found throughout Scripture. As I
mentioned last week, God will not do anything that is not redemptive.
This is what makes Gods emotional experiences and behavior different
than ours.
Historically, the Christians concept of Gods anger has swung the full
extent of the proverbial pendulum. In some times, God was described as
full of wrath, ready to strike with the full force of His angry fury at
the merest breech of holy law. Acts 5:1-11 tells the well known account
of Ananias and Sapphira. Both of them were struck dead the moment they
deceived the Holy Spirit. Verses 9-11, Peter said to her, How could you
agree to test the Spirit of the Lord! The feet of the men who buried your
husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also. At that
moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in
and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
On the other side of the spectrum are those who have concluded that God
is almost incapable of anger. They cant rule it out entirely, but the
focus is so much on Gods compassionate love in Jesus Christ that there
is little room for anger over slight breeches of divine law. After all,
God forgives! How can He be so angry if He is willing to forgive His
poor, pitiful creatures? And as long as we mere mortals get along in love
and unity, then God will allow us to get by with anything. Such are the
attitudes, for instance, of those who continue to push for the legitimacy
of homosexuality in the Church.
Scripture makes it very clear, uncomfortably so at times, that God
becomes angry. Verse 10 of the morning text reads, The Lords anger was
aroused that day
It makes it just as clear that God acts upon His anger
as well. Verse 11, Because they have not followed me wholeheartedly, not
one of the men twenty years old or more who came up out of Egypt will see
the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
The results of Gods anger is always very tough on those whom He acts
against. But remember, God will not do anything that is not redemptive.
Time after time, Gods anger was aroused because His people spurned His
care for them. They built and worshiped idols and the gods of foreign
nations. They wandered farther and farther from His divine protection and
will. Idolatry led to other forms of disobedience; disobedience that
disrespected their neighbors and themselves. The poor were defrauded.
Laws were used to create and maintain power and wealth for a few instead
of for justice. Marital fidelity was easily shoved aside. It became
easier and easier for families and tribes of the Hebrew people to fight
and feud. Left to their own devices, they would have destroyed
themselves. One of the results of Gods anger was that Israels
self-destruction was not allowed.
As we know, the covenant made through Christ has been understood to be
more personal. We enter into a personal relationship with God through
Jesus. Our salvation covenant is not made through relationship as a
nation; it is made in Gods commitment to each of us and our commitment
to Him.
Similarly, Gods anger is understood to be more personable. Now, when we
face Gods wrath, we do not perceive this to be good news. But put into
the perspective of Gods ultimate motivation - that is, everything He
does is redemptive - then even Gods anger is good news. Gods love is
opposed to evil; therefore, Gods anger is directed at evil. Whether evil
is directed at us or perpetrated by us, God will oppose it. Writes
theologian Gustaf Aulén, God is always and under all circumstances
hostile to sin. His wrath expresses the intensity and radical character
of his repudiation of sin
Love does not hesitate to wound and break
down. Gods love does not appear at all to Christian faith as sentimental
and effeminate
When it has sometimes been said that God hates sin but
loves the sinner, we might approve the intention of such a distinction,
provided it is meant to maintain the divine love in the midst of wrath.
But the distinction is of questionable value. It presupposes that sin can
be distinguished from the sinner in a way that really obscures the nature
of sin as a perversion of the will
It is more correct to insist that God
both hates and loves the sinner, and that his wrath is connected with and
depends on his love. (Gustaf Aulén, The Faith of the Christian Church,
Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1960, pp. 119-120.)
The Biblical truths that Aulén echoes are that Gods anger is not the
explosive, out-of-control anger that plagues and frightens humanity. It
is a very controlled, calculated, and specific anger applied to the
opposition of evil. The evil we are talking about here, by the way, is
the evil defined by Gods holy nature. Even though there are some very
good people in this world, their personal rebellion to God is sinful - an
evil - and therefore subject to Gods wrath. Those who have come to God
through His saving grace in Christ are not exempt from Gods wrath when
they engage in evil - sinful - behavior. Gods anger is not capricious,
then, nor random nor hard to understand. When we realize fully and
completely that Gods love radically opposes evil, then we know the full
extent and purpose of Gods anger.
By contrast, human anger is not always directed against evil. Many times,
human anger occurs because the evil deed has been uncovered. How many
times are acts of vengeance committed against someone because he or she
exposes a criminal act? Such anger is certainly not Godly anger. Human
anger contrasts with Gods anger in other ways, too.
If youre like me, sometimes you have been angry one moment only to
discover that you didnt know everything about the situation? Once you
found out all the facts, then you had no basis for your anger. God does
not have to worry with not knowing all the facts. In the case of Israel,
He knew whether they were rejecting Him or not. He knows whether we are
obedient or not. He knows whether we are acting in love or not. His anger
will not be misdirected.
God also has the patience to allow for repentance before executing His
wrath. Quite often, the human will lash out quickly without determining
the best course of action or consequences. In the case of Israel, God
typically waited generations before carrying out His anger. Imagine that!
The prophets sounded warning after warning, and God waited for His people
to turn from their wickedness. He waited years with His arms opened wide
for His children to return in faith to their first love. This is not the
picture a harsh, wrathful, impossible to please God typically attributed
to Him from the Old Testament record. God was as willing to redeem then
as He was through His revelation in Christ. Of course, we know since that
revelation to what extent God was willing to sacrifice in order to
redeem. God is just as wrathful toward our sin as He was toward Israels
sin, except that His wrath was mysteriously and divinely directed toward
the Son instead of toward us.
Turn to Psalm 78:38-39, where we read of Gods patience. Yet he was
merciful; he atoned for their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time
after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath. He
remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not
return. Also, Psalm 86:15. David captures in this prayer, But you, O
Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in
love and faithfulness. Can we say the same thing about our human anger?
Usually not. So this is why we make a mistake to confuse our typical
angry behavior with Gods anger and His use of it. This is why we can
accept that God feels anger and acts out His anger. His purpose remains
divine, and we can always trust that Gods anger is divine and
redemptive. God saves. He will not be mocked, that is true; neither will
He allow evil to prevail. But above everything else, God saves. Praise
the name of God.
Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN
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