God of Anger
Psa
21:9 In
his wrath the LORD
will swallow them up, and his fire will
consume them.
There
are some things about the Lord that make us do a double-take. Is the
Lord really like this? On one hand we're told that God is love (1
Jn 4:8), so how, we wonder, can He also be a God of anger, a God of
wrath who destroys people? This needs thinking about!
Let's
start with that incredible man of God, Moses: Then
the LORD
's anger burned against Moses
and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know
he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart
will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words
in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what
to do.” (Ex
4:14,15). This is where looking at the context is important, for this
comes near the end of a long conversation where the Lord has answered
all of Moses' questions, explained what would happen, given two miraculous
signs and still Moses says, “send someone
else to do it.” There is
nothing more that God could say or do more than He has already done
in this conversation. Moses' response is now just selfish obtuseness
and there is no excuse for it. God's anger has been slow to come but
anger is the only response to it.
So
what is anger? A Bible dictionary definition is, “a feeling of
displeasure resulting from injury, mistreatment, opposition, etc.”
It is a natural, right, and just response in certain circumstances.
We so often link anger or wrath with a quick, hasty and selfish response
to an offence, but with God it is the exact opposite. It is a slow,
measured and concerned response of justice. It is slow (Psa 103:8)
because God doesn't just react to people, He gives a fully measured,
perfect response to the situation. The anger or wrath of the Lord
is not a capricious self-concerned response, but a slow concerned
response. We might nod at someone's sin and excuse or ignore it but
God knows that unrestrained sin spreads and destroys so He first speaks
against it, speaks and speaks again, and then acts against it. A willful
ignoring of His calls is just that, a willful ignoring! It
is an act of stupid rebellion; it is pure folly. Stop and think what
emotions you could express: happiness at it. Well that is obviously
stupid! Neutral and unfeeling? How can you remain unfeeling about
a gross crime? Our problem sometimes is that we simply don't feel
enough, we don't think enough about the crime. If you were a husband
and father and your house was invaded by an armed gang and you were
tied up and your wife and daughter raped in front of your eyes, what
would you be feeling? Happiness? Don't be silly! Passive neutrality?
You've got to be joking! It will be absolute, total, hostile anger.
Everything in you will be blazing against them – and rightly so!
So
why do we wonder, when perfect, beautiful God who calls out and calls
out and calls out and has to watch increasing (because it is increasing
before He acts) stupidity, eventually expresses anger? The answer
has to be because we simply are blind to the awfulness of the stupidity.
Why does God judge and destroy? To stop the spread of destructive
sin. As someone has said, the incredible thing is not that God destroys
one or two individuals, but that He doesn't destroy all of us! That
is the wonder of the Cross! It is God's means of diverting His righteous
anger over sin. Why does He ever act against sinners then? So save
the situation getting worse, to save others from the spreading destructive
nature of what this person or people do.