CAN GOD GET ANGRY – AT YOU?

 

Does God Get Angry?

The Bible says that God gets angry. That is odd, wouldn’t you say? An omnipotent, gracious, loving God would lose His temper? Actually, that idea should be downright frightening to everyone who believes in God.

Does this mean God can “get up on the wrong side of His bed”, so to speak? If God is in a fickle and grumpy mood, would He cause unimaginable damage to the cosmos, the earth and to all people just because He is angry?

The Bible does say that God gets angry. Here is a link with 25 examples of where the Bible says God gets angry.

God help us if this is the case.

The Bible also tells us that God is all-knowing (omniscient), and all-powerful (omnipotent), He knows all things, and that raises some questions about God ‘getting angry’.

1. If God created all things by His design, why would He make people so they would defy Him to the point it would make Him angry?
   1. Wouldn’t God have known ahead of time that His creation would anger Him? (YES, of course, He would have known. He is all-knowing).
   2. So, couldn’t God have avoided ‘anger issues’ from the start by creating a more compliant people? (YES, He could have). So, WHY didn’t He?
2. Since God is all-knowing (omniscient), and all-powerful (omnipotent), He knows all things. And He can do all things. So, doesn’t this ‘spontaneous anger thing’ seems out of place – almost to the point of being nonsensical?

Still, God apparently has emotions. For example, there was a point in history when God was ‘sorry’ He had made humankind. (Another emotion). Then the Bible says He was ‘grieved in His heart’ that He had to destroy all living things with a flood. Yet another emotion!

Jesus also showed emotions. He seemed to get angry at times – and He is God (the Son).

So, if we mess up and upset Him, maybe it’s His fault? After all, He made us this way. Right? (THAT WOULD BE A NO).

So, what are we to make of this? How are we to respond to God if He is emotionally inclined? Are we safe? Should we quietly tip toe around God so as not to disturb or disrupt Him? Should we hide from Him? Appease Him? We should do none of the things aforementioned – except for one.

We must appease Him. And I should add, we need to understand Him. After all, He is Who created us and made us the way we are, so some understanding might go a long way.

First, appeasement comes through Jesus Christ. We need to come to Christ and from that we form a relationship with Him and gain a personal understanding of God.

God wants us to know Him – and to know about Him. That is why God came to earth as a man. A man with all the characteristics and traits of any other man, but without sin. Truthfully, He was fully man and fully God, and He invited us to come to Him, to spend time with Him and He with us.

Jesus invited us to see His humanity so we could relate to Him and have a relationship with Him. He showed us His humanity when He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness by to be tested by Satan. And, through that time of temping, He did not sin. In fact, it was during His testing that He showed us how to resist temptation and to overcome sin as a man or a woman.

Secondly, it is important to know that there is a human element in the way we perceive God. We perceive God and how He behaves and interacts with us, in human terms. We see Him as angry, happy, grieved or pleased, etc. That is how our limited mind, from our perspective, sees an infinite, undefinable God.

But, God is holy and God is perfect. That is hard for the human mind to fathom. God cannot sin and cannot and will not tolerate sin. He judges the unrighteous person, (those who are not saved – those not ‘covered by the cleansing and appeasing Blood of Jesus) for their sins.

There is a distinction we must make, for God is patient and merciful toward the sinner. But a time will come when God will judge the sin and the unrepentant sinner.

However, if a Christian commits sins, He will correct the sinner, but God will still judge the sin. His correction may come in ways that seem harsh, but in fact are purely redemptive in their nature.

But, what we see as anger (from God), in reality is His response toward sin, remembering that God loves the sinner:

The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in mercy.
He will not always contend with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our guilty deeds.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our wrongdoings from us.

Psalms 103:8-12

However, if you are in rebellion against God, and your life is controlled by sin, and you are living your life according to what your passions choose, it because you are filled with ‘the desires of the flesh’, as the Bible puts it.

The Apostle Paul explains it another way, saying that ‘the sin is which present within you is making you a prisoner of your flesh. Paul laments, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from this body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!”

God will not tolerate ongoing sin because sin is antithetical to God’s nature, and sin angers God. So, if you are willfully harboring sin, you are both, in mortal danger now, and in danger of eternal damnation.

God will judge sin – and you will personally suffer the consequences of His judgment if sin is dwelling within you without the protective covering of Jesus Christ. The unrepentant person will personally suffer the anger and wrath of God.

But, there is Good News. God’s anger and wrath have been quenched and satisfied for those who call on the name of Jesus. It is through God’s sacrificial offering of His Son was payment for sin’s penalty in the life of a believer.

You do not need to suffer the consequences of sin and suffer the anger of God. You can find reconciliation, relief, peace, safety and salvation in the Name of Jesus and through a personal relationship with Him. Jesus has paid the price for your salvation out of His love great for you.

Embrace God and His love – and live!

Your Brother and Friend,

Mike Young