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| Photo source: desiringgod.org |
Funny thing--it seems like I've blogged quite a bit about sin, repentance, and God's judgement over here (don't believe me? Well, check out this and this and maybe a side of this, for starters!) Other bloggers are typing it up about homesteading, crushing your goals, and living out godly priorities. Not me--uh uh--I am blogging about God's wrath. Awesome. But, as any writer can tell you, you write what you know, and God has me right here, showing me that our only hope in this life is God's anger.
What?!?!
Yep, you heard me correctly.
Our only hope in this life is God's anger.
Think I am nuts? Well, I recently heard this same line of reasoning from a legitimate, degree-wielding sound theologian, Paul Tripp, in his study of Jonah.
While we just looooove talking about God's grace, mercy, and love, it turns out that these things are intricately woven with God's judgment and wrath. In fact, you can't have one without the other, nor can you understand one without the other.
Deep down, we parents know this. While I use my arms to wrap my three little ones close in a hug, I have also used them to swat their hands when they have reached out for a hot stove or pop their bottoms when their attitude is out of line.
When you read the Bible, and I am talking the whole Bible (not just those bits and pieces we love to monogram on pillows or slap onto the bumpers of our cars), you come to a sobering realization:
God--and God alone--is the angriest character in the Bible
We can't excuse it, nor can we always explain it away.
Now, let us not misunderstand--God's anger is very different than our own. For starters, God is a holy and perfect God, therefore his anger is without the taint of sin.
But perhaps the most striking difference between God's anger and our own is that God's anger always has a redemptive purpose.
What do I mean by that?
I mean that God's anger is always restorative. It's purpose is to drive us closer to Him.
Not so with my anger! My anger drives a wedge between my spouse and me, or between my children and me. My anger shuts down communication.
But God's anger facilitates communication. Need proof? Look at Jonah. If God's anger was punitive, Jonah's story would end after chapter 1 when he gets thrown into the raging sea. But instead, the storm of God's wrath brings Jonah to repentance. It actually facilitates a conversation between God and Jonah (see chapter 2) where Jonah comes to a change of heart and restores their relationship and the call on his life. And as we have studied before, the storm of God's wrath in the book of Jonah comes with so many of His wondrous graces--the big fish who saved Jonah's life, a second chance to minister to the Ninevites.
There are many, many examples in the Old Testament when God shows His wrath when His people fail to worship him in the way He has ordained. Take Uzzah, who was instantly killed when he reached out to steady the Ark of the Covenant on the ox cart. (Turns out, God had dictated that the Ark was always to be carried on poles--see 2 Samuel 6.) Or take the time when Korah rebelled against the authority of God, and those whom He had put into place, and the ground opened up and swallowed him and his family up whole (see Numbers 16). Lastly, we see God's anger throughout the Scriptures--literally from Genesis through Revelation--against sin. God is angry about sin and will seek justice for all wrongs done here on Earth. Praise God! I know this truth gives me soooo much peace as I see and hear about injustice and oppression around the world, or feel the sting of it in my own life. God will be faithful to right ALL wrongs! We can have peace knowing God will take up our cause and see that justice is done when we are sinned against.
Finally, God's anger was poured out on the cross of Christ which provided the only means of salvation for us all. When Christ was crucified, the curtain separating us from God's presence was ripped into two. God's wrath and God's grace kiss here on the cross, and neither makes sense without the other...
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| Photo source: dailythoughts4us.blogspot.com |
In short, God's anger serves a very important and dare I say, loving and merciful purpose:
It brings us to Him, His holy ways of worship, and wakens us up to our sin and waywardness so we can be in a right relationship with Him.
And so I can confidently say again, God's anger is our only hope. I challenge you to read God's word through this very powerful and sobering, and even uncomfortable lens. Instead of minimizing, explaining away, or excusing God's anger, embrace it as you learn more about Him through His Word and through the experiences in your own life. Let us thank God for his anger today.
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