You don’t have to look around very much today to see anger. The pictures and videos of people rioting and looting in our streets show hearts that are bitter with malice, anger and hatred. Burning, destroying, killing. It seems that out of all the human emotions, that anger is the most natural to us. If you concur with God’s Word and believe that we all have an inherited sin nature, then you will better understand why. So many other human emotions run opposite of that sin nature. For instance, you would think that love is natural for us. Yet God is love and because He first loved us, we learned love directly from God. But if you are in rebellion to God, as we all are, then love will come as natural as a monkey playing a piano. But anger, it fits right in with our sin nature. It fits like an Italian driving glove. The ability to hate, be angry and then act upon those rageful emotions is just so easy for us. But what about God, does God get angry? If God is perfect and His love is perfect, does God ever get mad? The only answer we can hope to glean comes from one place…God’s Word. What does God say about himself?
I think our world today has taken away God’s ability to get mad, be angry or act upon either. Our world today has created a God that is void of emotion, void of anger and void of judgement. We like a happy-go-lucky God that is kind, nice and pleasant no matter what we do. We want a God who never judges what we do, gets angry as a result, or then judges the evil that our hands are responsible for. We desire a God that just gets along with us. We desire a God that tolerates anything and everything that we want to do. And face it, people are capable of some pretty debaucherous, disgusting things that they claim make them happy.
Today, we’re living in a worldwide pandemic that has had effects the world has never seen. Economic collapse, record unemployment, governmental paralysis and dumbfounded leaders left scratching their heads and taking shots in the dark at a solution. We’re also witnessing protests, riots and looting at an unprecedented national scale. But why are these things happening? Is it possible that God could be in this mix somehow, judging? Most in the world today, including many Christians, would quickly and completely reject this idea, simply stating that God is love and He is not capable of such things. You see, they have created a God they understand and desire, one that makes sense to the sinning side we all foster. But God is not to be changed. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament and He is still the same God that rules today. So, if you are a Christian and you believe that the Bible is God’s error-free, infallible and perfectly given words, then lets go there to see exactly what God says about Himself getting mad.
Today in Judges chapter 10, we see a tense exchange between God and His chosen people, the Israelites. It’s not an exchange that we should be surprised by because it’s an exchange that has already happened countless times throughout Moses’ first five books of the Bible. In fact, I would say that after the central theme of Jesus Christ in the Bible, the secondary theme is people’s rejection of God. I’ll say it again until you’re sick of hearing it…we are all born sinners and we are all constantly in rebellion of God and His commands until the day we die. Only through the Holy Spirit do we have a daily reprieve to know God, hear from God and follow God. But until you can repent, open your heart to Jesus and follow Him fully, you will walk in this rebellion, rejecting all that God is, does and stands for.
The cycle of rebellion we see this morning in Judges 10, will repeat as long as human hearts beat upon this planet. The Israelites do what is evil in the eyes of the Lord. Why did they do evil? Because as we rebel against God, we choose to go our own way. We do what we want to do. We do what feels good, what seems fun to us and what gives us personal satisfaction. The Israelites worshiped false gods that allowed them to do these in spades. The false god Baal promised them great wealth and financial success. The false god of fertility, Ashteroth, promised them all the free sex they could have with the hundreds of temple prostitutes. Worshiping one of many other popular gods offered them exactly what their flesh wanted and also helped them to conform to the world around them. Just like a religious buffet, following the world allowed them to pick what gods they wanted depending on what those gods could give them. Today is no different.
But in a powerful passage, we see an exchange between God and His people that most people today would simply reject. (Please read on you own Judges 10:10-16) And it all started this way:
“The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the sons of Ammon.”
Because His people rejected Him, God burned with anger against them. Because they chose other false gods over Him, He burned with anger. Because they had forgotten all the good He had done for them and their ancestors, He burned with anger. Because in their pride they chose their own way, He burned against them. Because they chose to satisfy their flesh instead of walking in righteousness, He burned with anger. Because they refused to study and obey His Holy Word that He had carefully given them, He burned with anger. And folks, as our passage clearly tells us, because of the people’s rejection of Him, He judges them, removes His protection, and allows their enemies to overtake them.
When God’s people reject Him, it hurts Him greatly. He loves us so much. He even, upon seeing this endless cycle of sin nature, sent His only Son here to break that cycle of sin. He sent Jesus here to live, die and be raised again so that all those that call upon Him can live eternally in the presence of God. And out of this great love, He asks to be loved in return. As our one and only God. He asks to be worshiped by those that love Him. And He is so worthy of that worship. He asks that we love others as we desire to be loved. He asks that we read, study and know His Words so that we can partake of His Wisdom, His counsel and His wise ways. He asks that we tell others all over the world about the saving Grace of His Son Jesus Christ. He asks that we live a life that will be an attraction to others and not a repulsion. He asks that we be good stewards of what He has given us. He asks that we lovingly serve Him through serving others. He asks that we give back a portion of what He firsts gives us to support His work all over the world. Because He first loved us and saved us from the death of our sin, He simply asks for our love and obedience.
Friends, when you rebel against or purposefully reject the love that God has offered you, He can and rightfully should become angry. But even in His anger, God is still love and has great mercy. Even in His anger He desires to call His children. And He does this through loving judgement. His judgement removes His protection in our lives to allow the world to move in and do what it does; damage and destroy. When God removes His protection because of our rebellion of Him, we can expect confusion, pain, chaos, and even enslavement through our pride and selfish arrogance. But all of this is merely to call you back. To call you back to His side.
Today, see God exactly as He describes Himself in His Word. A righteous, Holy God that burns with anger and jealousy when His people go after other gods, rejecting Him. A God of perfect love that even in His anger will never give up on pursuing His children that stray away in their own sin. A God that will leave the 99 to find the one.
The love of God is amazing.
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