“…God gets quite irate…” –Monty Python
This song snippet has me thinking this morning about God getting
angry. Does God get “quite irate”? There are plenty of places in the Bible where
we see that God does get angry, so why does Monty Python poke fun at this idea?
Admittedly, my husband Rob and I poke fun at the idea, too,
especially at the stories in Exodus where God gets angry about something the
Israelites have done and Moses pleads with God to keep him from wiping them
out. Like when the people get Aaron to help them make a golden calf while Moses
is up on the mountain with God. Moses tries
to get God to calm down about it, but God says, “Now leave me alone! Let my fury burn and devour them. Then
I’ll make a great nation out of you” (Ex. 32:10). Depending on how you
see God, this either fits well or seems almost comically out of character.
One of my seminary professors told us
that there have been periods in church history in which church leaders
deemphasized grace and emphasized God’s anger because they didn’t think people
would behave otherwise. Kind of like mom
keeping the kids in line by warning them, “Wait ‘til your father gets home!” Considering
how long it’s been since people started expecting Jesus to come again, maybe
that’s part of God’s strategy, too. If we keep expecting Jesus to show up at any
time, we’ll be less likely to get off track, right?
Marcus Borg, in his book Reading
the Bible Again For the First Time, says that there are is a twofold focus
in the Bible: “radical affirmation of the sovereignty and justice of God, and
radical criticism of an oppressive domination system pretending to be the will
of God.”[1] “Pretending
to be the will of God” means that exploitation of religion has been happening
just about as long as there have been people and religion, and so it’s no
wonder that so many people give up trying to figure all this out.
We can easily find scriptures that
show God’s patience and God’s anger, like Psalm 86:15 that says God is “slow
to anger and abounding in steadfast love,” and others like Psalm 7:11 which says
that God “displays his anger every day.”
Are these both about the same God?
I like the way the author of the
website Got Questions addresses this:
God’s
anger is directed at that which would harm His people and their relationship
with Him. “‘As surely as I live,’ declares the Sovereign LORD, ‘I take no
pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways
and live’” (Ezekiel
33:11).[2]
I also like the way Borg reconciles
the disparity as being a result of the many different voices in the Bible. Borg says:
We hear
the different voices in the conflict between the royal theology of pharaohs and
kings and caesars, and prophetic protest against it by Moses, the prophets,
Jesus, and in their own ways Paul and John of Patmos. Royal theology, whether
in biblical or postbiblical forms, legitimates domination systems. Prophetic
theology opposes them.[3]
Anger is tricky. Suppression of
anger can be a tool of oppression. Self-righteous anger can grow into the
extreme version we see when Wellsboro church shows up to protest holding signs
that say, “God hates fags.” No wonder James
warns that “Human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires”
(James 1:20).
What’s the bottom line? I don’t know that there is a definite answer.
For me, the best answer is the line from the Keith Green song:
“Just keep doing your best, and pray that it's blessed, and he’ll
take care of rest.”[4]
What about you? What do you think about God and anger?
You know, it ain't no use
Banging your head
Up against a cold stone wall
'Cause no one perfect
Except for the Lord--
Even the best's bound to fall
Remember,
He is de vine
And you are de branch
He loves to get you through it if you give him a chance
You just keep doing your best
And pray that it's blessed
And Jesus takes care of the rest
Yes the Lord said He'll take
care of the rest...
…
[1]
Borg,
Marcus J.. Reading the Bible Again For the First Time (p. 322).
HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
[3]
Borg, Marcus J.. Reading the Bible Again For
the First Time (pp. 324-325). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
[4] Keith
Green & Wendell Burton, “He’ll Take Care of the Rest,” 1977
Photo by Brandon Morgan on Unsplash
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