Let’s take the next step. Let’s dig into the good reasons to become good and angry. Where can we find an excellent example? Winston Churchill gave us a glimpse, but on the larger scale Churchill’s ego made him far from a role model for all godly attributes! Abraham Lincoln also gave us a glimpse, but his uncertain appreciation for Jesus Christ makes his example less than complete as well. Where can we find someone who is completely honest about anger, and that anger operates as a good? Let’s start in an unusual place—but one that makes perfect sense when you think about it.
The “Wrath of God”
All through the Bible we witness the nasty effects of grumbling, hostility, and conflict. But alongside and intersecting that sinful anger, the Bible captures an entirely different picture of anger in action. No other biography or autobiography gives so much detail about how good and justified anger works. It’s candid. But it is admirable and appropriate, not embarrassing or overblown. Jesus said, in his matter-of-fact way, “There is only one who is good”—the God portrayed in the Hebrew Bible. Every other character in Scripture has feet of clay. Moses lost his temper. David was coldly vindictive to a man who did him no wrong. Jesus’s disciples argued with each other about who was the greatest.
The only one who is good also happens to be the best-known angry person in all history and literature! No other person in history has ever allowed his or her anger to be so carefully detailed and held up for public inspection. No book ever written tells so much about one person’s anger—and portrays it as essentially and coherently good. Never capricious. Never irritable. Never selfish. The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament that consistently builds upon it offer an extended, coherent case study. Among other things, it’s a case study in the inner workings and the outworking of healthy anger.
Put aside whatever you think the “wrath of God” is all about. Come look at how it’s actually described. Climb inside it. I think you’ll find it very surprising. We’ve all had the experience of our stereotypes being turned upside-down by firsthand experience. I think you’ll find it very illuminating, perhaps wondrous, sometimes disturbing, always challenging—but in a way that makes great good sense.
How God’s Anger Helps Us Make Sense of Our Own Anger
Whatever you currently think about God, come and take a close look at the most famous angry person in history. You will discover that there is no one whose anger is so like your own and yet so refreshingly different. Remember that we were made in his image, with the potential for holy indignation at evil. And however twisted and upside-down our anger has become, the Lord lovingly intends to remake us into that very image. The remaking is actually far richer and more complex than the original making.
Our re-creation is not simply as a pristine potential. What emerges—slowly and imperfectly—is seasoned and deepened by life experience. We learn the image of Christ out of the wreckage of our firsthand participation in evil. We grow in his image as our salvation in Christ gradually unfolds, as he gradually works out what he has begun. We learn in the midst of a continual baptism by fire—being called to live out that image in a world of wrongs, as Christ himself did.
I’m persuaded that we can learn a great deal about ourselves and others by slowing down and taking an actual look at this thing termed the “wrath of God.” It’s the clearest example I know of how to get good and angry—and be patient, merciful, and generous at the same time. You will have to discard prejudices and preconceptions. Many people, whether religious or irreligious, envision the God of the Bible as ill-tempered, exacting, and capricious—rather like us at our worst. Particularly in his Old Testament incarnation, he’s supposedly a looming storm cloud of petty, harsh, vengeful wrath.
But I’m not sure what “Scripture” such folk have been reading. The god they describe sounds uncannily like us when anger goes sour: demanding, arbitrary, irritable, and judgmental. It sounds nothing like the person actually portrayed in the Bible. Jesus is portrayed as the explicit image of the God of the Old Testament. He is the “I AM” come in the flesh—generous mercies and just angers perfectly joined. He is the most admired person in human history, for good reason. Jesus gets just as angry as the God whose character he expresses. And Jesus is the archetype of courageous, self-giving, tender love. When you consider how God describes himself in relationship to anger, you will see why Jesus’s approach to anger is so much different than what comes naturally to us.
God Is Slow to Anger and Quick to Show Mercy
Consider this example first. “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made” (Psalm 145:8–9, author emphasis). Notice, in particular, the description “slow to anger.” It doesn’t mean he’s so easygoing or indifferent that he never gets upset. That same psalm says “all the wicked he will destroy” (v. 20).
But God’s anger follows a certain pattern. It is embedded in tangible goodness and mercy. It arises slowly, and when it arises it is actually an aspect of his moral goodness. He attacks only what is truly evil. He does great good to all (Matthew 5:45). And only after the insult of endless ingratitude and life-defining rebellion does he cut off evil. The Greek word for patience literally says that God is “long-tempered.” It’s just the opposite of someone with a short fuse. God is patient in that he continues to actively treat people well, even when they are offensive and ungrateful. God does get angry, but it’s the opposite of spiteful and irascible.
Consider that one of the prophets actually got mad at God because God was too patient for his taste and preferences. Jonah said, “I knew it! I ran away from you because I know you are so slow to anger. If I warned the Ninevites to straighten up, I knew you’d let them off the hook. I want you to destroy my enemies—not show compassion” (Jonah 4:1–3, author paraphrase).
God responded by dealing gently (and pointedly) with Jonah’s anger, in one of the most comic scenes of the entire Bible. He lets Jonah gets mad about a shade bush that wilts, then says, “You care when a plant dies, because it inconveniences you. Shouldn’t I care if people die?” (Jonah 4:10–11, author paraphrase). God gets angry—at Jonah, at Nineveh. But God is slow to anger and quick to show mercy.
Jesus makes the same point in the New Testament, putting a further twist to it: “Love your enemies . . . and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:35–36 NASB). To become slow to anger is to become like God. It is a quality that frequently describes God and frequently describes what we are meant to be.
God’s Anger Is Fair-Minded
We’ve seen how anger intrinsically makes a moral statement. It is about right and wrong. It is about fairness. God is slow to anger, patient, and generous. But he also gets angry—really angry. At the same time, he is always fair. He is fiercely fair-minded.
In reference to God, wrath and fury don’t describe a mere irritable mood or a momentary tantrum. They express God’s wholehearted decision to destroy things he finds utterly despicable. There’s no contradiction at all between slowness to anger and fierce indignation. In fact, it’s because God loves so intensely that he must get angry. “That matters . . . and it’s wrong!” Without such anger, so called love would be a bland, detached tolerance. If he’s going to get up close and deal personally in a world that has a lot of wrong in it, then he must get angry. God is angry at those who victimize and oppress others. He defends the victim. He must stand up for the weak and powerless. He considers wrongs done and takes them in hand (Psalm 10:14). His anger rights wrongs and overturns injustices.
It’s the same in both the Old and the New Testaments. Jesus (“gentle Jesus meek and mild”?) blazes with anger both before and after he tells us to be as loving and tender as God is with the people who make us mad! He says, “Woe to you, woe to you, woe to you. If you condemn others, God will condemn you. If you don’t listen to what I’m saying, you will be destroyed!” (Luke 6:24–26, 37, 49, author paraphrase).
There are passages in the Bible where heat blisters the page. But it’s never irascible. Churches that talk about God’s wrath usually portray it only as threatening. Churches that criticize those churches don’t offer a corrective view of wrath, but simply eliminate God’s anger as unfitting. But rarely are the beauty, internal logic, and necessity of God’s wrath communicated.
Here’s one particularly sizzling example: “The anger of the Lord burned against that land, to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book; and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and cast them into another land” (Deuteronomy 29:27–28 NASB). Moses uses up just about all the synonyms, doesn’t he? What can we learn by studying such concentrated outrage?
Don’t let any preconceptions you have about “the wrath of God” keep you from stopping to examine the inner logic of how God’s anger works. His anger always arises for a good reason. It’s never a fit or spasm or bad hair day. It’s never brooding hostility just waiting to explode on some innocent, well-meaning bystander who happened to get caught in the cross fire. The causes are clearly identified and they make perfect sense when you stop, listen, and think about it.
In the passage just mentioned, astute observers are witnessing the impact of God’s anger at work. It’s as if they are walking through the rubble of a Nazi munitions factory in June 1945. The Allies bombed this building for some good reason. The people ask the logical question, “Why did the Lord do this to them? Why this great outburst of anger?” (Deuteronomy 29:24, author paraphrase). They didn’t deny God’s evident anger. But they were curious about the reasons.
The answer came simple and clear: “These people betrayed me. I loved them, but they proved to be traitors” (vv. 25–26, author paraphrase). That makes sense. It’s not irritation or nit-picking to be upset at treason. People who have every reason to be loyal, thankful friends instead betray him. And their betrayal of God led them to betray others. God haters become people haters who abused and destroyed others.
This instinctively makes sense to each of us. As you grasp it, “the wrath of God” seems not only logical, but right. You’ll become clearer in thinking about your own anger too. If he’s good, how could God not get angry at things that are plain wrong? Consider the following examples of things that elicit righteous anger, in order to get a feeling for the inner logic of God’s anger. It will help you understand your own anger at its best. It will shed more light on where your anger goes bad. It will point in the direction of remaking your experience and expression of anger for the good.
- Betrayal and treason
- Lies, gross misrepresentation of another, character defamation
- Hypocrisy
- Laziness, workaholism, or a harsh taskmaster
- Stubbornness, rebellion, and back talk
- Murder and physical abuse
- Sexual betrayal or abuse
- Cheating and stealing
- Slander and gossip
- Entitlement and greed
Even people who claim that there are no moral absolutes tend to get distressed by such evils.
Now take another look at that list. Have you ever seen a list like that before? If they sound vaguely familiar, it’s because they precisely mirror the Ten Commandments God gave us in the Bible.
- You shall have no other gods except the true God—don’t betray him.
- Don’t worship lies and self-serving fictions. No idolatrous substitutes for the real thing.
- You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain, mouthing God talk while living a life of pretense and contradiction. (That’s actually the core meaning of this commandment; profanity and cursing are secondary meanings.)
- Your life needs a rhythm of hard work and true rest to evidence trust in God as your provider and to bring joy to the weary.
- Honor your father and mother, rather than rebelling against them.
- Don’t murder or do any other harm to another or express unjust and damning anger.
- No immorality of any sort. Your sexual ethic should protect others rather than use them.
- Don’t steal in any way, shape, or form.
- Don’t lie or speak evil of others, bearing false witness.
- Don’t organize your life around “I want, I want, I want.”
These things that arouse anger in anyone with a conscience are simply the familiar Ten Commandments, paraphrased a bit, and adapted to our everyday experiences. When your anger is justly aroused, it operates along the lines of the Ten Commandments. Like God, you are displeased at betrayals of love. Selfishness, backstabbing, hypocrisy—all those things that anger you anger God as well. More to the point, the reason these things anger you is because they anger God. He describes us as “made in his image.” We are hardwired morally to know that some things are plain wrong and need to be dealt with.
You actually work the way that God says you work. You have the capacity for just outrage because he does. Notice, God’s anger is not unpredictable and mean-spirited. Far from being a contradiction to love, God’s anger comes from love. It’s the product of love betrayed (when he’s the one being done dirty) and of compassion for the victims of injustice (when others are the ones being hurt).
God’s Anger Is Aroused Toward One Thing
Not only did God publish this list in the Ten Commandments and not only do violations of these things occasion your actual real life anger, but, it’s no accident that these things also form the explicit or implicit basis of our laws protecting persons, property, and reputation. Theft, murder, defamation of character, reckless endangerment, pedophilia, terrorism, treason, and the like not only call forth personal anger, they call for criminal proceedings.
This points us to something else very important to understand about God’s anger, something that also illuminates your own anger. To betray God and to do what harms other people is to break God’s commandments. Perhaps you are familiar with what Jesus called the two greatest commandments, on which everything else hinges (Luke 10:27):
- You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.
- You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Why does God say this? “Because I have loved you, you are made to love me. Because I have made you in my image, you are made to love other people. If you don’t love me or others, you betray a relationship.”
What is the technical word that describes wronging God and others by being unloving? Sin. The word means something that wrongs a relationship. It’s different from mistake or error or failing. It describes a relational betrayal, not just a personal failing. Sin means to wrong God by betraying love for him. Sin means to wrong other people by violating love for them.
Interesting, isn’t it? The things that naturally most outrage you, those things that most universally upset human beings everywhere, are the very things that the Bible labels “sin.” We aren’t often taught that “sin” is what you ought to get upset about—what you often hate automatically—because it’s what God always gets upset about. You can see how far we’ve come from the bizarre notion of a prying, tyrannical God who requires us to give up all freedom and submit to his every whim, who fills us with guilt for no good reason and then punishes us mercilessly.
The God portrayed in the Bible is no killjoy. Love makes joy. But he is rightly hostile to evils because true wrongs hurt people and kill joy. The real God only asks us to give up acting like a traitor toward him and hurting people. His desire is simply that we would love well instead of lie, hurt, and destroy. God’s anger (mirrored by your anger, when it functions accurately and constructively) is aroused toward only one thing: what is objectively, truly, and always wrong. In other words, sin.
God is slow to anger and full of undeserved kindnesses. He is like a parent who hangs in there, persistently loving a wayward child. He gets angry—really angry—at true evils. He shows further, spectacular kindnesses to people willing to deal with what’s wrong.
In this chapter we’ve introduced two of the most unpopular and misunderstood concepts in our world: the wrath of God and sin. I hope these words can begin to serve you in a fresh way. They are extremely important things. When these concepts are unfairly portrayed, they don’t serve you well. But when you understand them truly, they open doors to sanity. You can never really understand yourself (or God, or other people) unless you understand both sin and the wrath of God. They are intrinsic to your humanity and to what plays out on the stage of reality.