Does God Get Angry? With Us?

Does God Get Angry? With Us?

Recently I wrote an article about being "Angry With God." That article, surprisingly turned out to be one of the most popular writings I have ever done. It seems that many people have experienced frustration and anger with God.

So, I thought I would turn the tables on our anger, and write about God's anger. Does God get angry with us? It seems to me that this question is of a much more serious matter. Afterall, the Bible explicitly informs us to "Fear God." And considering the fact that God is all powerful, I think it is much more concerning for each of us to worry about what makes God angry, than to be preoccupied with our disappointments in him.

(Ecclessiastes 12:13-14 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 14. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.)

Yes, God does get angry; there are many examples in the Bible of this. He “displays his wrath every day." (Psalms 7:11 God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.) Yet, thankfully God's anger isn't the petty type of anger that we humans experience. And also, we should be thankful that God is slow to anger!

(II Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.)

As God cannot sin, we know that His anger is a righteous type of indignation, unlike the common experience of anger we ourselves so readily vent. Human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. (James 1:19-20 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 20. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.)

God will get angry when there is a violation of His character. God is righteous, just, and holy, and none of these attributes can God allow, especially out of his own people. In the New Testament, Jesus got angry with the religious teachers and leaders of that day for using religion for their own gain and keeping people in bondage.

So even when God gets angry at the wickedness in people, He acts out to oppose their wickedness in an effort to turn them from evil, that they may find true life and freedom in Him. Even in His anger, God’s motivation is love for people; to restore the righteous relationship that sin destroyed.

While God must bring justice and retribution for sin, those who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior are no longer under God’s wrath for sin. Why? Because Jesus experienced the full measure of the wrath of God on the cross so that we wouldn’t have to.

Righteous anger and indignation are justly expressed when we are confronted with sin. So it is with God! He cannot abide unrighteousness in us! There are listed six things in the Bible that God hates. And if God hates something, we can rest assured these things will make him angry.

(Prov 6:16-19 These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: 17. A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18. An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, 19. A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.)

In closing, and reflecting back on how we might sometimes get angry with God, and blame him for our disappointments in life, maybe we should consider how we may have disappointed him, and whether or not he might have cause to be upset with us! The Fear of God, should always be uppermost in our attitudes!

Darrell G. Young