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When God Got Angry
Brian Mashburn
April 19, 2015
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When God Got Angry
A minister was approached by a man that he considered a very good friend. This man's marriage was in jeopardy, and he informed the minister that he is doing all he could to reconcile, but needed a large sum of money in order to take care of an urgent need on behalf of his wife. He pleaded his case, and the minister, who considered this man's wife a close friend as well, was moved and glad to personally provide the entire amount.
In short order, the minister received a phone call from the hurt and confused wife with news that her husband had retained a famously vicious lawyer in order to divorce her, and to get as much "out of her" as he could. As she tearfully spoke, the minister realized that his friend had not only used the money to harm rather than bless, but had represented the minister as being on "his side," the proof being that he provided the money for the lawyer.
I hope you can see both the personal nature and the layers of injustice here. Lies, selfishness, greed, slander, abuse of position, and theft, to name a few, are all present. Not to mention that the good intentions of the minister towards both of them was completely thwarted.
When God was a man, and He entered His Temple that was lovingly given to His people to be used as a "house of prayer for all nations", but was instead being used as a "den of robbers" (Mk 11:17), can you imagine the rage within Jesus at the layers upon layers of sin being done? And that it was being done in His name?
There is, of course, an anger that belongs to Hell. Most anger does, in fact. But there is also an anger that belongs to love. It rages not at people, per se, but at injustice enacted (sometimes blindly, or passively) by people. Especially when it is done in His name.
Let us look at God's anger that belongs to God's love.