The Non-angry Planet of a Non-vengeful God

"... still loves to that extent."

There is way too much rage in the psalms. And the prophets. And the book of John’s Revelation. If we are to believe what’s written, God is on a permanent bender, doing away with all that exists. Selah. Pause and calmly think of that.

Nothing is farther from the truth. The psalms were written by men. Oh, wait. Moses was also a man, so let’s deal with his plea to get God to stop being angry. This has been mostly used by the church to show how we turn God’s gaze from one thing He intends to do to a better option. See, here, Goo, there’s Door #1, a full array of cooking vessels. Door #2, well, that’s a new bathroom. And the secret prize is behind Door #3. No, no, no. This isn’t a game show. God knows all things because He invented all things. He is the reason for all of science which is trying to figure out all things that God invented, while men deny that God invented them. Well, some of them do. But point is, God doesn’t need us to give Him options, and He wasn’t about to explode and actually do away with all of mankind.

So, think of this. God, who knows all things, actually knew what would happen. Gasp. No ... Yes, He did actually. And if you read the passage, you will see that the issue wasn’t God’s anger, but Moses’. God wanted Moses to wake up and see himself. So, let’s advance to the end of Moses’ life just for a moment. What happened? (Waits while you flip pages.) Okay, so Moses got mad and beat a rock twice that represented Jesus who would only die once, and Moses’ anger in that instance then prevented him from entering the Promised Land. Now, backing up to this incident where God didn’t need options and was wanting Moses to see himself. Moses says, “No, no, God. Don’t be angry.” And God says, “Sigh. Okay.” Then there’s this weighty pause, and God adds, “You might want to go down and see what Israel is doing.” And Moses says, “Wait. What?” And scurries on down to find Israel doing the deep knee bends with the golden calf. Yeah, here’s the thing: a golden calf THAT YOU MADE did not create you.

How does Moses react? Well … He got mad. Like super mad and gathers to him of Levi, who then kill some 3,000 people in the name of the Lord. Do you see it now? God was trying to save Moses from himself.

“And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.” (Exodus 32:19)

When we know God, we will understand why the Old Testament reads like it does and the New Testament shows what looks, at first, like a new picture. It isn’t a new picture. God has never changed (Malachi 3:6). The same soft loving Father who SO LOVED the world He was willing to die for it, still loves to that extent. Far greater than our human minds can comprehend. He’s so gentle and kind and mild. He is complete and total life, and there’s the issue. Because men have chosen on repeat to walk away from complete and total life and when you do that, there’s nothing but death.

Minister Jesse Duplantis made a profound illustration. He said to go around behind the cross and look at the stripes on Jesus’ back. See that He took those for your healing, your health. Well, when we stand behind the Father and ignore who He is in favor of our opinions, our suppositions, our theories of His actions, then we will be confused about Him and w-r-o-n-g. He looks like anger from that angle. It looks like He’s not helping us. But His hands are in the front. Repent, change your thinking, and gaze into His eyes, which look like Jesus.

Go to Lamentations. Here is the Father’s weeping over the destruction of Jerusalem. What did Jesus do in the gospels? He gazed at Jerusalem and wept. Over her prophets, over her people, over her history. Go to Psalm 23. Here is the Lord our Shepherd providing all we want, restoring our health, putting us on a righteous path, surrounding us with His presence for eternity. What did Jesus say in John 10? I am the Good Shepherd. I came to give my life for the sheep.

Psalm 22 is a picture of Jesus’ sacrifice, His rejection by men, and it’s unfolding. Jesus cried out these words while hanging on the cross, not out of despair, but so men would hear and know He was the fulfillment of them. But where we read hatred against others and destructions of nations, of peoples, these are men’s despair and frustration and not God’s desire for the earth. His desire is John 3:16-17, where there would be no condemnation but love and forgiveness and healing. His desire is the unity pictured in 1 Corinthians 14. We are the body – Jesus’ arms and legs, His internal organs – meant to work together to spread the gospel and support and encourage each other.

So what of the prophets and threats against humanity? Do you read to see the destruction God does not prefer or the blessing He does? We do this all the time. We’re glass half full, going empty, people and not the glass is filling, the glass is sustained because God has hold of it. We’re “God made me a broken pot,” or “broken crayons,” instead of “What marvelous thing did God plant in the pot?” Maybe it’s a rose. He’s the potter, He formed the design of the pot, He moulded the clay, but He’s the potter, the one who plants the seeds and causes them to grow. He sends the rain which waters them and causes it to flourish.

“Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:” (Mark 4:3)

We are told to pull down strongholds in our mind (2 Corinthians 10:4). We read this and don’t realize what those strongholds are. Of the image of God, it’s anything that paints Him in the negative, as harsh and uncaring and un-salvation. Now, is He salvation? Did Jesus die and defeat the devil and the power of death or not? Or was all that just a lot of blood loss? If you think so, then you haven’t met Him. I say this all the time. But when my life was at its darkest and God spoke, He was so much kinder and sweeter and understanding that the image the church had given me. The devil was so very loud, BUT WHEN I LISTENED, God was louder.

What are you listening to? The angry God of judgment men fling at each other? Or the gentle Father who is so patient, He’d wait thousands of years to rescue us, so it’d be just perfect. The loving God who was willing to become a fallible creature, humanity that He breathed life into, on a planet rife with sickness and death, in order to die the most cruel form of death. Come out from behind your rifle, stop turning your sword on yourself, on others, and leave the need to defend yourself with a false image of God. Stop making Him what He isn’t, and instead, whenever it seems like that’s what you see of Him, remind yourself, He is love and ask Him to paint Himself correctly in your vision.

I have to believe Moses realized this upon His death for when He appeared with Elias on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus, they discussed what Jesus had come to do in the light of glory such as men had never seen. The beauty of holiness that God has urged men toward for generations, so that they can live with Him and be like Him.

“While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid.” (Matthew 17:5-7)

Image by David Yonatan González Aburto from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com