ANGER AND WRATH

 

I just read an article on the persecution of Christians, especially in the West, and the favoritism overwhelmingly granted to Muslim immigrants. Yes, I am angry. There is no rational reason for this, especially in light if the fact that the Muslims want to destroy and take over the west. For example, here is the motto of the Muslim Brotherhood

·       “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”

Should we be angry? The hatred and persecution of Christians is prophesied throughout the Bible: Jesus had warned

·       “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. (John 15:18–20)

Therefore, persecution and hatred of Christians are inevitable, right? Yes! God is allowing it to accomplish His glorious purposes. Why then be angry about it or anything at all? For one thing, God created us with the capacity to experience anger over injustice. Therefore, there must be a good purpose for it.

For another thing, Jesus (Mark 3:5) and the Father became angry (numbers 11:33; 12:9). If righteous indignation was appropriate for the omniscient God, who knew, from before His creation, the evil man would perpetrate, why not an appropriate for us also! Indeed, Scripture informs us that anger has a righteous duty:

·       Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger. (Ephesians 4:26)

Nevertheless, anger must submit to God’s wisdom and righteousness, or it can be used destructively. While the righteous empowerment provided by anger can be used for good, if it is not carefully kept under control, it can also used to produce great evil:

·       Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (James 1:19–20)

 

While we must restrain our anger, it doesn’t mean that we should reject it. Instead, we must allow it to empower us for the cause of God’s righteousness. Phinehas, the grandson if Aaron, the High Priest, was overcome by righteous indication over the flagrant disregard for the word of the Lord:

 

·       And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping [over this sin] in the entrance of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand. And the LORD said to Moses, “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. (Numbers 25:6–11)

God rewarded Phinehas for his righteous anger. Had not Phinehas intervened, the plague would have continued. The righteous anger of one man of God was able to turn back God’s wrath. This is something for us to consider! 

Many do not like the idea of a righteous and wrathful God. Instead, we must accept that this is His nature, but it is also ours! Therefore, to reject God is also to reject ourselves and to live conflicted and divided lives.