This week I came across an intriguing phrase about Jesus in Mark 3:5: “He looked around at them with anger.” This wasn’t the scene where Jesus throws over tables in the temple. It was in the midst of a conversation about healing. It got me wondering what other surprising references to God’s anger I might find in the Bible.
Along with sources of anger for God that I anticipated like worshipping other gods and plotting evil, I also found that God gets angry about:
- Pride and thinking oneself is better than another person (Isaiah 13:11-13)
- Injustice – God tells the prophet, Amos (5:21-24), that God hates worship and worship services when God’s people don’t also act outside of worship with justice and righteousness.
- Stubbornness about religious rules. The Mark 3:5 verse I mentioned at the beginning says that Jesus got angry with Pharisees – religious leaders – when they would not even engage in a conversation about whether it was right to heal someone (a legal good work) on a Sabbath day (when the law said to do no work).
- Complaining about misfortune that comes when following God (Numbers 11:1). This reminded me of Jesus telling his followers to expect (Matthew 5:11) and even seek (Luke 9:23) misfortune as part of following him.
- Failing to trust God. In Numbers 32:11-13, God expresses anger that the people “have not unreservedly followed me.”
As I read these various verses I recognized bits of my own behavior in each of them, but the last one really grabbed my attention. Does God have any idea how difficult it is to “unreservedly” follow? If I followed without reservation, what might happen? After all, the Hebrew slaves in Egypt lost their grueling-but-at-least-predictable lives and homes, many of Jesus’ disciples lost their jobs, Jesus experienced turmoil with family and neighbors, and from Old Testament to New we see followers of God experiencing their religion as uncomfortable and challenging. How God could expect me not to have reservations about following?
Then I recalled the context of that verse. God’s anger came after the people had experienced God’s care and provision in the past and then still had reservations about following God in the future. I suspect God is challenging me to remember God’s faithfulness to me in the past and to trust that God will continue to be faithful to care and provide for me in the future, so that I will unreservedly follow wherever God leads.
Take a moment to reflect on God’s care and provision for you in the past and say a prayer asking God to give you the assurance that they will continue in the future as you commit to follow God’s lead without reservation.
In Christ,
Rich
Rich Rindfuss
Access Pastor
First United Methodist Church Richardson