“Divine Anger”
“Then the
sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals, and they forsook the
Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt,
and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were
around them, and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked the Lord to anger.” (vv.11-12)
Judges
chapter 2 gives us a clear picture of God’s anger
in action as He deals with the disobedience and sin of Israel. The time of the
judges was a low point in Israel’s history, as God’s people provoked Him to
anger by their sin.
Divine wrath is real, but it is never petty or vengeful - traits
which so often characterize human expressions of anger. Jesus displayed the
righteous anger of God on several occasions, but not to avenge a personal wrong
or to justify Himself.
Be
assured, God will hand us over to the consequences of our own behavior. But
such disasters are never what God truly wants for us. If you suffer and are not
at the place of repentance, tell God of your suffering. However, while we can
begin with crying out in pain, we cannot stop there. Without true repentance,
the Israelites fell back into destructive habits (v.19).
God
is a righteous judge but He also hears us in our suffering—how much more will
He hear our cry, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13)
The Truth
“The Lord
is not slack concerning His
promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing
that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter
3:9)
