God Can Get Upset

“Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.” (Jer 25:7 AV)

We seldom think of sin in this way.  That is, how it affects God.  The words ‘provoke to anger’ are actually one word in Hebrew and have the idea of a continual vexing resulting in anger.  When we live in habitual sin, this is exactly what we are doing.  We tend to depend on the mercy of God, which is a good thing, but to the exclusion of the reality of His anger.  We don’t like to think it is possible to make God angry.  We think if we are saved and a child of God, He puts up with all that we are and do because He is our Father.   And our Father would never be angry.  God is love, isn’t He?  What ever could we do to make Him mad?  The thing is, if Israel could do it, we can too.  Israel repeatedly went after the gods of the nations around them because they wanted their favor.  It is a repeat of the sin of the Garden of Eden.  Adam chose Eve over God.  He wanted the favor of the one who he could see rather than the acceptance of the One he could not see.  For centuries, the LORD showed great restraint.  He pled with them.  He sent His prophets and warned them.  He brought His anger back when He would have been justified in expressing it.  Yet, they never got it.  They never understood grace and were presumptuous in their sin.  This is not good.  And we are not beyond doing the same.

This morning, I went to the grocers for some planks for grilling.  I want to try my hand at doing fish on the grill.  It will be much healthier for us.  As I was walking through the store looking for the right aisle, I heard a toddler wailing so loudly it could be heard from one corner of the store to the next.  We are talking a good distance with twenty or so aisles to dissipate the sound.  When I heard her, I had walked in the front of the store which was as far away as one can be to where that toddler was.  I could hear every word! Apparently, this little brat didn’t like something his or her parent picked out for them.  All I heard, over and again was, “I don’t want that one.”  It was super loud.  And my new hearing aids had nothing to do with it.  Although a child should never throw a temper tantrum, I understand it happens.  This wasn’t that.  As they say in the South, this child was having a come-a-part.  This child was losing his or her ever-lovin’ mind over something they didn’t want.  Now, if you are the parent of such a child, your patience will run thin.  At some point, you are going to get angry.  At some point in time, that child we receive correction commiserate with his or her transgression.  Love may be present.  But anger is in the forefront.

Now, God is not us.  He has infinite patience and we do not.  Which should give us pause.  If God is angry with our persistent sin, this is a deliberate choice on His part.  We did not get on His last nerve.  We did not entice Him to react in anger because He couldn’t control Himself.  When we vex the LORD to anger, as a matter of choice, He lays aside His grace and assumes the demeanor of anger.  This should be a warning flag.  When God gets angry, He does so on purpose.  When it comes to our persistent sin, it should terrify us that God can and does get upset.  We take sin and grace too lightly.  God takes both very seriously.  Heaven only knows how gracious the LORD has been to us as we fail to please Him time and again.  His grace is without measure.  When the LORD is angry, we should stop dead in our tracks and pay attention.  We do not have to fear Him as the lost must fear Him.  He will love us no matter what.  But when my Dad was angry with me, it hurt.  It hurt more than any spanking he could ever give.  The same is true of God.  His anger should upset us.  Not for the consequences that might come, but at that moment, He is not happy with us.  May we remember our sin does affect God.  It does have more repercussions than unfortunate or undesirable consequences. Sin can, and often does, make God angry.