Then God said to
Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!”
(Jonah 4:9)
The fall into sin causes very awful things to happen in an
individual’s life. Sickness, loss of friendship, death, etc. can and does
happen to God’s children. In these cases is it all right to be angry? Is it
permissible to even be angry at God? Was it right, for example, for Jonah to be
angry at God for showing mercy to Nineveh (Jonah 3:10-4:1)?
We acknowledge that it is God is in control of everything. “There
is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there
any who can deliver from My hand” (Deuteronomy 32:39). Thus He is behind everything
that happens to us that we are displeased about. It also seems that it is He
who permits the Devil to harass and torture us. “And the Lord said to Satan,
‘Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.’ So Satan went out from the
presence of the Lord, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his
foot to the crown of his head” (Job 2:6-7). Does this justify our anger at Him?
Anger is defined as a strong feeling of annoyance,
displeasure, or hostility aroused by a wrong (Oxford). When we get angry at a
person, we are displeased with a choice they made and an act they performed.
Anger at a person always implies strong disapproval. If you are angry at someone,
you think they have done something they should not have done.
That is why we are never permitted to be angry at God. That
is why it’s always wrong to be displeased at His actions. “Shall not the Judge
of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). “Lord God Almighty, true and
righteous are Your judgments” (Revelation 16:7). It is arrogant for humans to
disapprove of what God does. Everything He does is right. Everything. That
means we are not to be displeased about anything.
What if we do feel this anger arising in our heart? It may
happen, and then the wrong things to do would be to hide it and not confess it.
That would be adding the sin of hypocrisy to anger. Rather, if we feel it we
should acknowledge it. He can see our hearts, so He knows about it anyway. If
we do confess it we will find it easier to cease being angry at Him. Pray to
Him to tell Him you are sorry, and then petition Him to take this anger away.
Grow in faith in His goodness and wisdom.
I have compiled some bible texts about God’s providence –
that He does everything for our good. There are certainly more out there – this
is just a start:
Job 1:21, 22; Proverbs 16:33; 21:1; 22:2; Jeremiah 5:24;
23:23, 24; Matthew 10:29; John 9:3; Acts 14:15-17; 17:24-28; Romans 8:28; James
1:3.
Never thought about the wrongness of being angry at God from this angle before... as in that anger implies that a person has done something wrong ... very interesting ;)
ReplyDeleteparticularly liked Romans 8:28 :)
Yes, it certainly is interesting! It was an eye-opener for me too. I suppose I thought that God can handle it, because He is strong and mighty. But that certainly doesn't mean He can handle sin!
DeleteJust some further food for thought: If God turns everything that happens to us into our good, does that mean that if we sin it is for our own good?