“Then the Lord became angry with Moses. ‘All right,’ He Said. ‘What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he speaks well. And look! He is on his way to meet you now. He will be delighted to see you…’” (Exodus 4:14 NLT)
This is a rather delicate subject, and I don’t want to imply anything that isn’t Biblically accurate, so I will tread lightly. The Lord’s “anger” can look quite different depending on the context of His anger, but my point in this post is that, yes, God does get angry with us, but no, it will never keep us from coming to Him.
Remember, over the last few days we’ve been looking at lies that are behind our unbelief, whether as a believer in Christ, or an unbeliever. Some lies so impact and persuade us that they prevent us from coming to the Lord at all, while the same lie may not keep us from coming to the Lord but can impede our growth and progress in our faith.
One lie that fits in that category is believing God is angry with us, so much so, He would never forgive us. The only sin for which we can’t be forgiven is the sin that prevents us from asking Him for forgiveness. When we allow our sin to be so magnified in our sight that it minimizes Christ and doesn’t allow us to see Him as the God-Man who came to free us from our sin and shame, it disables us from asking for His forgiveness.
In the verse above, the word translated “anger” can actually mean a change of expression, or a difference in the look of your face. Moses is trying with everything within him to weasel out of the job God was calling him to do – lead the children of Israel out of captivity to Egypt – but Moses is so focused on what it might cost him that he can’t conceive of how it would ever work.
We do a similar thing when the Holy Spirit is dealing with us, either when He’s drawing us into a relationship with Jesus or when He’s positioning us to move in a new direction in our life in Christ. Often the issue with us, as it was with Moses, is that we project our anger or regret from past sins, onto God, blaming Him for the feelings we have against ourselves.
Our inability or unwillingness to forgive ourselves becomes, in our heart and mind, God’s anger or frustration with us. Satan uses what we believe we deserve – anger, punishment, unforgiveness – as an excuse for not allowing the Spirit to have His way in our lives. Our anger at ourselves blinds us to the very thing we most need from God.
Believing God is angry with us serves as the justification in our mind to keep pushing God away, when the exact opposite is actually true. God took out all His holy wrath on Jesus on the Cross in order that our sins can be cast into the sea of His forgetfulness, never to be remembered against us again. Yes, of course, God’s anger with sin and Satan were and are intense, so much so that the devil and his emissaries will be cast into the lake of fire to be punished for all eternity.
But Jesus’ willingness to die in our place diffused God’s wrath against us and opens a door of opportunity for us to be forgiven and free of guilt and shame for all we’ve done to violate God’s laws and to break His heart. I understand how deep regret for our sin can look like God’s anger. In our mind we reason: “How can God NOT be angry at me for what I’ve done?”
Yet, that’s when the richness of God’s love and grace shine forth, illuminating our spirit with Truth and opening our heart and mind to the fact that Jesus has taken upon Himself the punishment we deserved, turning God’s wrath into love for us and a willingness to forgive us that will take us all eternity to understand.
Whatever you’ve done. However angry you think God is at you for all the ways you’ve sinned against Him, understand this: He loves you! He’s for you! He’s with you! And His arms of love are open, waiting to receive you. His forgiveness is yours for the asking – no matter how far you’ve strayed or how intense your anger is with yourself.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 