One common image that some people have of God is to see Him seated on His throne in heaven, lightning bolt in hand, looking for someone to hurl it at. People who see God this way see Him as angry and looking for an opportunity to take that anger out on someone. There’s just one problem with this image… it’s the wrong god. That’s not Jehovah, the God of the Bible that’s Zeus, the god of Greek mythology.
Does God get angry? Yes, He does. But there’s a huge difference between God getting angry and God being an angry God. His character is not defined by His anger, rather His character is defined by love. Not even God can be a God of love and a God of anger at the same exact time.
He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. – 1 John 4:8
And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. – 1 John 4:16
Yet even though God is capable of being angry, there’s a huge difference between His anger and our own. When we get angry, it is usually because someone has said or done something against us personally. It is the affront against our person that angers us. That’s largely motivated by pride, with us having a “how dare they” attitude about whatever angers us. God’s anger isn’t about what anyone does against Him; but rather what they do that is unrighteous. This includes idolatry, when people turn to other gods.
God’s Righteous Anger
Mostly, God’s anger is a righteous anger, because it is not for what people have done against Him, but rather what they have done against others. We could say that all of His anger falls into that category, were it not for God being angry about idolatry. That can be said to be a sin directly against Him. Before looking at God’s anger for idolatry, let’s look at some other things that cause God to be angry:
These six thins the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: 17 a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil. 19 a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren. – Proverbs 6:16-19
None of these are things that people do against God, but rather things that they do against other people. Just from this list alone, we can see that God’s desire is for people to live together in harmony. Each and every one of those can destroy that harmony, bringing strife amongst the brethren. But some actually go further than that, in actually bringing harm to others. If we are all created to be God’s children, then He would clearly care what we do to each other.
We see God’s anger manifest against Cain, when he killed his brother Abel, a well-known story in the book of Genesis. In this story, both Abel and Cain brought offerings to God; Cain bringing an offering of the fruit of the ground, while Abel brought a lamb from his flock. For some reason not mentioned in the Bible, God rejected Cain’s offering, while accepting Abel’s. Various preachers have given their ideas about why, but we don’t really know. Nevertheless, having his offering rejected angered Cain, leading him to kill his brother.
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. 11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.” – Genesis 4:9-12
While this passage doesn’t actually say that God was angry at Cain, His anger is still manifestly clear. It is shown to us by His reaction to Cain, both in killing his brother and then being unwilling to confess it to God. We don’t really know how, but God’s reaction would probably have been different toward him, had he confessed his sin, repented and asked for forgiveness. But he didn’t, so we can’t see how God would have reacted to that.
God’s anger is manifest towards Cain in that He removes His hand from Cain’s life. No longer is Cain walking through life knowing that he lives under the shadow of the almighty. Rather, God calls him a “fugitive and a vagabond,” cutting him loose to face the world alone. The only concession he offers Cain is to put a mark upon him, so that people would know not to kill him.
This is a pretty good example of God’s anger. Rather than act directly against people who have angered Him, God “hands them over” to the consequences of their actions. All sin brings about consequences, so by turning people over to the consequences of their own sin, people receive the chastisement for their actions, without God having to directly intervene. God’s nature is to bless, not to bring about harm, so in this, he shows His great wisdom, in allowing them to be the source of their own chastisement.
Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lust of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. – Romans 1:24
From this, we can see that it is possible to tell that God is angry, when His hand of protection is no longer over our lives. If we pray and God doesn’t answer, there’s a good chance that we have done something to anger Him.
We can also see from this story that God is angered by senseless violence. It doesn’t matter who commits the violence or who it is against. While God did command the nation of Israel to attack and utterly destroy some nations, that was always an act of judgment against those people. There is a clear difference between that and murder, even to the point where different words are used in Hebrew for murder and the killing which happens in war.
God’s Anger Over Idolatry
Probably the one thing that angers God the most, is idolatry. God is our creator, as well as Lord over our lives; so, to turn from Him, to other gods, is the greatest act of unfaithfulness that can exist. It’s no wonder that God uses the symbolism of adultery when talking about idolatry through the prophets.
We can see that Israel struggled with idolatry throughout their history. They would vacillate back and forth between serving God and falling into idolatry, mostly depending on whether they had godly leadership to keep them on track. This started in the book of Judges and continued all the way through the time of the Kings. Their falling into idolatry and God’s calling them back followed a regular cycle, which we find depicted throughout those books of history. Perhaps the most concise telling of that cycle is depicted in chapter 2 of the book of Judges.
- The people served Jehovah God, as long as they had godly rulers (Joshua 2:7)
- Those same people failed in teaching their children about God, so they grew up without knowing Him (Judges 2:10)
- The people forsook God, turning aside to serve other gods (Judges 2:12)
- This provoked the Lord to anger (Judges 2:12)
- God delivered the people into the hands of “spoilers;” the Canaanite nations who lived around them (Judges 2:14)
- The people cried out to God for deliverance
- God raised up judges to deliver the people out of the hands of the spoilers (Judges 2:16)
- Once those judges died, they turned back to their idolatry (Judges 2:19)
There is much we can take out of this example; but probably the most notable thing is that God used ungodly people to bring about the discipline of His people and get them to turn back to Him. The “spoilers” referred to in that passage, were the various people who lived in Canaan, whom God had instructed Israel to utterly destroy. They didn’t fully destroy them, although they defeated them in battle. Even so, there were enough of these people around to still be a problem to Israel, when God needed to correct them.
God will use whoever He has to, in order to bring correction to His people, whether we are talking about the nation of Israel in Old Testament times or the Body of Christ today. In either case, God will use whatever he needs to, in order to get the attention of His people, including unbelievers.
There are countless verses in the Bible that deal with the subject of idolatry, especially in the Old Testament. It is such an issue that God dealt with it in the 10 Commandments.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 You shall not make for yourself a carved image – any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. – Exodus 20:2-6
It might be a little tricky to keep count there, but there are only two commandments in those four verses. It seems like more, because God goes into much greater detail describing those commandments, than He does man of the others. That shows just how seriously he takes idolatry.
We might be tempted to think that idolatry isn’t a problem today, simply because we don’t have carved images which are part animal and part human that we worship. But true idolatry is loving anything more than we love God. Taken in that sense, probably the biggest idol today is money, followed closely by success. We might also idolatrize our possessions, movie stars, singers and even athletes. Any time we allow one of those things to become more important in our lives, than God is, we are at risk of being in idolatry.
Fortunately, God is “slow to anger” (Psalm 103:8), rather than that image of Zeus, sitting on his throne, with a lightning bolt in his hand. While we can still anger God, He will always give us a chance to repent, before allowing anything to happen to us for our sin.
How to Know if God is Angry at You
That still leaves us with the question of knowing when God is angry at us. Since He is slow to anger, it may not always be obvious. It’s not like we can look at the face of God and see His anger displayed there or hear his anger in the sound of His voice, as He yells at us. Rather, we need to look to other signs to give us a clue that God is angry. Some of these might be:
- Facing Sin’s Consequences – I’ll start here, since I mentioned it before. While God won’t necessarily take away the consequences of our sin, the fact that we are facing them should show us that we have angered Him. King David still had to suffer the death of his so, after committing adultery with Bathsheba.
- Your Prayers are Not Answered – While this may seem obvious, it is easy to overlook. That’s partially because there are other reasons why our prayers might not be answered, such as our asking amiss. Nevertheless, anytime we feel that our prayers are not being answered, we should ask ourselves if this might be the reason.
- God Doesn’t Speak to You – If you are accustomed to God speaking to you, through His still small voice in your heart, yet suddenly find that He is not, it is an indicator that He is angry with you. He is waiting for you to repent, so that you can be in fellowship with Him once more.
- You Consciousness is Seared – Our conscience can become seared if we allow ourselves to continue living a life of habitual sin. At first, the Holy Sprit will work to convict us of our sin; but if we ignore the work of the Holy Spirit, our hearts and conscience will become seared. Our relationship with the Lord will no longer be a vibrant, living thing, but will become strained.
- Ministry Efforts are Futile – Any time we are trying to minister to others, we need the help and support of the Holy Spirit. But if we are in a position where God is not pleased with us, perhaps because of unconfessed sin in our lives, we may not receive that support, rendering our ministry attempts futile.
- You Find Yourself Resentful – There are times in our lives when we might find ourselves resentful of others. It could be that we resent someone else receiving a blessing or we could resent what they have done towards us. Either way, we are not acting in love. That can affect our ability to connect with God and receive His blessing. Not only that, but we could very easily fall into the seven things that God hates while we are like that.
- Avoiding Verses that Speak of Repentance – Many times, the Holy Spirit will lead us to read certain verses in the Bible; but we might find those verses offensive. This is especially true if we have some area of unconfessed sin in our lives. We want God to talk with us about other things, but He is only interested in bringing us back to Him, through repentance.
Please keep in mind that none of these signs is a clear indication that God is mad at you. Most of them can come about from other things going on in our lives as well. we should only take it as a sign that God is angry, if we see several of them happening at the same time.
If we do suspect that we have angered God, the question then is, what should we do? That question, at least, is easy to answer. The answer to that anger is to repent before God, just as David did, when confronted by Nathan the prophet, about his adultery with Bathsheba. He didn’t waste any time, but rather, repented as soon as his sis was brought before him. While there were still consequences for that sin, he was then able to go on with his life.
How to Avoid Making God Angry
Obviously, it is better to avoid making God angry. Our lives are always better off when God is on our side. But just how do we keep God from getting angry with us?
To start with, we must remember that God does not anger easily or quickly. That isn’t to say that we can’t anger Him; but rather to remind us that He isn’t looking for an excuse to get angry with us. He loves us and wants to continue in a relationship of loving us. If he becomes angry with us, it is because we have done something to pull ourselves out of that relationship, even if we do so accidentally.
The biggest secret to maintaining our relationship with God, once we are saved, is doing what He says. He is God after all, and therefore has a right to tell us what to do. If we do not do it, then we are showing Him that while we might accept the idea that He is God in an overall sense, we haven’t accepted that He is God over our own life. We are keeping the throne of our lives to ourselves, rather than turning it over to Him.
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. – 1 John 5:3
If you love Me, keep My commandments. – John 14:15 (Jesus speaking)
It is much easier to keep God’s commandments, when we realize that they have been given to us for our benefit. God isn’t a control freak, trying to keep us from enjoying life. Rather, because of His love for us, He is trying to keep us from things that will bring us harm. That’s really what His commandment to us are all about.
We must remember that God’s commandments were given out of a heart of love. God is love, as John tells us in his first epistle. But not only that, God so loved the world that He sent Jesus to die on the cross for us (John 3:16). That isn’t the action of someone who is looking to become angry. Likewise, the commandments that He gives aren’t because He is looking for an excuse to get angry at us.
But there’s more to this relationship than just obeying God. He has called us His children, and like any loving Father, he wants to spend time with us. That comes about through our prayer, studying the Word of God and worshipping Him. The more time we spend in those activities, the closer we draw to Him.
One of the wonderful benefits of being close to God is that being in His presence helps to protect us from falling into sin. In other words, by staying in His presence, we are less likely to do anything which could cause Him to become angry with us. So, not only do we receive the blessing of being in His presence, we also receive the help we need, so that we can remain close to Him.