Seeing God - Anger
QUESTIONs
What does it mean to you for God to be slow to anger?
Do you have a positive or a negative association with anger? Can you explain it?
How do you deal with it, then?
Meaning & Translations
The Hebrew phrase “slow to anger” literal translations is “long nose” or “long of nostrils”.
Why is “long of nostrils” associated with anger?
In Hebrew “to become angry” means “his nose become hot”. And this expression comes up several times in Scriptures: 1 Samuel 17:28; Exodus 4:14; Genesis 39:19; Jonah 3:8-9.
The non-literal translations, as we can find them in many different translations of the Bible, have been translated it in 3 different terms:
slow to anger
long-suffering
not lightly anger
QUESTION
How do these translations (literal and non-literal) contribute to your understanding of this God’s character trait? How do they enlarge your understanding of God’s Anger and the way He acts towards you?
Our problem with God’s wrath
Let’s check out some passages from Scripture.
Soon the people began to complain about their hardship, and the Lord heard everything they said. Then the Lord’s anger blazed against them, and he sent a fire to rage among them, and he destroyed some of the people in the outskirts of the camp.
—Numbers 11:1
That is why the Lord’s anger burns against his people, and why he has raised his fist to crush them. The mountains tremble, and the corpses of his people litter the streets like garbage. But even then the Lord’s anger is not satisfied. His fist is still poised to strike!
—Isaiah 5:25
You must not worship any of the gods of neighboring nations, 15 for the Lord your God, who lives among you, is a jealous God. His anger will flare up against you, and he will wipe you from the face of the earth.
—Deuteronomy 6:14-15
Question
How do you picture God based in this passages?
People struggle to read the Scriptures and to feel free to get into a relationship with God because they don’t understand or even know how to deal with God’s anger. When we take these kind of statements out of context and read them independently of the larger biblical storyline, of course we are going to get a distorted and wrong portrait of God. More: when you read these out of context, our main passage - Exodus 34:6-7 - can sound hollow.
In order of getting a clear and truthful understanding of what’s going on in the Scriptures and who God is we need to learn to appreciate these metaphorical descriptions of divine anger and understand the reality to which they point: the intense emotion God experiences when his people betray him and embrace their own self-destruction.
For this to happen we need to take in consideration 2 important considerations:
1. Anger in our culture
Anger as a protection - our bodies generate the feeling of anger when something or someone we value is threatened, compromise or lost.
Anger as abuse - when we lose control we may feel anger; when people in power bully, threaten and intimate who is under their authority
These 2 ways of manifestation of anger they influence the way we talk about anger and the way we conceive of anger and how we evaluate it.
Question
How do you react to anger (in general)? Do you know why you react the way you do?
In our relationship with God, how we react to God’s anger will depend on our life experience, our disposition to Faith in general (open-minded, faith-friendly, skeptic or hostile) and our core beliefs about God’s character.
Question
What experiences or situations did you go through that might have blurred your understanding of who God is, and in this specific case, about His anger? How have those experiences influenced your Faith and your beliefs about God’s character?
For instance, I used to think that God just would love me if I would do everything perfectly and if I would stop feeling anxiety, fear, range; I used to think that God would love me if I null myself completely - because that would be the meaning of denying yourself; I used to believe that God would love me and help me if I would stop being who I am to be something else that something that would sound very spiritually would say that I am. I used to believe that God had abandon me because I felt abandoned - and actually was in many ways. Once I realized that I couldn’t keep up with this I quit God. My understanding of God was very exigent, like someone who is always charging me perfection, that wanted me sick in order to be healed, a very punishment God, rule based, etc…
–Ana
2. The “human-like” imagery to describe God
The word “heat” and “nose/anger” are analogies which evoke a human physical response when anger pops out from us - the Scriptures attributes these emotions to God. This means that “God reacts in an intimate manner, being moved, affected, grieved or gladdened by what people do.”
Question
Can you picture God having theses feelings about you? How do you picture it?
Hebrews (4 & 5) says that Jesus:
… understands our weaknesses for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. (…) And he is able to deal gently with ignorant and wayward people because he himself is subject to the same weaknesses. (…) Even though Jesus was the Son of God, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.
This means that the same way God has emotions like ours, Jesus had them as well: he got angry, sad, he cried, he laugh, etc, etc.
So on this end, what we need is clear the deck and trace the development of God’s anger through the storyline of the Bible. Let’s do it then.
God’s anger at human evil
Question
Who is the 1st person God gets angry with in Scriptures?
The first appearance of God’s Anger in Scriptures was with Moses.
But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?” God replied to Moses, “I am who i am. Say this to the people of Israel: I am has sent me to you.” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.
—Exodus 3:13-15
But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.” But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else.” 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. Talk to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with both of you as you speak, and I will instruct you both in what to do.
Isn’t it a surprise that we are not actually talking about Adam and Eve, or Cain or even Sodoma and Gomorrah? Or Noah? Or people living in Noah’s time?
Question
How does that make you feel? What thoughts come to your mind?
What does God’s anger 1st appearance to Moses speak to us?
God doesn’t harm Moses.
Moses objects 5 times to God’s request to send Him to the Pharaoh.
God makes a concession to Moses’s stubbornness and gives Him what he wants: Moses’s choice leads to the elevation of Aaron as the high priest and Moses’ own eventual diminishment as a leader over Israel.
After Moses, God’s get angry at Pharaoh. And this is God’s Anger second appearance.
How about the moment when Pharaoh enslaved the Israelites and has their babies boys thrown into the waters? How about the 10 chances given by God to the Pharaoh to let God’s people free? Would God be good if He didn’t get angry at Pharaoh’s evil and eventually do something about it? (Exodus 15:4-8).
Question
How did God expressed His anger with Pharaoh?
God sent 10 plagues, in the last one Pharaoh firstborn was killed, and then, at the Red Sea he lost all, or at least the majority of his army, when God closed the sea, after God’s people cross it.
So this means that God’s anger is an expression of His justice and his love for the world.
God’s Anger third appearance happens in the story of the golden Calf- a betrayal situation!
1 When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.” 2 So Aaron said, “Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” 5 Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord!” 6 The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry. 7 The Lord told Moses, “Quick! Go down the mountain! Your people whom you brought from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. 8 How quickly they have turned away from the way I commanded them to live! They have melted down gold and made a calf, and they have bowed down and sacrificed to it. They are saying, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” 9 Then the Lord said, “I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. 10 Now leave me alone so my fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will destroy them. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation.” 11 But Moses tried to pacify the Lord his God. “O Lord!” he said. “Why are you so angry with your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and such a strong hand? 12 Why let the Egyptians say, ‘Their God rescued them with the evil intention of slaughtering them in the mountains and wiping them from the face of the earth’? Turn away from your fierce anger. Change your mind about this terrible disaster you have threatened against your people! 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You bound yourself with an oath to them, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. And I will give them all of this land that I have promised to your descendants, and they will possess it forever.’”
14 So the Lord changed his mind about the terrible disaster he had threatened to bring on his people.
—Exodus 32:1-14
After all they went through and all God’s deliverances and miracles, the Israelites betray God and His covenant with them.
When God rescues people and brings them near Himself, it heightens God’s own investment, but also makes people involved more accountable and thus (depending on their response) deserving of God’s anger.
God didn’t become angry randomly or for any reason; He is angered by betrayal and covenant violation.
Besides these stories there are 7 more in the book of Numbers about Israel’s rebellion against God, many of which mention God’s ager.
If you’re interested in diving deeper in these, check the following passages:
Numbers 11:1
Numbers 11:4-6
Numbers 14:1-4
Numbers 14:17-23
Numbers 14:26-34
Deuteronomy 31:15-18
QUESTIONS
How do you feel when you are betrayed?
What did you want to do to the person who betrayed you?
How do you usually deal and concealed things in your heart in order to move forward?
How do you feel about being accountable of your own decisions and choices before God?
SUMming UP
After tracing the development of God’s Anger through part of the Bible storyline let’s do a brief sum up of it:
God’s anger and God’s judgement are not intertwined in the biblical story. In other words, God gets angry without judging. In fact, He shows acts of mercy (to Moses) when He first got angry, and then He judges or brings justice without being angry.
God’s judgement is nothing less than God hands people over to the cause effects sequence that they have chosen and started themselves. In other words, the most consistent response of God’s anger is to give people what they have chosen.
God’s anger is just and measured response to the covenant betrayal of his own people. It is not volatile or unpredictable, abusive or violent.
God’s anger cannot be viewed a part from the larger messianic trajectory of the Old Testament. Stories like that of Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Isaiah point toward the need for a representative who will save God’s people.
God is slow to anger means:
God will put up with people’s betrayal for much longer than is reasonable;
God will always accept people who turn to Him with soft hearts and genuine humility, no matter what they’ve done.
God’s anger in the New Testament
In the Old Testament, God handed his people over to be ruled by pagan nations, who acted as arbiters of God’s judgement. However His anger is not an isolated attribute, which means that He may get angry but his loyal love means he won’t abandon his people. There is a restorative role to God’s anger. If God’s people turn away from what makes God angry, he promises his favor.
Now we are moving into the events of the New Testament.
John the Baptizer’s warnings
In every Gospel we find John the Baptizer calling people to turn from their sins to escape God’s wrath.
7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to watch him baptize, he denounced them. “You brood of snakes!” he exclaimed. “Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? 8 Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. 9 Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones. 10 Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.
—Matthew 3:7-10
John is like a new Jeremiah or a new Ezekiel warning about the coming of a new movement of God’s anger, which is going to culminate in some act of judgement.
John is warning people that God is going to “clean the house all over again”, just like He did in the flood and in the days of Jeremiah. People became once more unfaithful to God. He even calls the leaders of Israel and the temple “babies of snakes” — “brood of vipers”.
This is a warning! John is warning people about what is coming if people don’t repent and choose God’s righteousness. Things could go differently.
11 “I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.”
–Matthew 3:1-12
John, in this passage, is not talking about the afterlife, like especially Protestant readers have been picked up by . That’s not definitely what John is talking about here. He is actually doing the same that Israel’s prophets did in the Old Testament, by calling the leaders of Israel (represented here by Jerusalem) to account. He is warning them about the near destruction of the city unless they respond to “the one who is come after me” - that would be Jesus - in case of people won’t turn back to God.
The story repeats itself. Once more God will get angry and He’ll use some foreign pagan nation as His oppressor agent to give His people over to. In this case, that would be the Roman Empire.
Through this we can see the consistency between the Old Testament and the New Testament, especially along this theme.
John is alerting everyone that after him there’s someone coming who has a baptism of God’s Spirit and fire. Then John uses all these metaphors who express separation. The point is every time that God brings an act of judgement in the Old Testament, there is always the righteous remnant theme that comes out the other side and becomes the basis for the new group of people that God is going to work with. John’s message contains images or metaphor or wording from the Hebrew prophets. He’s like a spokesman for the whole message of the Hebrew prophets right here:
John’s message is no different from the one in the Old Testament:
Brood of vipers - seed of the snake (Genesis 3:15)
Wrath to come - Seed of the snake (Isaiah 13:9; Zephaniah 1:15;2:2
Ax at the root of the tree: Isaiah 10:33-34; Jeremiah 46:22-23
Tree cut down and thrown into the fire: Jeremiah 11:16; Isaiah 10:15-19; Malachi 4:1.
Winnowing fork/threshing floor - Jeremiah 15:7; Micah 4:12-13
Chaff blow and burned: Psalm 1:4; Malachi 4:1; Psalm 35:5; Isaiah 29:5; 41:15-16; Daniel 2:35
Holy Spirit immersion - Seen through the presence of wind, water and fire.
Wind and fire: Isaiah 4:4; Jeremiah 4:11-12
Wind and water (i.e. a storm): Jeremiah 23:2
Water and fire: the combination of intense waters, winds, and fire happens often in the prophets as symbols of judgement: Isaiah 30:27-28; 43:2; 65:15-16
Wind, water, and fire - Isaiah 4:4; 30:27-28
-Source: Bible Project
While John says “Hey, I am asking all of Israel to come and repent”, Jesus is going to say “I am going to separate a remnant of Israel, who God is going to use moving forward. So be ready for that.”
The story doesn’t end here.
Jesus’s Good News & Warnings
Jesus’s message didn’t focus as much on God’s anger, like John’s, but it emphasizes God’s comfort, care, generosity and love for the poor in spirit, according to the prophet Isaiah.
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me,
for the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted
and to proclaim that captives will be released
and prisoners will be freed.
2 He has sent me to tell those who mourn
that the time of the Lord’s favor has come,
and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies.—Isaiah 61:1-2
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”—Luke 4:18-19
QUESTION
There is actually a difference between what Isaiah wrote and Luke wrote. What is it and what is the significance of it?
Jesus read Isaiah passage but he left off the part about God’s anger. How interesting is that! By that Jesus reveals the opportunity to embrace the Gospel of the Kingdom he comes to offer, before the arrival of the day of wrath. This means two things:
God’s character hasn’t change since Old Testament’s events:
Jesus represents an opportunity for repentance before God hand Israel over to judgement at the hand of Rome.
Once more, when dealing with a sinful humanity God is both merciful and just.
Even though Jesus’ message is more focused on God’s generosity and love with everyone, we can’t see it apart of the message of the coming judgement on Jerusalem. They are “two sides of the same coin”, that is, the arrival of God’s Kingdom.
Jesus warns Israel about the consequences of not accepting and embracing his Kingdom:
24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”
—Matthew 7:24-27
At that time, people who were raised on the story of Noah, most likely they would hear exactly this how Jesus intended it—a “flood” is coming. A flood of God’s wrath and judgement would fall on Jerusalem if people continue to rebel.
When Jesus sent his disciples out to proclaim His Good News, He also gives them instructions that end with a warning.
7 Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received! 9 “Don’t take any money in your money belts—no gold, silver, or even copper coins. 10 Don’t carry a traveler’s bag with a change of clothes and sandals or even a walking stick. Don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve to be fed. 11 “Whenever you enter a city or village, search for a worthy person and stay in his home until you leave town. 12 When you enter the home, give it your blessing. 13 If it turns out to be a worthy home, let your blessing stand; if it is not, take back the blessing. 14 If any household or town refuses to welcome you or listen to your message, shake its dust from your feet as you leave. 15 I tell you the truth, the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah will be better off than such a town on the judgment day.
–Matthew 10:7-15
Likewise Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Jesus also announces prophetic warnings over cities. However He gives a new path to repentance through living out the Sermon on the Mount and embodying the Kingdom of God.
20 Then Jesus began to denounce the towns where he had done so many of his miracles, because they hadn’t repented of their sins and turned to God. 21 “What sorrow awaits you, Korazin and Bethsaida! For if the miracles I did in you had been done in wicked Tyre and Sidon, their people would have repented of their sins long ago, clothing themselves in burlap and throwing ashes on their heads to show their remorse. 22 I tell you, Tyre and Sidon will be better off on judgment day than you. 23 “And you people of Capernaum, will you be honored in heaven? No, you will go down to the place of the dead. For if the miracles I did for you had been done in wicked Sodom, it would still be here today. 24 I tell you, even Sodom will be better off on judgment day than you.”
–Matthew 11:20-24
Jesus makes things clear about the coming of God’s judgement and warns that Roman Empire would be used by God as a servant to bring divine judgement on Jerusalem, like it happened to Babylon (Jeremiah 25).
1 About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple. 2 “Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus asked. “Is that why they suffered? 3 Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God.
–Luke 13:1-3
Jesus was sent by God as the ultimate emissary of His favor, of His good news to form a new covenant family. But all hinged on Israel’s willingness to repent and follow Jesus.
The intensity of Jesus’ speech increases by describing graphically how this judgement was going to look like.
41 But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. 42 “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. 43 Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. 44 They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.
—Luke 19:41-44
20 “And when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that the time of its destruction has arrived. 21 Then those in Judea must flee to the hills. Those in Jerusalem must get out, and those out in the country should not return to the city. 22 For those will be days of God’s vengeance, and the prophetic words of the Scriptures will be fulfilled. 23 How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days. For there will be disaster in the land and great anger against this people. 24 They will be killed by the sword or sent away as captives to all the nations of the world. And Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the period of the Gentiles comes to an end.
—Luke 21:20-24
1 As Jesus was leaving the Temple grounds, his disciples pointed out to him the various Temple buildings. 2 But he responded, “Do you see all these buildings? I tell you the truth, they will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another!”
—Matthew 24:1-2
Summing Up
Jesus warnings are conditional: they threaten the end of the present nation of Israel if they don’t turn from their old ways to follow Jesus. His warnings contemplate the coming of judgement over Jerusalem and the Good News of the coming of His Kingdom.
QUESTION
What was Jesus’ intention in offering a way out through repentance and living according to God’s Kingdom?
Jesus came to people bent on all types of rebellion (spiritual, political, etc). In the midst of it all He calls for peace and love toward all people, even our enemies.
Nevertheless Jesus went to Jerusalem weeping because He knew that Israel’s leaders have rejected Him. So God’s anger is surely coming. He arrives during Passover knowing he intends to put himself in the place of his enemies (us), so that the leaders of Israel may kill him. By doing that He drinks the cup of God’s anger.
God’s Anger in Paul’s Writings
Paul, in the book of Romans, displays God’s anger at Israel’s idolatry as an image of His anger at all humanity’s idolatry of any kind.
16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” 18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. 21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. (…) 28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
In Romans 1:23 Paul explicitly says that idolatry leads to moral corruption by quoting Psalm 106:20:
19 The people made a calf at Mount Sinai;
they bowed before an image made of gold.
20 They traded their glorious God
for a statue of a grass-eating bull.
21 They forgot God, their savior,
who had done such great things in Egypt—
Paul explains that Israel’s idolatry provides the paradigm for all humanity.
Finally, in Romans 5 Paul establishes a connection between God’s Anger to Jesus’s death by referring back to his argument in Romans 1:18-3:26.
6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
—Romans 5:6-11
Through Pauls’s writings we can understand that it is God’s own love that answers to God’s wrath, through Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension into Heaven.
Usually we hear and say “Jesus bore the wrath of God”. But what Paul says is that God saved us from this own wrath through Jesus, rescuing us from being handed over to death.
Jesus stands in our place
The most amazing this in all of this is that not only Jesus shares His Good News and warnings about the coming judgement, but He makes de deliberate decision to obey and submit to the Father, and dies on the cross, so the righteous punishment —that is God’s Wrath— would fall upon Him, instead of all of us.
To understand this it is extremely important to understand what God’s Wrath refers to and what Holiness is about.
QUESTION
How do we make sense of Gods Anger and Holiness coexisting together?
As we have been learning, throughout Scriptures, God’s wrath means handing Israel over to their gentile oppressors due to covenant violation or betrayal of His people.
Fearing God’s holiness and fearing his anger are two way different things, and Scriptures emphasize the first one. God may become angry, but He isn’t an angry God. This reality challenges us to think beyond our culture and our understanding of the nature of anger. The way we see it doesn’t allow us to picture it with the ultimate aim of restoration, as it is for God. “Turning his face away” or “drinking the cup of wrath” are images for God giving people over to their enemies, ALWAYS because of their abandonment and for the purpose of their restoration.
To see God’s face is to live in His likeness, but to hide from God’s face is to go back on Genesis 1:2 – to darkness and disorder. The basic claim that the Torah is making about humans is that humans actually don’t want to be near God because the real Gos is not manageable. He is too intense, and His demands are too great and scary. So if we hide from God, God will hide from us. This is the biblical theme of God handing us over.
–Bible Project
God’s anger and God’s holiness are different things, they do different things and they are activated in different ways, too. So, God’s anger is a part of the covenant storyline of God and His people, and about what people bring upon themselves when they betray or misrepresent God. God’s holiness is at the same time life-giving and dangerous–it’s like fire, in one hand it consumes everything, and on the other hand it purifies everything.
QUESTION
How do you see Jesus’ death?
How did Jesus view the meaning of his own death?
Instead of letting Israel to take on the eternal consequences of their own rebellion against God, Jesus places himself in the crosshairs of the Jewish religious authorities and the Roman oppressor.
21 “What is your request?” he asked. She replied, “In your Kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.” 22 But Jesus answered by saying to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?” “Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!” 23 Jesus told them, “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup. But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. My Father has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.”
—Matthew 20:21-23
When Jesus comes in His Kingdom, He will have someone on His right and left. His upside-down enthronement becomes reality at the cross. At Passover, Jesus gives his disciples a cup, which He calls “new covenant” of his blood. After this, Jesus goes to the Gethsemane garden and cries out to God that He would take away the cup from him.
36 Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go over there to pray.” 37 He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. 38 He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 39 He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
—Matthew 26:36-39
Jesus saw his death as drinking the cup - the biblical image of God handling people over to foreign powers. Jesus claims that he will stand in the place of faithless Israel and experiencing this destruction on behalf of Israel.
We see this picture when Pilate allows the crowd to choose to free one man–either Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus Barabbas (which in Aramaic means “son of the father” (Matthew 27:15-16; Luke 23:17-19).
This two men represent two different ways that Israel can be God’s representatives to the nations—either through rebellion or through loving their enemies. (…) This idea that Jesus is suffering in Israel’s place under Rome is different from the modern conception of Jesus suffering under the wrath of God. The Bible never tells us that Jesus bore the wrath of God, Jesus suffers the consequences of being handed over to Israel’s enemies.
—Bible Project
The impact of Jesus’ death
Jesus death was not only about human consequences. There was a “cosmic effect” attached to it. That means Jesus never saw the “drinking of the cup” action as the end of the story.
Jesus calls himself the “Son of Man” (Daniel 7) and He constantly repeats that after drinking from the cup he would be free by rising from the dead and by ascending to heavens.
30 Leaving that region, they traveled through Galilee. Jesus didn’t want anyone to know he was there, 31 for he wanted to spend more time with his disciples and teach them. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but three days later he will rise from the dead.”
—Mark 9:30-31
In other words, Jesus sees His death as not just about Israel and Rome but about humanity and all the forces of cosmic evil (Luke 22:53). His death wasn’t just about carrying consequences for Israel.
Jesus’ sacrifice atoned for all of the self destruction and sin that humanity chose and deserved.
Jesus death was an inspiration for Israel (and to all of us) to turn their hearts to God, but mostly and foremost it was about creating a new humanity, with himself being the firstborn of it and temple leading the way out of death and into life.
About this Paul states that the cross is wisdom and power even though it looks like weakness and folly.
God handed Jesus over to human kingdoms and the spiritual powers behind those kingdoms, and Jesus allowed himself to be destroyed by them. But his death and resurrection also affected all humanity by opening up a door to life and rendering human kingdoms powerless against resurrections life.
—Bible Project
QUESTIONs
What impact does Jesus’s death, resurrection and ascension to Heaven have in your life today?
What do you feel when you contemplate that Jesus stood in your place?
What are your thoughts about God’s anger considering the fact that He led his Son to die for you so you could be taken back to the Garden and enjoy the fullness of God and communion with Him?
What are the differences between feeling anger and become an angry person?
How does God deal with His anger when he feels it?
How can we deal with our intense emotions without stopping to love people, ourselves, and God?
How can we deal with our anger in the same way God does it?
He who is the faithful witness to all these things say, “Yes, I am coming soon!” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! —Revelation 22:20
We thank Bible Project team for all the helpful resources provided to put this study together.