Does the Lord Get Angry?

Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. (Psalm 2:12 NKJV)

I have had people tell me that I should only preach on the love of God and should never preach that God gets angry.  Unfortunately, God does get angry.  He got angry when people made the temple a place of business.  Twice!  Once at the beginning of His public ministry and once near the end.  See John 2:14-15 and Matthew 21:12.

The Lord’s anger is often seen as wrath.  For example: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (John 3:36 NKJV)

Israel

The Lord was angry at Israel during their forty year trek through the wilderness according to Hebrews 3:17, “Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?” The army that did not trust Him and who trusted spies that lacked faith died in the wilderness.  The Lord was angry with those who did not believe in Him.  He had just done miracles in delivering them from Egypt, yet they did not trust Him to bring them into the promised land.  

Current Events

Recently we have seen a lot of calamities.  Some of them are wars and they are man-made calamities.  Some of them are natural disasters.  Did they occur because of God’s anger at the lack of love for the Lord in the world today?  It would take someone with more smarts than me to unravel the reason why God has allowed some of our recent natural disasters. However,  when I read the book of Job, it becomes obvious to me that we all think we understand how God works; and yet, none of us really do.  Job’s three friends used visions,  and the wisdom of the ancients , and religion to prove that Job was suffering either for his own sins or the sins of his family.  But God said he was suffering because Satan needed to see that there was at least one man who worshiped Him because of Who He was and not because of what God had done for him.  The fourth man who is the youngest “comforter”, seems to have the most insight when we read, “Then the wrath of Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was aroused against Job; his wrath was aroused because he (Job) justified himself rather than God (Job 32:2 NKJV).”

Bad Advice

We all seem to know why calamities happen to other people.  And we give free and sometimes awful advice.  We also assume calamities happen to us because we have offended God in some way.  If that were true, wouldn’t God tell us how we have offended Him so that the chastisement could produce changes in us?  If we know of no obvious sin, shouldn’t we rest in the confidence that the Judge of all the earth will do right (Genesis 18:25)!   Can we be sure that God loves us even when circumstances might cause us to question that?

There is one thing that I do know, and that is that THE WORSE IS YET TO COME! The Bible speaks of “great tribulation.”  “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:21 NKJV).  I believe that this tribulation is designed to bring unbelieving Jewish and Gentile nations to their knees before a holy and righteous God.  When the Lord was crucified the Jewish leaders said,  “His blood be on us and on our children (Matthew 27:25 NKJV).”  The Jewish nation and their temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. The nation was scattered until its partial regathering in unbelief in 1948.  But the worse is yet to come and I am glad that the Lord has promised me and other Christians that we will be saved from this terrible tribulation.  We are amongst those who are “waiting for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10 NKJV).”  Our salvation is complete when we trust in Christ.  The Lord says, “He who believes in Him (the Lord) is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:18 NKJV).”  We will not go to hell or the lake of fire eternally and we will not be here for coming judgment on nations that have rejected the Lord.  

Heeding the Warnings

Rather than assuming we are enough like God to know why calamities and natural disasters are occurring, wouldn’t it make more sense to prepare for coming calamities?  Many did not heed the warnings in the latest round of flash floods.  Let us not be like them when it comes to our souls.  We who are saved have listened to the warnings of coming judgment for those who reject the blessing of God’s salvation.  We KNOW that we will be in heaven for eternity–not because of what we have done for the Lord, but because of what He has done for us.

We all need to kiss the Son, lest He be angry!

Bruce Collins

Meditation for the week of July 13, 2025

If you would like further conversation about the issues in these meditations, contact me at collinsbd@yahoo.com and I will try to accommodate you with a virtual Bible Study.