When it comes to the nature of God, His wrath is the single attribute that seems to inspire the most controversy and debate. Scripture is quite clear that God has wrath. Just a couple of verses out of many are: “God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.” (Ps 7:11) “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” (Rom. 1:18) “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” (Eph. 5:6)

So, if scripture is straightforward on this matter, than why do so many people fail to believe that this is a part of God’s character? The answer lies with our misunderstanding of what wrath is and how it relates to His other attributes, namely His love and goodness. In this blog, I want to look at one particular misunderstanding that we have about His wrath. That misunderstanding being that we fail to realize that God’s wrath is not the same as ours. Wrath is understood as an intense degree of anger in which our emotions become unstable and we tend to lash out at those who are the target of our wrath. Wrath is when we seek to punish or avenge ourselves. And because we are familiar with God’s wrath coming in the form of divine judgement, such as with the flood or Sodom and Gomorrah, we assume that they are one and the same.

What I would like to point out however is that we tend to give in to our strong emotions, allowing them to steer us in our decision making. Wrath leads us into physical conflicts, crimes of passion, or harsh words being spoken without thinking of the consequences. In short, we lose control over ourselves when our anger or wrath becomes too hot. But this presents to us a problem: God is sovereign and thus subject to nothing but Himself. Can God be controlled by His emotions, like a man? No, of course not. He created our emotions and dictates how they work. If He were able to be moved by emotions, then we could emotionally manipulate Him. But God answers to no man. Instead, as hard as it may be for us angry humans to comprehend, God is in complete control over Himself and His anger. I’m not going to claim to understand how that looks or feels like for God for I surely cannot comprehend it. I just know that God is in control of His wrath and knows when it is best to withhold it and when He should unleash it. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Scripture grants us evidence of this and the greatest example of it is in Exodus 32. This chapter is about the Israelites making the golden calf and worshipping it. I believe that it is the best example of the difference between God’s wrath and man’s because it shows us both of them, allowing us to see them in contrast to one another.

As Moses is on the mountain, the Israelites become inpatient and rebel. They make the idol and sin against God. God then tells Moses to get down the mountain and says to him, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.” This was followed by Moses pleading with God to not destroy them. Then it says, “So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.” What many people miss here is that God, in His wrath, is still self-controlled enough to continue a conversation with Moses and to even be persuaded to relent from unleashing His wrath. I have heard theologians teach that God was testing Moses here and did not truly intend to kill all the Israelites. While that may be true, God does not lie and He was being honest in regards to how He felt towards there evil. He was wrathful, yet He was calm and coherent and able to engage in sensible conversation. These are not typical behaviors for us when we are overcome with anger. Our anger usually results in our reason and logic going out the window as we scramble to hurt someone.

As Moses is about to illustrate to us. After convincing God to relent, Moses goes down the mountain and upon seeing the Israelites with their golden calf, his immediate response is one of violence and aggression. First, he slams the ten commandments, two stone tablets carved out of the rock and written on by the very finger of God, into the ground, smashing them into pieces. Second, he destroys the idol with fire and grinds it into powder. Third, he mixes it into water and forces the people to drink it. It is not until after this that he finally finds words to speak. Of course, those words came in the form of the confronting of Aaron for his role in the sin. “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?” (Ex. 32:21)

This confrontation is then followed by the fourth and worse violent act. He says, “Whoever is on the LORD’s side – come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.” In the end, about three thousand people died.

When we contrast these two responses, God vs. Moses, we can see a clear difference between them. God, often accused of being violent and genocidal, is calm and seemingly patient in His response. Moses is instantly angry and resorts to violence before speaking to anyone. Also worth noting is the fact that in verse 10 God says “that My wrath may burn hot against them”. Then in verse 19 we read, “So Moses’ anger became hot“. Even the scriptural terminology is the same, further showing that God and Moses were both dealing with intense anger but expressed it differently. Moses’ response is so much more intense that as I was reading this chapter I almost missed the last sentence of it. Verse 35 reads, “So the LORD plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made.” God plagues them yet this line seems almost mild in comparison to Moses’ response.

If you look at other instances in the bible of God unleashing His wrath you will find the same thing playing out. When He came down to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, He visits with Abraham and allows him to try and talk Him out of it, as Moses did. When He decided to flood the earth, He warned Noah in advance so that there was someone who testified to the reality of what was happening. All of humanity had the opportunity to repent but were unwilling. When Enoch had his first born son, he named him Methuselah which means “his death brings forth” or “when he is dead it shall be sent”. Enoch is said to have walked with God from that day on until he was taken up. Scripture doesn’t explicitly say this but it would seem to imply that Enoch had an encounter with God and was informed that the flood was coming and would arrive with the death of his son. Methuselah lived for 969 years. So, if that was when God first informed someone of the coming judgement, then that would mean that God was patient in His wrath. 969 years patient!

Thousands of years have passed since the flood. In that time God has shown mankind great acts of mercy and love. He showed the ultimate display of this love in the incarnation of Christ and His death and resurrection. But to repeat Psalm 7:11 once more, “God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.” God is angry at sin and evil every day, and has been for thousands of years. And in the midst of this anger, He sent His son to earth to die for sin so that we would not have to suffer His wrath. This is an amazing display of patience and self control. Even more impressive is that after Christ’ death, He has waited yet another two thousand years (and counting), allowing us more than enough time to choose Jesus as His cup of wrath continues to fill and will be poured out at the appointed time. Appointed sounds more like a day that is planned in advance than it does an uncontrolled emotional outburst.

So, far from wrath being an attribute that doesn’t fit with the rest of His character, His wrath actually fits perfectly with who He is. And now we see how His wrath highlights His patience, longsuffering endurance, committed love, and self-control. And that, I believe, is something to take comfort in.