Psalm 50:1-15 Isaiah 1:1; 10-20 Luke 12:35-40
The Loving Anger of God
Many years ago, on a hot summer day in rural south Florida, a young boy decided to go for a swim in the old swimming hole behind his house.
He ran out the back door, leaving behind shoes, socks, and shirt as he went. He jumped into the water and began to swim, not realizing that as he swam toward the middle of the lake, an alligator was swimming towards him.
His mother in the house was looking out the window and saw the two as they got closer and closer to each other. Horrified, she ran outside toward the water, yelling to her son as loudly as she could. Hearing her voice, the little boy became alarmed and made a U-turn to swim to his mother. But it was too late. Just as he reached her, the alligator reached him.
From the dock, the mother grabbed her little boy by the arms just as the alligator snatched his leg. That began an incredible tug-of-war between the two. While the alligator appeared to be stronger than the mother, the mother was much too passionate to let go and eventually, after what felt like an eternity, the alligator let go.
Remarkably, after weeks and weeks in the hospital, the little boy survived. His leg was severely scarred by the vicious attack of the alligator. But also, on his arms and his torso, were thick, deep scratches where his mother's fingernails had dug into his flesh in her effort to hang on to the son she loved.
The newspaper reporter who interviewed the boy after the trauma, asked if he would show him his scars. The boy showed him, but then, with obvious pride, he said to the reporter, "But look at my arms and my chest and, look! I have scars on my back, too! I have these scars because my mum wouldn't let go."
Now, if we were to focus only on the upper body of this boy, we would think his mother a monster. How could she have ripped his arms and torso like that? Charge her with extreme abusive behaviour! Shun her, scorn, her, spit on her, and shut her away for life! How could a loving mother do that to her child?
But when we view the scars on the lower part of the boy’s body, our indignation subsides, doesn’t it? In fact, we are rather embarrassed by our hasty conclusions. You see, when we look at the boy’s body as a whole, we realise that the mother is no monster. No, now we see her in a different light…we see her as her son saw her…a loving mother who wouldn’t let go.
The prophet Isaiah wrote during a time of great upheaval in and around the Ancient Near East, roughly around 740-700 BC. Assyria was the dominant empire at the time and as it expanded, it threatened the very existence of the northern kingdom of Israel. And sure enough, in 722 BC, Israel was overrun, and its inhabitants sent into exile. The southern kingdom of Judah was also threatened, and Isaiah, together with his contemporary prophets, warned them that if they did not turn from their rebellious ways, they too would be destroyed and exiled.
You see, for Isaiah, God was the “Holy One”. In the Scriptures, God's holiness is shown to be his defining characteristic. It's a term used in the Scriptures to describe both God’s goodness and his justice…or, more pointedly, both his love and his anger. As such, when the Covenant People turned their backs on their God, he was obligated by his very nature to punish them for their rebellion and sinfulness. But…and here is the other side of the same picture…by that same nature, he was also obligated to love them, have compassion on them, forgive them, redeem them, and restore them.
Like with the scars on the young boy from Florida…if you only looked at the upper part of his body, we would conclude that his mother was evil and cruel. So too with the anger of God. If we only look at his anger, we may conclude that God is evil and cruel. We must look at the whole if we are to establish the truth.
In the opening chapter of the book of Isaiah, God likened His Covenant People to the rulers of Sodom and the people of Gomorrah. This was not meant to be a compliment. The recipients of this message knew the story of Sodom and Gomorrah very well and would not take kindly to the comparison. However, the sexual deviation of the people of Sodom and of Gomorrah was a good description of the spiritual reality of God’s people at the time Isaiah was prophesying. Just as with the two cities in Abraham’s day, so too now in Isaiah’s day, deviation had become the normal and acceptable practice. Archaeological discoveries support the biblical view that Judah’s religion had become syncretistic…while they continued to celebrate the feasts and festivals and new moons and sabbaths as outlined in the Law, they had included various Canaanite and pagan rites, rituals, and practices, some even claiming that God had a partner or a consort!
As such, their entire religious system was unacceptable and dangerously deviant. By adding and mixing in the belief systems of the pagans, they produced a totally foreign god. And so, the masses thought they were doing right while doing wrong…going through the religious motions, multitudes of sacrifices and burnt offerings, incense, feasts and festivals…thinking that they were pleasing God and yet, God bluntly stated that none of what they were doing was acceptable to him. “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen.”
Ouch. Like Sodom and Gomorrah Judah was doomed to destruction, unless they stopped doing what was wrong. They could bring burnt offerings and pray until they were blue in the face, but God would not listen. What a nasty god…how unkind and unloving. Afterall, they were really trying their best. Did a little deviation from the law matter that much? After all, why couldn’t they do what the other nations were doing? Why was God so angry?
Well…because an alligator had them by the leg. If they continued to live the way they were living, they would cease to be the nation they were called to be…they would cease to be a light to the nations. They would cease to be a holy nation. They would cease to be distinctive, and they would simply sink into the mire of global assimilation and accommodation. There they would steadily be ripped apart by Satan and be slowly drowned in their sin. The thief of all things would break in and plunder and kill them. A warning we would do well to heed in our own day!
But God’s love would not and will not allow him to let go even if it meant scarring his people deeply.
Throughout the book of Isaiah, we find the terrible predictions of destruction interspersed with intensely beautiful promises of deliverance. “Though your sins are like scarlet,” God said, “they shall be white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land.” It is God’s love that drives him to passionately judge his people…he knows that left in the jaws of the proverbial alligator we will die. And God does not want us to die. God wants all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:4) He does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
If God did not care, he would let go…but that would not be a loving thing to do, would it?
Let me state this differently. Petrol prices are rising. True, in the Netherlands, we have options. If we do not need to travel far, we can walk or use a bicycle. Or, should our destination be further away, we can use a train, or a bus, or a tram to get where we need to be. But in other countries where there is no good public transport system in place, people may begin to get desperate. So, as diesel is cheaper than petrol (at least at the moment), what if I try to use diesel in my petrol engine instead? No? Well, what about water? Water is cheaper than petrol and diesel. Let me pour water into my tank.
What’s going to happen? I will be walking everywhere pretty soon, won’t I? Nasty, unkind, unloving, evil manufacturers…
Now this may appear to be silly and oversimplistic, but here’s the parallel. God designed us. He made each and every single cell that makes us who and what we are. He knows how we need to operate if we are to function properly. Deviate from his operating instructions and something is going to breakdown somewhere.
Subsequently, we may reason then that when we stray away from his operating instructions, God’s anger, demonstrated in judgement, is the most loving thing he can do.
But the bottom line is simply this: God is God…he is the mighty one, he is the Lord, he is the Holy One. He made all things, and he owns all things…including you and me. And he loves us enough to wrench us out of the jaws of death, even if that means causing us great pain and anguish.
Or perhaps, it may mean that he causes himself great pain and anguish…
You see, God loves us…and he bears the scars that prove it.
Today, we will be partaking of the sacrament by which we are to remember that love…that love demonstrated once so graphically upon the cross.
As we take the symbol of his body broken and his blood shed, see the hands of the Father holding on to us through his Son. Behold those scars and gaze on his wounds…here at his table, we see the loving anger of God most clearly.
Let us pray.
© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2022
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