Last week, I kept reflecting on the image of an angry God. I know that probably seems silly to reflect on that. It doesn't square with the common picture of Jesus laughing with his head tilted back, eyes closed and mouth wide open as though someone had just told a golfing joke (or maybe that one about not finding a lawyer in heaven). The difficult thing, though, is that scripture sometimes seems to hint at God being mad. And I'm not just talking about the Old Testament. Think of the God who won't let the rich man repent of his sins despite coming to the realization that he has not lived a life of holiness by seeing Lazarus in heaven.
I kept thinking about how hurtful family can be to one another. I had two friends, very close friends that are more like family to me than friends, who exchanged exceptionally mean emails. One of our friends was worried that it would ruin our friendship. I told them that I thought it pointed to how strong our friendship was. The emails, though exceptionally mean, were really honest. One person stated very plainly some concerns she had about the choices another was making. This helped me understand God's anger a little better. God gets angry our of love. Those biblical images of God taking vengance out on other people show how much he cares about us. He cares enough to be disappointed in us when we do stupid things.
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