God's Anger and Ours (Part 1)

"What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us."

A.W Tozer

I believe what comes to our minds when we think about God's anger, judgment, and reaction to "sin" says a great deal about how we perceive not only God, but the gospel and our salvation.  Because of this, as a future marriage and family therapist, one who was trained to think systemically/contextually/relationally in a way that assumes what is called a "double description," I strive to always think of God as the Supreme Ultimate Person, The Personality, Personality Himself. 

In marriage and family therapy, and systems theory, a "double description" is the assumption that everything should be thought of in literally relational terms. 

For example, we tend to say someone is a "born leader."  As a systemic thinker, double descriptions suggest that you CANNOT have a "born leader" without "born followers."  So, double descriptions assume that there is ALWAYS a complimentary relationship with any label we tend to give:  LEADER/FOLLOWER, DOMINANT/SUBMISSIVE, ETC.  Applying this to personality--thoughts, emotions, and will always have objects and cannot be thought of apart from their objects.  I'll get more into that as I delve into the heart of the issue.

Where marriage and family therapists differ from traditional psychologist is that MFTs tend to view pathologies relationally.  They don't believe in an "identified patient," i.e., a schizophrenic individual.  They believe in schizophrenic families, borderline families, bi-polar families, etc. 

As a believing upcoming marriage and family therapist, my fundamental double description would be Creator/Creature, or God the Father/God's believing Children. 

• We see this with Jesus, who NEVER thought of Himself outside of a relationship with God--"If you've seen me, you've seen the Father; I and the Father are one." 
• We see God Himself NEVER thinking of Himself outside of a relationship:  "Let US make man in OUR image."  "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.  I will be known by this name forever." 
• We also see this double description with how people defined themselves in scriptural genealogies:  "the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God."  "John and James, the sons of Zebedee."

Applying all of this to God, applying the Tozer quote and what I'm saying about double descriptions, for me the key is to always think of God's emotions and responses to be as personal and relational as our emotions and responses...though of course Gods' personality is perfect, eternal, and immortal.  So when we think of "sin," or "sins," we should think of actions in a relationship, not mere theological abstractions.  For example, in the first commandment, "I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt; you shall have no other gods before me," God is being very practical and relational, very personal and even emotional.  Think about it.  God is making a relational claim on Israel's allegiance, as their very own God, as the God of their fathers, who promised in the life of Abraham that he would deliver them from the slavery he foresaw.  What other god had been to them what God had?  Who heard their cries for deliverance in their 400 years of bondage?  Which Egyptian god cared for them?  

There is a passage that touches me to the point of tears.  It illustrates the very real and personal nature of God in relationship to His people:

"Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. And because the Israelites forsook the Lord and no longer served him, he became angry with them. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites, who that year shattered and crushed them. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites on the east side of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites. The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim; Israel was in great distress. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, “We have sinned against you, forsaking our God and serving the Baals. The Lord replied, “When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you and you cried to me for help, did I not save you from their hands? But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!”But the Israelites said to the Lord, “We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer."  Judges 10:6-16

Do you feel the genuine emotion of God in this passage?  Israel had been unfaithful over and over and over again, and God delivered them over and over and over again.  Look at verses11-14.  I hear genuine hurt underneath the genuine and justifiable anger of God to his unfaithful people.  And beautifully in verse 16, God is watching his repentant people who are accepting their punishment, and He can't bear their misery.  As a father of 7, I get a glimpse of how God's anger is expressed with his children.  Scripture uses the discipline of imperfect earthly fathers to illustrate the perfect discipline of God the heavenly father.  As an earthly father, though imperfectly, I know how it feels to be angry and hurt when my children do things that are wrong to each other.  

Click HERE for part 2.