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No Comments An Angry God
1st Samuel 15:3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
The Amalekites attacked Israel on their way to the promised land. They were a relentless enemy and God had enough of it. It was time to get rid of them so they couldn’t rise again.
Psalm 7:11 God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.
We like to think of God as loving, kind, long-suffering, an all around “nice guy”. We tend to ignore the angry God, the one who is unflinching in his demand for obedience. It doesn’t cross our mind that men are the enemies of God. We are sinners and don’t have any idea how offensive our lives are to God.
It’s hard to grasp who God is. He says his ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts. Who is this God that commands Israel to commit genocide, every man, woman, child and even the babies. In our manicured understanding of God it’s unthinkable that this would be what God commanded. We wouldn’t do any of those things today. Can you imagine being ordered to kill children? That was an ugly scene! What kind of God do we worship?
The problem is we don’t understand what sin is, how vile it is and that anyone giving it a pass is an affront to God. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Modern man has increased his knowledge a thousand fold but he forgot to start with fear.
Understanding the difference between good and evil is in the business of God not mortal man. Men come and men go and not a trace is left of them. God remains always the same. We read God’s Word and hide it in our heart so we don’t sin against him. At least that’s what we should be doing.
Psalm 76:7 Thou, even thou, art to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry? Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Amalekites were disposable worthless people in God’s eyes; they were the world. Extermination without mercy. So many can’t serve a God like that. That’s the problem we have with God. He can have a baby killed, we can’t! But I think we have to look at what the Amalekites were doing which is trying to stop God’s chosen people from making it to the promised land or dwelling in it peacefully. They were enemies of God’s people. They brought up their children to hate God’s people. Sound familiar?
God took all his anger out on Christ. Every sin was dealt with on the cross. Jesus paid it all isn’t just a song. God’s anger is over with, no more killing Amalekites. He gave us Jesus to model what faith and obedience looks like. Now the ball is in Jesus’s court. He degraded himself by permanently taking on human flesh. He may not have sinned but he was tempted daily. He won’t be happy with people who reject his sacrifice. He’s a lot like his father.
The recipe for pleasing God is simple, faith and obedience; they feed off each other. We’re all in God’s hands but we must choose what kind of hands they are.