Righteous Anger

Hello, my name is Paul, and I am the voiceover for a ministry provided to you by Jim Pugh at God Is Government called Your Daily Bread, taken from Christ’s teaching of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, verse 11. This is a daily devotion ministry focused not only on uplifting Scripture, but Scripture that will grow your spiritual connection with Christ. We hope that you receive these devotions to uplift you, encourage you, but most importantly, advance your knowledge base of the Holy Scriptures. Today’s focused discussion will be on righteous anger. The fury of God, the fury of Moses brought about terrifying wrath.

That is righteous wrath, because what is the commandment in the Ten Commandments? You shall have no other gods before me. And there they were, worshipping a god of their own making while he was getting the Ten Commandments. This is righteous indignation, and Moses was entitled to it because God was entitled to it. God is angry with the kid every day. God loves righteousness, so by nature he hates evil. Psalm 69.9 David said, zeal for your house has eaten me up. David meant that when you are dishonored, when your house is dishonored, it is consuming me.

Zeal for your house has eaten me up, he said. Then he said further, the reproaches that fall on you fall on me. When you are dishonored, I feel the pain. That’s a very, very legitimate kind of suffering. When you suffer empathetically with the dishonour being heaped on God, it is angering to a righteous person to see God maligned and blasphemed and scorned and mocked and ridiculed. It is a kind of zeal that consumes that eats at us, because we love him and we want to defend his glory. And so the reproaches that are driven at God fall on us.

Like Paul said, I bear in my body the marks of Christ. So that’s the Old Testament. That’s just one of many illustrations where God unleashed horrifying anger. If you want a bigger one than that, go back to Genesis and read where he drowned the entire human race, except for eight people. God has a right to be angry. In the New Testament we know that our Lord Jesus Christ exhibited that. Look at John chapter 2. John chapter 2 verse 13, the Passover of the Jews was near and Jesus went up to and he found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves and the money changers seated at their tables.

And he made a scourge of cords and drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And to those who were selling the doves, he said, take these things away, stop making my father’s house a place of business. And his disciples remembered Psalm 69.9. Zeal for your house has eaten me up. That was righteous indignation and Jesus started his ministry in Jerusalem with a blast of that righteous indignation. There’s an interesting account in Mark 3 that shows the anger of Jesus in a different way.

He entered into a synagogue, Mark 3 verse 1, and a man was there whose hand was withered had some kind of deformity in his hand. And the Jewish people were watching him to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him. Now there was no law, of course, in the Old Testament that somebody couldn’t get healed on the Sabbath. But they were looking for some violation of their human traditions. They were watching Jesus. Verse 3, he said to the man with the withered hand, get up and come forward.

And he said to them, that is, the Jewish people, is it lawful to do good or do harm on the Sabbath to save a life or kill it? But they kept silent and looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart. He said to the man, stretch out your hand. He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against him as to how they might destroy him. Destroy him for healing a man on the Sabbath. Destroy him for violating some man-made tradition.

Jesus was angry over their hard-heartedness. That’s righteous anger. Another illustration very similar to the one in John. At the end of our Lord’s ministry, the same thing happened. He went back to the temple, and not much had changed since he started his ministry there three years earlier. When you come back to Matthew, chapter 21 and verse 12, Jesus entered the temple. This is in Passion Week, the end of his life, drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.

And he said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you’re making it a robber’s den. That’s righteous indignation. That’s godly anger. Righteous anger is that anger that is against evil, particularly that evil which strikes against the glory of god or some other person. In the case of Jesus’ action at the temple, he was defending the glory of his father. In the case of the man with the withered hand, he was defending the right of that man to receive compassionate healing. Righteous anger is always in the cause of someone else.

It may be god, or it may be someone else. It’s not selfish. It’s not self-focused or self-centered. Any evil, any sin directed at god’s person or god’s word or god’s will or god’s kingdom deserves and has the anger of god. God is angry with the wicked all the time. He’s angry with injustice. He’s angry with immorality. He’s angry with ungodliness. And certainly he’s angry with blasphemy, irreverence, scorn, mockery. We have a right to be angry when god is dishonored or when someone else is mistreated. And that’s what we see in Jesus. In the temple, he’s defending god’s honour.

And in the healing of the man with the withered hand, he’s defending that man’s right to receive compassionate care. Righteous anger is never selfish. In fact, we learn from the Lord himself and his trial and his crucifixion that he never fought back. In fact, he didn’t even pronounce judgment hanging on the cross. He said, Father, what forgive them, for they know not what they do. There, he is offering those revilers and those blasphemers, executing the very Son of God, forgiveness. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of righteous anger. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world.

To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].