Week 27

Life has not returned to a normal slow pace, but rather has become more hectic. I apologize for the lack of suitable posts, and for no post at all a few times.

This week, I had one thing stand out for me.

Have you ever been angry with God?

We have now read of two men who were angry with God. Both of them were men of God. The first was David, and the second was Jonah.

Let's look to 2 Samuel 6 to see why David became angry with God.

They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD , with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals.

When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.

Then David was angry because the LORD's wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah. (2 Samuel 6:3-8)

We often look at this from our human standpoint and think how harsh this punishment was. We reason that Uzzah was acting with good intent to steady and protect the holy ark of the covenant. Or perhaps it was simply a reflex action on his part. We struggle to understand why God would kill a man for this seemingly inoffensive act. But those are presumptions on our part.

First, who can see into the heart of man: man or God? Secondly, God had proclaimed that touching His holy things would result in death (Numbers 4:15), so was a forewarned consequence. Thirdly, could not the God who created the universe, who brought plagues on Egypt, who divided the waters of the sea and the Jordan, and who performed many other miracles not protect His own holy items?

There is also the matter of the method of transporting the ark. Read the passage above again and you will see that the Israelites placed the ark on a cart. God's instructions for construction and transporting were that priests, Levites - Kohathites in particular, were to carry the ark with poles. (Exodus 25:10-15, Deuteronomy 10:8, Numbers 4:15)

David later realized (after searching the scriptures, perhaps) why Uzzah had been so "harshly" punished.

Then David summoned Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel and Amminadab the Levites. He said to them, "You are the heads of the Levitical families; you and your fellow Levites are to consecrate yourselves and bring up the ark of the LORD , the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it. It was because you, the Levites, did not bring it up the first time that the LORD our God broke out in anger against us. We did not inquire of him about how to do it in the prescribed way." So the priests and Levites consecrated themselves in order to bring up the ark of the LORD , the God of Israel. (1 Chronicles 15:11-14)

The ark was holy. The ark was a powerful representation of the presence of God Himself among men unequalled until the coming of Jesus. Most of us today probably do not comprehend what it is to truly treat something holy.

Whether intentional or unintentional by reflex, whether good intention or self-serving intention, Uzzah's action was not one of holy reverence.

- - -

The second man we read about becoming angry with God, was Jonah - as we read this week.

Jonah was instructed by God to go to Nineveh and preach to them in order for them to repent of their sins against God so that He would not destroy them. Of most particular interest in this is that Nineveh was the capitol city of the great ancient world empire of Assyria. They were *gentiles*! God was instructing His Israelite prophet to preach to gentiles!

Assyrians were particularly brutal and sinful, and were a threat and danger to Israel as their enemies. Jonah hated Assyrians and wanted to see Israel's enemy destroyed. You know the story. He went 180 degrees in the opposite direction to escape God's command, but God raised a storm on the sea and prepared a fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah, in the belly of the fish, repented and after 3 days he was coughed up on the shore and headed toward Nineveh. He obeyed, preached repentance to the Ninevites, and they repented and turned to God.

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened. But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the LORD , "O LORD , is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. (Jonah 3:10, 4:1-2)

God in turn asked Jonah a pointed question:
But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?" (Jonah 4:4)

God then provided Jonah with an object lesson:

Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live."

But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?" "I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die."

But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?" (Jonah 4:5-11)

God asked, Do you have the right to be angry?

Isaiah delivers the words of God:
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD . "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

How could we possibly understand God's thoughts or His ways? How can we understand what it is to treat Him and His things as holy?

Are we ever justified in being angry with God? I don't think David was, I don't think Jonah was, and I don't think we would be.

Thoughts?