The Fury of a Father

         A funny misconception I once carried is that God seems to change personalities from the Old Testament to the New. In my first reading of the Bible, I saw only a furious, vengeful God in the Old Testament and a loving God in the rest of the story.  My time walking and talking with the Lord (very literally walking and talking--for any of my neighbors who happen to read this, yes, the occasional fervent gesticulation while I walk my dogs does have an audience!) has opened my eyes to His character and helped me to see more clearly. My time as a parent has enhanced my perception, also. I don't know about others, but I can certainly say that love and anger are often very chummy in my relationship with my kiddos. I find I am often the most angry with my children when their choices have threatened their safety or caused harm (emotional or otherwise) to others. In such cases, my anger with their poor choices is a reflection of my love for them, stemming from genuine concern for their well-being, and not a different emotion. As I now see it, anger and love are inseparable in a fallen world and dealing with sinful beings. 

          At the very beginning of the story, we see God--holy, perfect, and pure--who creates a world and makes two remarkable beings after His own image. He gives them a garden and dominion over all of His creation, and He walks with them in it and shares a relationship that is unspoiled. He even provides a tree, called the tree of life, that is theirs for the taking. His one request? That they not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Just this one tree in all of creation. Why? Well, if there was no possibility for obedience, there can be no possibility for disobedience and therefore no choice to trust, no choice to make at all. Without choice, can there truly be love? But  that is a question for another day. . .

         When all is said and done, Adam and Eve make a poor choice, flinging wide the doors to sin and the wrath of God for generations. Much of the rest of the Old Testament does, indeed, speak of the anger and outrage of God. The first sin brought the first breach in fellowship between God and His creation. Sin took the image of God and smeared it with filth and decay, ruining the masterpiece and destroying something far more precious--unquestioned trust in the Creator and mutual adoration. In place of those treasures, sin delivered fear, uncertainty, distrust, suspicion, hatred, shame-- and the list goes painfully on. The point is, along with the entry of sin suffering and death entered the world as well. God's anger could very likely stem from His understanding that our choices to sin are choices for self-mutilation. He is angry because He cares for us. Seen in that light, is it not the very force of His fury that indicates His deep concern and affection for humanity? Without love, why would He care that we sinned or continue to do so; why not just pull out entirely and leave us to rot in our chosen state?

        Honestly, the most recent times I have read Genesis 3, it is sorrow that I seem to hear in the voice of God rather than anger. The same sorrow that pierces the heart of any parent who learns that their children do not trust them and are even openly hostile--only intensified, for an eternal Being must feel a depth of grief that a tiny human heart can only faintly echo. There is anger, too, and rightfully so. His very own Creation to whom He has given paradise has turned and stated, "It is not enough. I want more." Even so, in the midst of what must have been unfathomable rage and sadness, He outlined a plan that would be centuries in the making--a plan to right the wrong done by Adam and Eve, a plan that required very little of their descendants and yet cost Him more than a human mind can fathom. This plan of redemption involved incredible sacrifice, beginning with a life of abject humility and unflagging certainty in the goodness of God, and offers humankind the opportunity to restore what was broken and to become His children again. The uncontaminated life and willing sacrifice of Christ restored the image of God that was once soiled and offered it as a cloak to cover the bestial nature that humankind had chosen. He voiced this astounding plan while the first couple still averted their eyes in distress for what they had done. If that is not an act of love, I do not know what is!

        Beyond that, however, His compassion is rampant in the rest of the Old Testament. Most of the books that compose it talk more of the degradation of mankind, more of man's deserving destruction, than they do of God's wrath. Oh, His wrath is there and plain to see, but plainer still is the vigorous energy man seemed to devote toward earning every drop of it. The Old Testament is full of  stories exhibiting mankind multiplying wickedness, scoffing with foolish pride, believing themselves larger than life, and ultimately looking like a pack of ninnies as their names go down in history with a few brief and unflattering words. Many of them sulked like naughty toddlers. Several of them boasted and swaggered. Often they thumbed their noses at God in one way or another, frequently they were recalcitrant, and all of them ended up the same general way--as provender for worms, dogs, or birds. Some throughout the history actually saw the absurdity of their situation and humbled themselves to one degree or another. Among these were prophets, kings, common men, prostitutes... a varied assortment, and yet to each was extended some measure of grace or another, some promise kept, some glimpse of the coming redemption offered, and a chance to become children of the King no matter their lineage or occupation.  When  I read these accounts, I see, not an angry God, but an exorbitantly patient Father, offering chance after chance to His stubborn brood, encouraging those who were faithful, and patiently enduring the centuries until the fullness of His plan for our redemption had arrived.

      The Old Testament is a collection of books full of the folly of man, the seriousness of sin, and the graciousness of a God who forgives. Sure, He is angry that His creation has bent itself on its own destruction, but He is angry because He loves this creation so dearly. He is the perfect Father, wanting the best for His children and willing to go to any lengths to keep them from thoroughly decimating themselves.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV^® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.