Angry at Providence Part 2

Introduction: Angry at Grace

Being angry at God for his love and grace seems ridiculous to anyone, but more of us struggle with this kind of anger than we may realize.

Everything God does is loving, so any anger at God is anger at his love.

God’s providences are loving, and so any complaining about our circumstances or jealousy towards others is being angry at God’s love.

While Jonah was angry that God showed grace to Nineveh, we may be more tempted to be angry at a lack of grace. Either way, the sinful motive is a desire to control God.

What causes anger towards God for his grace? What is at the heart of it, and what is it that our sinful nature does not like about his love?

Anger Caused by the Sinful Desire to Control God’s Love

Sin is about control, and the reason the love of God is more popular than the wrath of God is because we can sinfully be under the impression that God’s love is more controllable than his wrath. Wrath to us seems disturbing just like an angry tiger is disturbing, but a friendly elephant is nice because we lose much less control when a creature has a passive disposition towards us.

Jonah is angry at God because he has discovered something about God: that his love is not in our control. In The Chronicles of Narnia the reader is constantly told that Aslan is not a tame Lion. God is not one we can tame, and his love is not love we can control.

God reserves the right to love who he wants and how he wants. While God is absolutely faithful to his covenant with Israel, Israel has not been faithful. God is showing love to Nineveh that he won’t show to Israel at this point in history because the Ninevites are repentant, but Israel is not. In fact, Paul will tell us in Romans 11:11 that God saves the Gentiles in order to make Israel jealous so they would return to him. Israel is jealous for God’s love, but not jealous enough to actually repent.

God’s love is not passive. That is, he is not one who sits at home waiting to give you a hug, $20, and send you on your way to do whatever you want to do until you visit him next time. His love is consuming, it is proactive, and it is inescapable. God is not one to sit by and let what happens happen. He takes action, both with Jonah and with Nineveh, in order to show his glorious character. God also expects active love from us as his image bearers, and this is what sinners tend to not like about God’s love; that we need to reciprocate it in the same way it is given. We cannot simply profess to love God and go about our everyday life. Because God was proactive enough to send Jesus to humble himself, suffer, and die for love, we are expected to do the same for him and his people.

God’s love is not enabling. God is not one to wink at the sins of those he loves. In fact, when God lets someone’s sins go unchallenged it is a sign of his judgement and wrath on them.

God’s unconditional love is not universal. God loves his elect unconditionally, but those he loves unconditionally will walk in love because they have been loved by him. Although God shows kindness to all people, that kindness has the condition of obedience and submission to him. When God loves unconditionally, his elect are led into his conditions.

God’s love is holy. His love is not undefined like the love of the world. It is not based on feeling, but on truth and on God’s nature and will.

Anger Caused by Making God’s Grace about Us

Why are we, in our sin, so set on trying to control God’s love? A Biblical view of God’s love shows us that God’s love and grace is not about us. While love is usually for the sake of the one loved, God’s love is primarily for his own glory. Paul describes God’s motivation for loving us in Ephesians 2:7

Ephesians 2:7 ESV

so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

In other words, God shows us love so that for all eternities we may be trophies of his glory through the grace he showed us. God’s love is not about us, it’s about God.

This is at the heart of Jonah’s anger at God. Jonah wants the kind of love that is all about him and his agenda, not about God’s glory in the larger picture.

This is probably the greatest misconception that people tend to have about the love of God. Whenever someone says, “a loving God would never create hell ect.” They are assuming that love is about them, not about God’s glory.

God’s love is directed at us, but centred on him. God loves us and sacrifices himself for us in the work of Christ, but the centre of that love is his glory. It is meant to magnify him and bring him glory primarily, and our joy in God’s love serves to bring him glory.

If Jonah had seen God’s love as being about God, he would have realized that God’s love for Israel was meant to bring glory to God and show God to all the world. God is showing himself to Assyrians because Israel won’t, and Jonah should be rejoicing that they can experience God’s grace.

Having a God-Centered View of God’s Grace

Our sinful nature wants to rob God of his glory and make his love all about us. How can we fight our flesh and have a God-centred view of God’s love and grace.

Meditate on Scriptures that display the truth of God’s centrality in his grace. All he does for us is for his glory and the glory of Jesus Christ.

Romans 11:36 ESV

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Isaiah 48:11 ESV

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.

Psalm 143:11 ESV

For your name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life! In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble!

Psalm 25:11 ESV

For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.

Exodus 9:16 ESV

But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

Consider that showing us grace was the way in which Christ has been exalted forever in glory.

Revelation 5:9 ESV

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,

Philippians 2:9–10 ESV

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

Consider that, being made in the image of God, our existence is based on showing God’s glory to all of Creation. This means that everything God’s does with us, he does for his own glory.

Align your own displays of love to be centred on God, not people. This means,

loving those we love primarily for God’s glory.

Being willing to show love in a way that is not perceived as love and may even bring about persecution.

Love patiently, gently, and without anger or selfishness. Human love is ultimately selfish, but God-centred love does not find its end in the person loved, but in God glorified.

Love sacrificially, always putting the good and pleasure of others before yourself.

Love your enemies and pray for those who hurt you.

Participate in evangelism.

Praise God for his grace in both pleasant and unpleasant providences.

Conclusion: Are You Right to be Angry?

Anger at God’s love shows a discontent with who God is and an enmity towards him for being loving.

When God shows love to someone we don’t deem deserving, let us consider the love we have been shown. We are prone to underestimate our own sin.

If we don’t like God’s love, we must have our minds renewed. Our definition of love must be dictated by Christ, not by our feelings. Feelings are important, but love is ultimately based on the truth of who God is.