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How To Make God Angry
[And The Secret Of Entering His Presence]
I couldn’t believe it. This couldn’t be happening. I looked across the tent at my wife. The tears brimming in her eyes testified to the shattering disappointment in her heart. My eyes wandered to my seven-year-old son and my beautiful daughter approaching her teenage years. I couldn’t do this to them. I couldn’t put them at risk of entering a life of slavery or, even worse, a vengeful death.
Enough was enough. We had had to fight for our rights and needs every step of the way against our incompetent leader, who had delusions of godhood. He had come into our community promising great things. We had had a tough life serving the Egyptians, but it hadn’t been all bad. Then he came. Said the God of our fathers wanted to deliver us from oppression. Oppression? It had just been enforced manual labour. Sure, I had scars on my back from the taskmaster’s whip, but I had had a good meal every night. That was more than my family had gotten from this megalomaniac.
A land flowing with milk and honey, that’s what he had promised. Even in Egypt, we have been infuriated with him when his ineptness irritated Pharoah, who took out his anger on us. Then he had impressed us with the miracles that brought Pharaoh to his knees. We had such high hopes that night. The Egyptians actually paid us to leave. That was the high point.
I looked up as my wife sniffled, and I saw her wipe a tear from her eye. Then she flashed an accusatory glance at me as if all this was my fault. Of course, I should have known. The first thing this Moses did when he led us out of Egypt was trap us between mountains and a sea. No good general would ever have camped there. All of us were wailing in fear and desperation that night as death loomed on the horizon. It had taken another miracle to get us out of that fix. True, the parting of the Red Sea had been a spectacular miracle, but it wasn’t going to keep us alive in the desert.
Then, the incompetent leads us three days into a desert without a clue as to where water is. Seriously! Didn’t it enter his mind that our wives, children, and old people needed water? Once again, after we put the pressure on, he managed to convince God to give us some water. Is there no advance planning here? And don’t get me started on food. First, nothing, then when we kept complaining that our little ones were hungry, we finally got manna. It was filling and ok at first. But. Every. Single. Day. We had to remind him how good we had it in Egypt and demand better food before we got to add fowl to our diet.
That’s how it’s been all the time. No foresight. Just one disaster after another and having to fight and claw to get should have been provided for us all the time. And now, the final insult. He has led us to the edge of the land of milk and honey, and our friends have just returned to give us the real scoop. Sure, the land is all that was promised and more. He just forgot to tell us about walled cities, giants and the mighty military machines guarding the place. If we try to take it, we will be killed and all our loved ones forced into hopeless, cruel slavery.
One good thing about the desert is that it has a lot of rocks. We had picked them up on more than one occasion, however something had always intervened. But now it was time to rid us of this deceiver and pick a leader to take us back to Egypt.
How To Make God Angry
How would you have felt in this man’s place? The problems were serious, life-threatening events. At times, it seemed hopeless. Do you feel sympathetic? Every time trouble reared its ugly head, they were quick to complain and grumble.
How about us? What is our first reaction when things go wrong? What do we think or say when the bills are more than the income? Or we lose our job? Or sickness strikes a close friend? Serious things happen in life. How do we react?
What about the small things? What do we say when our tire goes flat, or we pick the longest line in the grocery store? After all, they have a hundred things in their buggy, and we only have five. They should have let us go first!
God Perspective
Have you ever considered God’s perspective?
Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief. Heb. 3:16-19, NIV
God was so furious with their constant whining and complaining that He let their bodies rot in the wilderness rather than take them into Canaan. Why does God hate complaining and grumbling?
God is a God of love. He cares deeply about His people. He spent eighty years developing Moses into a man of faith who could lead several million people across a desert into a beautiful, prosperous land. In delivering and caring for them, He performed the greatest miracles, outside the life of Christ, that the world has ever seen. The mightiest military empire in the world of that time crumbled beneath His finger. Although His timing was not their timing, He never once failed to meet their needs. And in the giving of the Law and the sanctuary, He was offering them the greatest gift possible, the joy of relationship and living in His presence continually. Yet they threw it back in His face, running around like little gods demanding to have everything they wanted in their own timing. Their cry of “Can God Provide?” was equivalent to the demonic words in the Garden of Eden, “Did God Say?”
Hurting The One You Love
Complaining is understandable in the non-Christian who thinks he is the captain of his own destiny. Anything that comes along to burst the fragile fantasy bubble that he is the master of his destiny is naturally going to produce resentment and grumbling. No one likes to be reminded that they are not in control.
And complaining is understandable for those who believe in fate. After all, they believe they have no choice, no control. They are at the whims of cruel chance, and all their hopes can be dashed in an instant. Of course, grumbling or stoic indifference are the only things they can do in the face of hopeless despair.
Complaining and grumbling should be foreign to Christians. We believe in a sovereign God of love. We believe God is all-knowing, all-caring, and all-powerful. There is nothing outside of His control.
Whining and complaining when things—even serious events—invade a Christian's life is to insult God's character. It is an attempt to lay a charge against God's account. It is to doubt His wisdom, His ability, or His love. It is to drive a dagger into the heart of our compassionate Father. No one can hurt you more than the ones you love the most. God loves and values His chosen ones above everything else in creation. You can hurt God more than satan or the ungodly ever could.
Handling Dark Days
Does this mean we have to take a Pollyanna attitude and only think and say the best? Do we have to ignore the darkness that threatens to overwhelm us at times? Do we have to be afraid that we might offend God if we tell Him how we really feel about something He has allowed into our lives? Do we plaster a smile on our face and say, “Thank You I have this fatal disease,” or “Thank You my spouse left me,” or “Thank you I’m bankrupt,” or…?
Of course not. Read the Psalms. David and other writers expressed every human emotion. God is not offended by how we feel. But if we turn those feelings into harsh grumbling accusations against His character, that is another issue.
Take a moment and think through your day, week, or month. How often have you complained about both minor and major things? This insidious evil can become so enwrapped in our lives that we do it automatically without even thinking about it. If this has become a habit, we must make a conscious effort to break it.
The Secret Key To God's Presence
I am about to give you the most important key to entering God's presence you will ever hear. This works whether you’re having a great day or feeling crushed by heavy circumstances and have serious things you need to talk to God about.
In our church culture, we have become flippant with God. We focus on parts of God we like and ignore parts we do not like. In doing this, we are in danger of forming a god of our own making for our worship. It may not be a golden idol, but it is not the true God either. Yes, God is our Provider, but He is not Santa Claus catering to our every whim. Yes, God loves us, but He is not an indulgent Parent overlooking our misdeeds. Yes, God has all power, but that does not mean we can command Him like a genie in a bottle.
Jesus Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords. There is a protocol for entering the presence of a great king. As His children we are welcome into His presence at any time, but that does not excuse us ignoring proper procedure.
The great King David knew about protocol. He knew what it took to favourably enter his presence. While he knew what it was to express even his darkest emotions to God, he knew what it took to move into God’s presence in the first place.
Too often, Christians don’t get answers to their prayers because they grumble and shout out their requests to God while standing outside the massive city walls. They have not learned the secret of entering God's throne room. Sometimes, God graciously answers them, but the true secret is sitting at His feet and communing with Him. That is a place where grumblers will never come.
King David shares the protocol for entering the presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords in Psalm 100, verse 4:
Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.
Are we to be thankful for the terrible or frustrating things that happen to us? Not necessarily, although we do recognize that God will take those things and, in some way, use them for our benefit and the benefit of others.
But even when our universe is imploding, God’s universe is not. We are not the center; God is. Even when we are distressed and confused, God is in control. If we want to enter God’s presence and find peace for our souls and strength to handle our situations, then we must calm our minds by focusing on the greatness and works of our God. It is all about Him. No matter what is happening to us personally - and God cares deeply about that - we can make Him the priority by worshipping Who He Is and praising and admiring His mighty works.
After we have reminded ourselves of the greatness of God and worshipped at His feet, we can confidently present our petitions, knowing they will be heard. Let us banish complaining, whining, and grumbling to the pit of hell from which they came and embrace a life of thanksgiving and praise in the joy of the Lord.
Resources
How to make God angry is not what we want to do. We want to have a growing relationship with Him and live lives that are pleasing to Him. Let's not learn how to make God angry, but let's learn how to bring joy to His heart!
We have a great course that will lead you into a lifestyle of thanksgiving and praise. 90 Days Of Thanksgiving will send you one email for 90 days showing you how to turn your Scripture reading into psalms of praise. Subscribe here for these free emails today!
We also offer a course on the Power Of Praise And Worship. Change and charge your life with this course today. It does require the purchase of a textbook, but is otherwise free. Click here for more information.
For more information about Glenn Davis, see our About Glenn page or visit Glenn Davis Books.
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