Wednesday: The Anger of the Lord
Daily Lesson for Wednesday 17th of December 2025
How should we interpret the descriptions of God’s wrath and retributive justice in Joshua (Joshua 23:15-16) and elsewhere in Scripture? (See also Numbers 11:33; 2 Chronicles 36:16; Revelation 14:10,19; Revelation 15:1.)
Israel already has experienced the Lord’s anger during the wilderness wanderings (Numbers 11:33, Numbers 12:9) as well as in the Promised Land (Joshua 7:1) and was fully aware of the consequences of provoking Yahweh’s anger by flagrantly breaking the covenant.
Image © Darrel Tank at Goodsalt.com
These verses represent the climax of the severity of Joshua’s rhetoric. It is shocking to hear that the Lord will destroy Israel, as the same term has been previously used to refer to the annihilation of the Canaanites. As surely as the promises of the Lord have been faithfully fulfilled concerning Israel’s blessing, the curses of the covenant (Leviticus 26:1-46, Deuteronomy 28:1-68) also will become true if the Israelites reject the covenant. In light of the dispossession and destruction of the Canaanites, these verses demonstrate once again that Yahweh is ultimately the judge of all the earth. He declares war against sin, irrespective of where it is found. Israel was not sanctified, and did not acquire special merits, through participation in holy war any more than pagan nations did when they later became the means of Yahweh’s judgment against the chosen nation.
It lies within Israel’s power of choice to make the glorious certainties of the past the foundation for facing the future.
At first glance, the biblical teaching on God’s anger seems to be incompatible with the affirmation that God is love (John 3:16, 1 John 4:8). Yet, it is exactly in the light of God’s wrath that the biblical doctrine of God’s love becomes even more relevant. First, the Bible presents God as loving, patient, long-suffering, and ready to forgive (Exodus 34:6, Micah 7:18). However, in the context of a world affected by sin, the wrath of the Lord is the attitude of His holiness and righteousness when confronted by sin and evil. His wrath is never an emotional, revengeful, unpredictable overreaction. The New Testament teaches that Christ became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), and through His death we have been reconciled with God (Romans 5:10). Whoever believes in Him will not have to face God’s wrath (John 3:36, Ephesians 2:3, 1 Thessalonians 1:10). The concept of the wrath of God presents God as the righteous judge of the universe and the One who upholds the cause of justice (Psalms 7:11, Psalms 50:6, 2 Timothy 4:8).
Questions about God’s wrath will always remain and I find it difficult enough to provide answers for myself, let alone other people. Perhaps these illustrations may help.
I get angry. Sometimes, when I get angry, I know I am in the wrong. I have let something, or more likely, someone get under my skin and I lash out. Usually, I’m the one who gets into trouble when that happens.
But there is another kind of anger. I have seen some of my brightest students lose their potential. Sometimes its substance abuse, at other times it is association with the wrong type of friends. It makes me angry to see students lose their potential through their own poor choices. I have even told some of them that I am angry about the choices they have made. Occasionally it has made a difference. I think part of God’s anger is like that.
There is a second kind of anger too, when I see people with potential lose out through no fault of their own. I have been to too many funerals of young people killed in motorcar accidents. I once had to return marked examination papers to a mother whose son was killed while driving home after an examination. So many young people die, or are incapacitated in some way so they cannot live the life they envisaged. I am angry that 15 innocent people lost their lives, some of them in trying to prevent the shooting in Sydney on Sunday. But it is not “Blame Game” anger. It’s the anger that evil is dwelling in the hearts of people to the extent they don’t value the lives of others. The consequences that evil has on the innocent make me angry and determined to promote understanding and tolerance towards others in our community. I think part of God’s anger is like that, too.
I don’t know if that helps you understand God’s anger – it helps me just a little bit. But I still have a lot of questions.
Scripture does not treat wrath as a simple emotion but as a moral response rooted in love, justice, and the value of human being .God’s anger exists because God values people, potential, and life itself. Wrath is the shadow side of love’s commitment to the good.
Douglas – thank you for sharing your thoughtfull comments. You state that “wrath is the shadow side of love’s commitment to the good”. Though I agree, I just want to make sure that ‘shadow side of love’ is not meant to be something ‘dark’ or ‘negative’, but rather only the other side of the coin established by God’s benevolent, harmonious justice by His love.
God’s anger is directed towards sin and not a sinner. The ultimate act of destroying the sinner is simply due to the sinner’s choice of not accepting Jesus to bear the burden on his behalf.
“But as surely as the Lord your God has given you the good things he promised, he will also bring disaster on you if you disobey him. He will completely destroy you from this good land he has given you. If you break the covenant of the Lord your God by worshipping and serving other gods, his anger will burn against you, and you will quickly vanish from the good land he has given you.”(Joshua 23:15-16, NLT).
The “wrath” of God is not clearly understood at times. How can a loving God, at the same time, utterly destroy the people He claims to love with an everlasting love? How can “wrath” be an expression of the love of God?
Without making any attempt to explain the two aspects of God’s nature, I simply want to highlight one of the messages that comes from the wrath of God.
The wrath of God is a warning that calls for repentance and a reminder that rejecting the love of God has consequences. This is a demonstration of the seriousness of sin and an appeal to reconcile with God. This is a response of God’s commitment to righteousness, justice, and the well-being of His creation. God’s love is not passive, but responds actively to work to restore, purify, and make right. In His wisdom, God intend to lead people to repentance and ultimately to the salvation that God freely offers through Jesus Christ. Like loving parents who warn and chastise their child, our Father in heaven will not be helpless, but act even in stern ways for correction, or punitive, in order to protect the child.
“These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age” (1 Corinthians 10:11, NLT).
Can we ignore God’s clear warnings?
Psychologists explain that boundaries help children feel secure and loved. In a similar way, the anger of God has never been reckless or cruel; rather, it is purposeful and filled with love. God has set moral boundaries because sin is destructive. When those boundaries are crossed, God’s anger is a demonstration of His justice and goodness, not a loss of control. Just as a parent’s discipline teaches children the difference between right and wrong, God’s anger teaches us that sin kills and destroys. “The Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in” (Proverbs 3:12).
God’s wrath is His settled hostility toward sin, meaning that God’s anger originates from His holiness. Because God is holy, He cannot tolerate sin, just as light cannot coexist with darkness. This does not mean that God hates people; rather, He hates the sin that ultimately destroys them. God’s anger exists alongside His love and mercy, pointing people toward repentance and restoration. “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). God’s anger, like a boundary, is meant to protect, correct, and lead us back in the right direction.
Anytime I read the above excerpt from the book , it dawns on me that in the long run, we shall know and understand who God is. And…. it is not because God has not been showing or telling us who He is, but I really feel that at many times, we (humanity) suffer from what I could call a or . God’s wrath or anger has always been a subject matter of debate. How can a loving God have this rage or wrath that can extinguish the very thing He created? Can anger be good? And, if He is love, why can’t forgiveness or pardon be His way of addressing our iniquities? These questions and many more are in the minds of many of us, including myself.
But, as we read scripture, what do we see? Doesn’t it always give us choices to make? And in those choices, isn’t God clear enough about the consequences that may befall us for what we shall choose? Aren’t we able to comprehend our choices and the results to accept? God’s wrath in all cases have not been impulsive – especially for the children of Israel – they were prewarned (Deuteronomy 30:15-20). Furthermore, like us today, at many times, for the children of Israel, God gave them chances and favor.
I sometimes wonder how much time I – we – spend analyzing God’s wrath. I know that this comment may not be what we need to hear, but God’s anger is triggered by our betrayal and disobedience. The great part is that His goodness kicks in just immediately and His nature begins to formulate how He could salvage us every time. If we can just repent and confess our sin, God has always changed curse into blessing immediately. I pray that we could acknowledge our rebellion and see firsthand the goodness and blessing that is God’s nature.
We are all sinners and cannot escape the wrath of God on our own (Romans 3:23). But when we accept Jesus—the One who carried our sins—and believe in Him, we are counted righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21). Because Christ bore God’s wrath for us, “we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Romans 5:9).
The kind of anger/wrath you describe, brother Maurice, results from seeing the heinous effects of sin on those we love. That indeed describes/defines God’s anger/wrath. Parents feel that about their beloved children who walk away from God, as in my very own anguish over my only child, age 55 who has walked away from God. However, my God yearns for him infinitely more than l do. Our God’s wrath is against sin, not the sinners He sent our Savior to reach out to and save!
Human judgment is partial and never free from prejudice, precisely because of its limitations. Although we have freedom of choice of whom to serve today, we will all face God’s perfect judgment in the end. Thus, our best bet is to stand by the Omnipotent Judge now!
The Bible says that God is love (1 John 4:8). That is His nature. But the Bible never says that God is wrath. God’s wrath is a response to evil. His wrath is provoked by evil. If sin never entered into the world, God would never have an occasion to display His wrath. God is always loving, but only wrathful as a response to evil.
This sounds like bad news, because we are all tainted by sin. But the good news is that one day God has promised to judge and destroy all evil. God’s wrath is an expression of His love, because without it, evil would have free reign to destroy the people God loves. God will not let that happen. He has set a day when He will make all things right in regard to sin and evil.
In the meantime, before the Day of the Lord, God has done something wonderful.
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)
We are told that God gave His own Son up for us! What does that mean?
Jesus had no sins of His own. So, why would God give Him up? The apostle Paul says God gave up His Son for us all. He is talking about what Jesus accomplished on the cross. God poured out His wrath on Jesus, as our substitute, for our sins. Jesus became the lightning rod for our sins. All God’s wrath against your sins were poured out on Him. So, when you put your faith in Jesus, there is no more wrath left for you. This is good news for you and for everyone you know.
Ephesians 4:26 says, “Be angry and sin not.” Anger is a fundamental emotion. We will get angry but we should sin not. We are created in God’s image and we get angry, however our triggers are different. As human beings our wrath is unrighteous and is usually driven by a perceived threat of injustice, selfishness or annoyance. Anger is a stress response. Anger can be good or bad, and it is the bad anger that diminishes our joy, damages our physical and mental health, and destroys relationships.
God’s anger is a divine response to sin. It is a righteous, holy response driven by his perfect character. God’s wrath has been provoked for so long and let us not forget Psalm 103:8 which says “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.” We will not fully understand God’s anger but we need to trust His heart. We can’t possibly understand God’s actions, as we humans are at a lower level of reasoning than our Almighty God. One day soon we will understand by and by.
The image of God in humanity is about His original design—perfect, loving, and peaceful. Anger, especially the destructive kind, comes as a result of sin disrupting that original harmony.
In the Garden of Eden, before sin entered, there was no anger or brokenness because everything was in perfect alignment with God’s will. So, anger as we know it is a consequence of sin, not part of God’s original creation.
James 1:19,20 gives excellent advice and wisdom which if the counsel in verse nineteen were followed the contrast between man’s wrath and God’s wrath would be more readily discernable. Man’s wrath is often vindictive and destructive without a hint of redemption. Whereas God’s wrath is intended to be instructive, constructive, and redemptive. If God’s wrath was like man’s wrath then this world would probably have been totally depopulated a long time ago.
Psalm 7:11 says that God is angry with the wicked everyday. Why? Because they were created for righteousness and have chosen to live unrighteous lives that bring harm not only to themselves but especially to others. While we are free moral agents, once we surrender that freedom to unrighteousness we then become slaves to unrighteousness and pawns of Satan. When I see the violence and hatred in our world I too get angry at the wicked. I get angry at Satan and want to see him and them destroyed because they are ruining people’s lives, they are ruining God’s creation. Sin doesn’t just affect an individual, it affects all of society. The ripples of one act of disobedience and defiance are still spreading around our world today. Will we continue to spread those ripples of unrighteousness, or will we choose by the power of God to break the cycle of wrath and destruction in our lives? The choice is ours to make. The power is ours to take and make the world, at least in our circle of influence, a better place.
God’s wrath comes with an immediate action, and when He declares His intention to act, no one can tell the severity of the damage. However, if God chooses to be considerate of a rebellious offense, He will act to preserve and offer a solution to correct the misbehavior. Usually, if God perceives you as someone who might be beneficial to His services, He will incur a minor punishment as a result of you offending Him and offer a chance for you to repent from the offense.
When the prophet Jonah disobeys God and runs to hide in the ship, He causes panic in the ship, reveals Himself to the people in the ship, cautions them to throw him into the sea. God sends a fish to swallow him, and directs the fish to vomit him out on the shore of Nineveh. God was kind to Jonah because He needed him to deliver a message to the people of Nineveh. If God chooses to act as a result of rebelling against His commandment, He will act in a swift manner to destroy. He destroyed the Israelites when they adopted the heathen’s doctrines (2 Kings 17:15-18).
Joshua’s retributive justice cautions the Israelites of what might happen if they transgressed against the covenant the Lord commanded them to keep.
To draw a parallel between God’s wrath and Joshua’s retributive justice, it would be appropriate to infer that while a retributive justice may caution of what may happen if one rebels against God’s commandment, God’s wrath will destroy if one goes against the words of a retributive justice.
God is not arbitrary – He just states facts: When you follow the tenants of my Covenant with you, good will happen. When you do not, the consequences of your choices will lead to great harm. The choices are laid out clearly because God does not lie. It is not by ‘if’ but by ‘when’ you follow God’s guidance that the outcome is established – Numbers 23:19.
It is important to understand that God tells us a certainty – when you do this, than ‘that’ will happen. It’s like – when you stay up all night, you will be tired the next day. Or, when you stay out in the hot sun all day without protection, you will get sunburned. Or, when you always eat too much you will gain weight. The outcome reflects the simple ‘cause and effect’ relationship between ‘choice and consequence’ – Gal.6:7-8.
Just because God’s Ways are just and swift, it does not put into question God’s benevolent integrity. If we want to truly enjoy His blessings, we need to be willing to also accept His corrections; both go together – two sides of the same coin. When we choose to truly believe, we accept God’s Will and Way – Isaiah 43:18-19.
The wrath of God is a reminder of the holiness of God and a measure of God’s hatred of sin. God’s wrath is proportionate to the unrighteousness which provokes it. The immensity of God’s wrath toward sin is an indication of His holy hatred of sin. We should hate it as well.
The wrath of God should make us uncomfortable with sin. In addition, we should never forget that our sin resulted in the suffering and agony of our Savior on whom God’s wrath was poured out. To think lightly of sin is to take Christ’s suffering lightly. To sin willfully is to come dangerously close to crucifying afresh the Son of God (Hebrews 6:6).
I think it’s probably not best to address the subject of God’s wrath by collecting a bunch of verses. Each situation where God is angry is different and the whole passage needs to be read to understand what is going on.
That being said, I would draw two conclusions about God’s wrath. First, it’s principally against sin. When humans are involved in sin, they get caught in the cross-fire so to speak.
Second, I think the vast majority of God’s wrath is redemptive. His anger and the consequences that flow from that is meant to wake people up and turn them around. It’s certainly not just for God to feel good.
The exception would be the destruction of the wicked in Revelation. There is no hope of redemption then, but even in wrath, God is merciful. The lost would never be happy in a perfect universe. They need to be destroyed, not just for the sake of the righteous, but for their own sake.
Spot on Christina! Even in the destruction of the wicked God is merciful. He doesn’t keep tormenting them in a never ending barbecue. Our God is a consuming fire against things that are not immortal. If we have received everlasting life through Jesus, then we are fireproof. If we are saturated in gasoline and are in the presence of fire then we shouldn’t be surprised if we ignite. Sin is combustible. If we are saturated with sin and in the presence of God we too will burn.
Yahweh is slow to anger, He always want us to realized our sins and turn back to Him, if we refuses, He will destroy us at the end of time.
Thank you, Tim. This may be the best description of the effect of “God’s wrath” that I have come across.
Your analogies make it memorable.
The wicked will be destroyed because they are “sin-soaked,” making them combustible in God’s presence.
If we have the heart of Jesus, we will do all we can to help those in our circle of influence to understand how much God loves them, so they will trust Him enough to commit their lives to Him, making them “fire-proof.”
Yes! This is it!
The Bible’s descriptions of God’s wrath in books like Joshua and Revelation can be hard to understand because we often try to reduce God to just one trait—usually love. But God is more complex than that. He relates to sin differently depending on the role He is acting in. As a Father, He disciplines in order to restore. As a King, He protects the holiness of His kingdom. As a Judge, He upholds justice. God isn’t responding emotionally or randomly—He is dealing with sin because it must be dealt with.
If God ignored evil, He would not be loving or just. Love without justice becomes empty sentiment. A good judge must confront wrongdoing, and a holy God cannot simply overlook sin.
This is especially difficult for a self-focused culture that prefers to see God as someone who exists to make us feel good. We often treat God like a “cosmic therapist” instead of a holy Creator to whom we are accountable. When that happens, we minimize sin and treat God’s commands as optional rather than as the moral foundation of reality.
God’s love actually makes the most sense when we understand His wrath. If God were not opposed to evil, there would be no need for a Savior. The cross only matters because sin is serious and God is just. Christ took upon Himself what justice required, so mercy could be offered. When we recognize God as Judge, we can better appreciate Him as Father—and when we see His holiness, His love becomes even more powerful.