Well, I want to go back to a verse that I read in the previous study and unpack it more. I want to entitle this study, "Anger and Grace." "But he said, 'Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.' Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses."
Well, we have been talking about God's amazing patience with Moses, and then we run across this verse. If God is responding to Moses in grace, how can he be angry with him? Well, let's clarify here. God is not angry that Moses is convinced the job he is calling him to do is way bigger than his natural ability-it is! God repeatedly tells Moses that he will go with him and empower him to do what he's been called to do. Moses is not being irrational-this is way beyond Moses's natural ability.
Second, God is not angry that Moses reminds him that he's not very good with words. God knows who Moses is. He created him. And Moses is right, he's not good with words. So, God graciously sends his brother Aaron to be his spokesman. Now, listen to what I'm about to say. God is angry that Moses essentially says "No" to him. Now, it's important to understand that this is not the anger of condemnation; no, it's like the anger a father has when his child has been disobedient. The dad is not going to kick his kid out of the house forever. He's not going to remove him from the family and withhold his love from him.
But there's a righteous reason for the father to be angry. It's absolutely right to say, in this passage, that the anger here is the anger of grace. You wouldn't want to live in a family where the father lets you do whatever you want to do, no matter how wrong or dangerous. The anger a father feels when his child steps out of the clearly-communicated boundaries is motivated by love and a desire to see good things grow in the child's life. In the same way, you wouldn't want to live in a world where the person who sits on the throne of the world is never angry with evil. That would be a world no one could live in. It would be incredibly violent, incredibly dangerous; it would be absolutely unlivable.
It's love for us that God exercises his anger against evil, against what is wrong. It's love that God resists us when we say "No" to him, because he's perfectly holy, his will is always what's best for us. And because he's perfectly holy, his anger is never unrighteous. So, it is with Moses. Poor, fearful, doubting, resisting Moses just had no idea of the glories that were in front of him. He had no idea of the blessings of his future life. He had no idea of the place he would have in God's grand redemptive narrative. Just like a child doesn't know about life in the way that his father knows about life. The fatherly anger of our Lord is a function of his grace. That anger is him reaching out his hands to us and pulling us back to the life that he knows is best for us. It's good that God gets angry against evil, against our sin, because in that anger is hope!
Questions for Personal Reflection or Group Discussion
1. What has your relationship with anger looked like up to this point? How has the element of anger affected the way you were raised? How has it shaped your friendships? Your marriage? Your parenting? Your job?
2. How have you seen anger produce godly fruit in your life and the lives of others around you? How have you seen it be a destructive power? How is God's anger different from sinful, human anger?
3. In what ways might you have misunderstood God's anger when you've read about it in Scripture? Why is God's anger never an unrighteous anger? How have you seen God's fatherly anger in your life live out as a function of his grace?
4. In what parts of your life have you struggled to believe that God knows what is best for you? Why is there always hope in the anger of God?
For Younger Children:
1. Why do you think anger can be such a harmful thing in people? How have you seen your anger harm others or even yourself? How have you seen someone else's anger (maybe even mine) be harmful to others?
2. Have you ever seen anger be a helpful or protective thing? Why is that kind of anger different from harmful anger?
3. Do you think God gets angry? How is God's anger different from sinful human anger? Can God's anger be a good thing? How?
For Older Children:
1. How have you seen human anger be a force for destruction in this world? Have you ever seen anger be a force for good? How?
2. Why is the anger of God different from the sinful anger of human beings? How can the anger of God actually be a good thing? Why is it impossible for God's anger to be a bad thing?
3. Why is the anger of God directly connected to the love and grace of God?
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