Deuteronomy 9:19
“For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was wrathful against you in order to destroy you, but the LORD listened to me that time also.”
This is a difficult passage to write about. I don’t like to think of God as angry. How do we relate to this? This will take more than one session to address.
First off, God is angry at sin. That’s why Jesus had to die. God’s anger and punishment towards it happened at the cross. I think that’s what we can take from this passage. We can also learn what’s displeasing to God and adopt that attitude.
We should also hate sin. We shouldn’t carelessly dabble in it, then confess and move on. We should have some feeling, some remorse. There should be strong response that acts as a deterrent.
Sin is offensive to God. While this anger isn’t towards us, we should know the degree to which He’s against it. We should learn what is sinful and seek to avoid it.
The more difficult ones are sinful attitudes: resistance, stubbornness, impatience… We all have these. It’s difficult to know when the line is crossed. When is it a normal reaction and when does it begin to become sinful? Which other of our attitudes are poor? The Holy Spirit reveals these to us in time.
We should ask The Lord which of attitudes are displeasing. Not in a guilt ridden manner, but in a way that wants to clean house. We should also pray for God’s mind. Lord, help me to also hate sin. Not to be a “finger pointer” towards others, but within ourselves. This is the proper response. The fact that we don’t is a sign that we have some growth in an area. We need to develop a sense to what is displeasing to God. Not in a guilty way, but in a sensitive one.
Lord, thank You for Jesus dealing with our sin. Help us to learn what is displeasing to You and to rid ourselves of it.