The Distressing Attributes of God
Biblical Authority Ministries, April 14, 2025 (Donate)
The burden of the word of
the Lord to Israel by Malachi. “I have loved you,” says
the Lord. “Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau
Jacob’s brother?” says the Lord. “Yet Jacob I have loved; But Esau I have
hated, And laid waste his mountains and his heritage For the jackals of the
wilderness.” (Malachi 1:1–3, NKJV)
Many Christians often focus on the attributes
of God that show his grace, kindness, mercy, patience, and especially
love. But how often do we study and focus on His other attributes, like His
perfect justice? Or His righteous anger? Or God’s righteous hate? Or His
righteous jealousy, wrath, and vengeance?
These attributes are often overlooked, and I believe that is
to our detriment! This fact is problematic to ignore because when we don’t
understand the righteous forms of anger, hate, or jealousy, we
are prone to confuse them with unrighteous forms of anger,
hate, or jealousy.
Consequently, this affects how we view the nature and
character of God—it also becomes easier to fall into the trap of mistaken views
of anger, hate, jealousy, wrath, and vengeance. I’ve heard people say that the
Bible teaches that hate is a sin. I ask in response,
“when God hated Esau, do you believe God was sinning?”
Before there is any confusion, let me clarify: I’m not condoning any
unrighteous/sinful form of hate.
Nevertheless, this response often surprises the person who truly loves God
and his Word. The reason is that it places their position “on the horns of a
dilemma.” It pits a God who cannot sin (e.g., Hebrews
4:15[1]; 1
John 1:5[2]; 2
Corinthians 5:21[3]; Deuteronomy
32:4[4])
against their view where God would be deemed a sinner if hate is a sin. Ergo,
the person’s view is in error.
I don’t say this lightly; I’ve been the person on the other
end of this. When I grew up, I was taught that hate, anger, and jealousy were
sins. Imagine for a moment when I read the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:3–17),
and it said,
You shall not bow down to them
nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth
generations of those who hate Me. (Exodus 20:5, NKJV)
God (and by extension his Word) is the absolute
authority in all matters, including when describing His own attributes. When our
perception of reality is refuted by God’s Word, we need to change our
perception. As sinful beings (Romans 3:23[5], 5:12[6]),
our perceptions and thoughts can be wrong. To correct them, we need to align
our views with God’s Word, just like everything else.
As a result, we start to think properly (i.e.,
think God’s thoughts after Him). Let’s look at God’s Word a little
closer regarding these attributes of God that we commonly overlook;
perhaps our neglect of these attributes is intentional as we’ve become
uncomfortable with them due to worldly influence.
Anger
This may surprise many, but one of God’s righteous
attributes is anger. Consider when God is speaking
through Moses to the Israelites (descendants of Jacob), predicting that they
will provoke God to anger after Moses dies (Deuteronomy 31:29[7]):
They provoked Him to jealousy
with foreign gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger. (Deuteronomy
32:16, NKJV)
Here, the prediction is that the Israelites would serve
false gods and perform abominations that would make God angry. If you
follow the Bible, the Israelites provoked God to anger many
times (e.g., Judges 2:12[8]; 1
Kings 22:53[9]; 2
Chronicles 28:25[10]; Isaiah
1:4[11]).
Although the Bible doesn’t use the term anger,
it is perhaps apt to say Jesus was angry when he drove out the
thieving money changers with a whip and overturned their tables in the Temple
(e.g., Matthew 21:12-13[12]; Mark
11:15[13]; John
2:15[14]). God has
perfect righteousness, so his anger is righteous anger.
Furthermore, God cannot sin in His anger.
Man, being made in the image of God, can also have
righteous anger. But as sinful human beings, we need to be careful not
to sin in that anger. That is where we, as fallible sinful beings,
can and do err. And this is the reason people have a negative view of anger.
This is why sin is said to be crouching at the door of an angry person. Consider Cain, who did not sacrifice the same way that God did in Genesis 3:21[15] (a blood sacrifice for sin), but only offered first fruits. God didn’t respect that offering, whereas God accepted Abel’s blood sacrifice.
This made Cain very
angry (Genesis 4:5–6[16]).
Cain should have been angry with himself for
not making a pleasing sacrifice, and this anger should have helped him realize
that he needed to make the correct sacrifice so that his offering would be
accepted.
But Cain, in an unrighteous manner, directed his anger
toward his brother. God warned him that sin was at his door
(Genesis 4:7[17]),
but he didn’t rein in his anger. Instead, Cain succumbed to sinning in that
anger when he killed his brother Abel.
Compare this case to Moses, where he mimicked the righteous
anger of God. Contextually, from Numbers 26–31, the Midianite women were
seducing the Israelite men at Peor to sin against God and
serve false gods like Baal.
After a plague, God sent the Israelites to war to
wipe out the Midianites involved in this seduction. But the Israelite army did
something strange—they instead kept the very women alive who instigated the
seduction. Furthermore, the soldiers wanted to bring the women into their
houses as personal captives and part of the plunder.
If you missed the big picture, this is the main
thing God warned the Israelites against—pagan women having direct
influence over the Israelite men! Moses was angered because they didn’t
follow God’s instructions. We read,
But Moses was angry with the
officers of the army, with the captains over thousands and captains over
hundreds, who had come from the battle. And Moses said to them: “Have you kept
all the women alive? “Look, these women caused the children of Israel, through
the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the Lord in the incident
of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. “Now
therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has
known a man intimately. “But keep alive for yourselves all the young girls who
have not known a man intimately. (Numbers 31:14–18, NKJV)
Moses’ actions in his anger endeavored to follow
what God said and were meant to push the Israelites back on track
with God’s commands. In both cases, Cain and Moses were both angry, and as
a result people died. In Cain’s case, it opposed God’s Word. However, in
Moses’ case, it was in accordance with God’s Word.
The point is that anger is not always a sin, but in
some cases, actions resulting from that anger can lead to sin. In other
words, anger that goes against God’s Word is an unrighteous and sinful
anger.
Hate
A time to love, And a time to
hate; A time of war, And a time of peace. (Ecclesiastes 3:8, NKJV)
As we read at the onset of this article (Malachi 1:2–3[18]),
God hated Esau. God reiterated this hatred for Esau
in Romans 9:13[19].
A perfectly righteous God (Romans 9:14[20])
can hate with perfectly justified hatred (i.e., without malice). Why
did God hate Esau? God alludes to the reason in Hebrews
12:16–17[21],
saying that Esau was ungodly and profane, and that he sold his God-given
birthright for a morsel of food—this obviously didn’t sit well with the Lord.
The point is that Esau followed evil and, at a whim, sold
something only God can give for a mere meal.1 In contrast to this, Christ, who fasted 40 days
and 40 nights in the wilderness and was tempted by Satan directly, didn’t
succumb to hunger pangs, but remained steadfast in the Word of the Lord (Matthew
4:1–11).
To many Christians’ surprise, God commands us
to hate certain things, like evil:
You who love the Lord, hate
evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of
the wicked. (Psalm 97:10, NKJV)
The fear of
the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And
the perverse mouth I hate. (Proverbs 8:13, NKJV)
Hate evil, love good; Establish
justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts Will be
gracious to the remnant of Joseph. (Amos 5:15, NKJV)
We are commanded to hate specific forms of evil in order to
reflect God’s righteous hatred for these things.
Why? We are commanded to hate specific forms of evil in
order to reflect God’s righteous hatred for these things. In poetic
language, the book of Proverbs points out six things that God hates,
and seven that are an abomination. The seven abominations are then listed:
These
six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an
abomination to Him: A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent
blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to
evil, A false witness who speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren.
(Proverbs 6:16–19, NKJV)
Throughout Scripture, the six things God hates to
go along with these seven abominations are
- Pride
(Proverbs 8:13[22])
- Arrogance
(Proverbs 8:13[23])
- The
way of evil (Proverbs 8:13[24])
- Perverse
speech (Proverbs 8:13[25])
- False
worship (Deuteronomy 12:30–31[26]; 16:21–22[27])
- The
love of violence (Psalm 11:5[28])
You can see how Esau’s pride, arrogance, and way of evil
dominated his life to sell his birthright at a whim. In the Bible, we see
reflections of God’s hate for lying, arrogance, ways of evil, and
violence:
I hate and abhor lying, But I
love Your law. (Psalms 119:163, NKJV)
The boastful shall not stand in
Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity. (Psalm 5:5, NKJV)
Through Your precepts I get
understanding; Therefore I hate every false way. (Psalm 119:104, NKJV)
SAMEK. I hate the double-minded,
But I love Your law. (Psalm 119:113, NKJV)
Therefore all Your precepts
concerning all things I consider to be right; I hate every false way. (Psalm
119:128, NKJV)
Do I not hate them, O Lord,
who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? (Psalm 139:21, NKJV)
I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies. (Psalm 139:21, NKJV)
I hate, I despise your feast
days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies. (Amos 5:21, NKJV)
But I want to make a point here that is not to be missed— the hatred of evil, lying, pride, and so on is not in contradiction with the command of our Lord to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43-44[29]). We are commanded to hate sin and evil but to have mercy for the sinner (e.g., Jude 1:22–23[30]).
In mimicking God, we should also develop the same hate
of sin that God has (i.e., not being afraid to point
out sin, but without hypocrisy), which is among the most loving things we
can do for others. And the primary way we can show the same mercy we’ve
received to other sinners is by pointing them to Christ and his sacrifice,
which is the only way for their (and our) sins to be forgiven.
God could righteously hate Esau because God is omniscient, and he knew that Esau would never repent—unlike us fallible and sinful human beings who are not in God’s all-knowing position. As limited humans, we do not have the luxury to know the future; only God does. We are to hate the sin, but at the same time love our enemies.
Our actions of loving our enemies can be used
by God to bring people to repentance. This is part of the process of
sanctification—that is, becoming more pure and holy as the Holy Spirit conforms
us to Christ’s image (Romans 8:29[31]; 2
Thessalonians 2:13[32]).
Jealousy
As we read in the Ten Commandments, God is a
jealous God (Exodus 20:5[33]).
Furthermore, one of God’s names is “Jealous.”
For you shall worship no other
god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. (Exodus 34:14, NKJV)
Contextually, God is commanding the Israelites to
destroy the false idols and false places of worship in the land of
Canaan; God warns that when they and their children follow the false
religious worship, they are no longer godly, but are instead considered
adulterous and playing the harlot. See the context:
But you shall destroy their
altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images (for you
shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a
jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and
they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one
of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of his daughters
for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your
sons play the harlot with their gods. (Exodus 34:13–16, NKJV)
God is consistent in the Bible about his
jealousy when God’s people are unfaithful to him. God’s jealousy can
bring wrath.
“For in My jealousy and in the
fire of My wrath I have spoken: ‘Surely in that day there shall be a great
earthquake in the land of Israel.’” (Ezekiel 38:19, NKJV)
This brings us to a good transition point to
discuss God’s wrath and vengeance in more detail.
Wrath And Vengeance
God is a just God, and he enacts perfect justice
on those who deserve it.
For we know Him who said,
“Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will
judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God. (Hebrews 10:30–31, NKJV)
Many times in the Bible, God himself or a man
or an angel would enact his judgment, vengeance, and wrath. See the brief
examples below:
[Man] “Take vengeance on the Midianites for the children of Israel. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people.” So Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm some of yourselves for war, and let them go against the Midianites to take vengeance for the Lord on Midian. (Numbers 31:2–3 NKJV)
[Angel] And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was destroying, the Lord looked and relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who was destroying, “It is enough; now restrain your hand.” And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. (1 Chronicles 21:15 NKJV)
[God] And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. (Genesis 6:13 NKJV)
God, being provoked to wrath by sin, shows that wrath
is not a sin. God, being a righteous judge (2 Timothy 4:8[34]),
punishes sin:
Also at Taberah and Massah and
Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. (Deuteronomy 9:22, NKJV)
Nevertheless
the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with
which His anger was aroused against Judah, because of all the provocations with
which Manasseh had provoked Him. (2 Kings 23:26, NKJV)
“But because our fathers
provoked the God of heaven to wrath, He gave them into the hand of
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and
carried the people away to Babylon.” (Ezra 5:12, NKJV)
“For thus says
the Lord of hosts: ‘Just as I determined to punish you When your
fathers provoked Me to wrath,’ Says the Lord of hosts, ‘And I would
not relent.’” (Zechariah 8:14, NKJV)
Now out of His mouth goes a
sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will
rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness
and wrath of Almighty God. (Revelation 19:15, NKJV)
Wrath and vengeance are not sins, though we are told to
let God enact such things (Romans 12:19[35]). God,
in his perfect wisdom, knowledge, and power, can do it justly. For those who
are unrepentant, this should be a fearful thing.
Final Thoughts
The wrath of God on earth seems to be temporal in its nature
to judge unrepentant sinners for their evil. But God is an eternal God, and we
are made in God’s eternal image. Your soul will go on forever.
If you have not repented and turned
to Jesus Christ in faith, who bore the wrath of
our sin upon himself (Isaiah 53), this should cause you to wake up
and think about your eternity. God, being a righteous Judge, will
judge sin with eternal consequences. The God of the Old
Testament is the same consistent God in the New Testament
(e.g., Malachi 3:6[36]; Hebrews
13:8[37]).
And many of those who sleep in
the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and
everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2, NKJV)
And these will go away into
everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (Matthew 25:46, NKJV)
When it comes down to it, it really is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of God.
And do not fear those who kill
the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28, NKJV)
Yet none of us are righteous as all have sinned (Romans 3:23).
This is what hell is. Hell is eternal, conscious punishment with the wrath
of God on unrepentant sinners for all eternity.
He who believes in the Son has
everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but
the wrath of God abides on him. (John 3:36, NKJV)
But Jesus Christ, the eternal and infinitely
powerful Son of God, was able to take the wrath of sin upon
himself (Hebrews 9:26[38])
and make salvation possible by his death, burial, and resurrection (Romans 10:9[39]).
It’s amazing to know our loving God did something for us in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8[40]).
The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not
willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter
3:9, NKJV)
Originally published here: https://answersingenesis.org/god/distressing-attributes-god/;
republished by permission.
[1] Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a High Priest
who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted
as we are, yet without sin. NKJV.
[2] 1
John 1:5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you,
that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. NKJV.
[3] 2
Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that
we might become the righteousness of God in Him. NKJV.
[4]
Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His
ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and
upright is He. NKJV.
[5]
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. NKJV.
[6]
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death
through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. NKJV.
[7]
Deuteronomy 31:29 “For I know that after my death you will become utterly
corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will
befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the
LORD, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.” NKJV.
[8]
Judges 2:12 and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought
them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among
the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to
them; and they provoked the LORD to anger. NKJV.
[9] 1
Kings 22:53 for he served Baal and worshiped him, and provoked the LORD God of
Israel to anger, according to all that his father had done. NKJV.
[10] 2
Chronicles 28:25 And in every single city of Judah he made high places to burn
incense to other gods, and provoked to anger the LORD God of his fathers. NKJV.
[11]
Isaiah 1:4 Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of
evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, They have
provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward. NKJV.
[12]
Matthew 21:12-13 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those
who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money
changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is
written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a
‘den of thieves.’” NKJV.
[13]
Mark 11:15 So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began
to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables
of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. NKJV.
[14]
John 2:15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the
temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and
overturned the tables. NKJV.
[15]
Genesis 3:21 And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins
and clothed them. ESV.
[16]
Genesis 4:5-6 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very
angry, and his countenance fell. So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry?
And why has your countenance fallen? NKJV.
[17]
Genesis 4:7 “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do
well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should
rule over it.” NKJV.
[18] Malachi 1:2-3 I have loved you, saith the
LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s
brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau, and laid his
mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. NKJV.
[19]
Romans 9:13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”
NKJV.
[20]
Romans 1:14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?
Certainly not! NKJV.
[21]
Hebrews 12:16-17 lest there be any fornicator or profane person like
Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that
afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he
found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. NKJV.
[22]
Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance
and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate. NKJV.
[23]
Ibid.
[24]
Ibid.
[25]
Ibid.
[26]
Deuteronomy 12:30-31 “take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow
them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire
after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will
do likewise.’ “You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every
abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they
burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. NKJV.
[27]
Deuteronomy 16:21-22 “You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a wooden
image, near the altar which you build for yourself to the LORD your God. “You
shall not set up a sacred pillar, which the LORD your God hates. NKJV.
[28]
Psalm 11:5 The LORD tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves
violence His soul hates.
[29]
Matthew 5:43-44 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor
and hate your enemy.’ “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who
curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use
you and persecute you. NKJV.
[30]
Jude 1:22-23 And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save
with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled
by the flesh. NKJV.
[31]
Romans 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to
the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. NKJV.
[32] 2
Thessalonians 2:13 But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you,
brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for
salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. NKJV.
[33]
Exodus 20:5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your
God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the
children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me. NKJV.
[34] 2
Timothy 4:8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which
the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only
but also to all who have loved His appearing. NKJV.
[35]
Romans 12:19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to
wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the
Lord. NKJV.
[36]
Malachi 3:6 “For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not
consumed, O sons of Jacob. NKJV.
[37]
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
NKJV.
[38]
Hebrews 9:26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the
world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself. NKJV.
[39]
Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in
your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. NKJV.
[40]
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were
still sinners, Christ died for us. NKJV.
