Anger and Love

Huw Williams | 15:33, Thursday 28 November 2013 | Turin, Italy

I was approaching the end of 2 Samuel in my Bible reading the other day, and I was suddenly arrested by a description of God in chapter 22:-

"The earth trembled and quaked, the foundations of the heavens shook; they trembled because he was angry. Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his canopy around him— the dark rain clouds of the sky. Out of the brightness of his presence bolts of lightning blazed forth. The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. He shot arrows and scattered the enemies, bolts of lightning and routed them. The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of breath from his nostrils." (2 Sam 22:8-16)

As someone who spends a lot of his time teaching the love of God, I suddenly found myself transported to a vision of God more in keeping with the world of religious art, this is the vision of God I see painted on high ceilings of austere churches everywhere here. This is the God I used to be terrified of and it brought me up short. It was only when I backed up to where my attention must have wondered, to the previous verses, and then scanned forward to what followed that I suddenly saw the golden frame of this portrait:-

"The waves of death swirled about me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the Lord; I called out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears." (2 Sam 22:5-7)

"He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me." (2 Sam 22:17-20)

It's not that I don't normally notice those descriptions of God as angry when reading through His word, but my lack of attention had caused me to miss the all-important context – what was it that was raising the passions of God so dramatically? The distress of David, His servant. God was moved to such extraordinary action by the desire to rescue and save. We might often say it, but do we always get it? – the anger and the love of God are far more closely connected than we often understand or even notice.