On God-Anger, a devotional thought.

In 2 Kings 19, there's this interesting line about "raging against the Lord," that bears careful reflection. It's in 2 Kings 19:27 specifically, and God's speaking against Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, through the mouth of his prophet Isaiah. He says, "I know where you stay and when you come and go and how you rage against me."

The word he uses there to describe King Sennacherib's "rage" (ragaz) actually refers to physical agitation-- to quiver, tremble or quake with intense emotion. On the one hand, of course, it's a bit of a stretch to take what was happening in ancient Israel, when Assyria "raged" against God by attacking God's people in an imperialistic campaign for world domination, and apply that to the anger towards God that this or that individual might express in our modern-day society. But on the other hand, on a spiritual level, it's not that big of a leap at all. "Rage" towards God is not only an ancient Assyrian phenomenon, and expressing that anger through hostility towards God's people is not something that only happened way back then, when emperors ruled the world.

Put simply: I've heard people express quite real, quite serious anger towards God, and even once in a while seen it come out in actual physical agitation.

Sometimes, even, I've let the fear of encountering someone's hostility towards God prevent me from being transparent and open about my faith. And perhaps that's where, in particular, 23 Kings 19:27 speaks to us, especially, today. After all, God's not really speaking to the King of Assyria there, but to his people who are taking the brunt of Assyria's hostility towards Him. And he's asking his people simply to trust him to handle it, in his own time, in his own way, and not to let anyone's god-anger cause them to dismay.

May God give us the grace to do the same.