Scripture texts: Deuteronomy 3:23-27; Deuteronomy 32:48-52; Hebrews 12:5-6. (Full Scripture texts are at the end of this message.)
Three times in the book of Deuteronomy Moses says, “The Lord was angry with me.” We read one of those verses in Deuteronomy 3:26. The other occurrences are in Deuteronomy 1:37 and 4:21. "The Lord was angry with me... The Lord was angry with me... The Lord was angry with me."
Is it possible that God is angry with you? Right now, today, this morning, is God mad at you?
I know that many people answer emphatically, “No! God is not mad at you.” I heard that for the first time 35 years ago, when a worship leader said to everyone in the sanctuary, “God’s not mad at you.” I have heard it many times since. Joyce Meyer has a book by that title: God’s Not Mad At You. A preacher on WMBI, Steve Brown, has a ministry called "Key Life." If you go to his website, right under the logo you will find the words, “God’s not mad at you.” In preparation for this sermon I googled that phrase and found that many preachers have sermons with that title. And then, just a few weeks ago, my best friend from college messaged me saying, “We have a worship director who will occasionally tell entire groups of people that God is not mad at them.”
What should you do if you are in a worship service and the speaker says, to everyone, “God is not mad at you”?
I don’t recommend doing what was done at a large public gathering on March 27th of 2022. At that gathering comedian Chris Rock said something that actor Will Smith disagreed with, and Smith went up and slapped him hard across face. Don’t do that. Be like Jesus instead. When Peter spoke words that Jesus disagreed with, it is not recorded that Jesus slapped him hard across the face. (He called him “Satan,” but he did not slap him, as far as we know. Matthew 16:23.) We are a nonviolent people. When Peter himself got violent one time on Jesus’ behalf Jesus said to him, “Put your sword away. Those who draw the sword will die by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52). But though we do not draw a sword of steel when one of God’s representatives speaks heretical words from the pit of hell, we do unsheathe a spiritual sword, the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17).
That is what I want to do this morning: draw a biblical sword and with it stab to death a Satanic teaching woefully prevalent in many pulpits to the effect that God is never mad at people. Does the Bible say that God gets mad at people? Yes it does – hundreds of times, both Old Testament and New Testament. In the Old Testament, God’s wrath is mentioned by name nearly 600 times, and many more times than that it is referred to though the word itself does not appear. But the most arresting depictions of God’s anger are not in the Old Testament. They’re in the New Testament, and still future to us. God’s anger was expressed in the past, it is being expressed in the present, and it will be expressed in the future - for all eternity, so long as there is sin. It is quite possible then, that in this room, there is someone, or several people, with whom God is angry indeed.
I do not exempt myself. I am no better than Moses. God forbid that I should consider myself above Moses. Moses, after all, was granted a glimpse of the glory of God in Exodus 33. And when his siblings rebelled against him, God said, When there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face.(Numbers 12:6-8).
God does not speak to me face to face, I don’t think he does that with any of you either. If God was angry with Moses, how dare we think that he would never be angry with us? Who do we think we are?
Do you know why God became angry with Moses? Ultimately it was for the same reason that God ever gets angry with anyone. Sin. We all know people who get angry for no good reason - people who are touchy, irritable, easily provoked. You have to walk on eggshells around them because they’re always ready to go off about something. God isn’t like that. The Bible says that God is love. It says many times that he is slow to anger. It says that he is merciful and compassionate. But precisely because God is love he must get angry. For example, because God loves all races he gets angry over racism. Because God loves children he gets angry when they are abused and exploited. Psalm 17:11 says that God displays his wrath every day. That is because there is sin every day.
Now with regard to the specifics of Moses’ sin, there are elements worthy of a deep dive into the Scriptures, because they provoke questions that have captivated the minds of Bible scholars. But I am not going to dive deep into those waters now, because the details would consume the rest of this sermon, and my purpose is more general. I will just say this much. In Numbers 20, God tells Moses to speak to a rock to draw out water for the people who are complaining of thirst. Moses says to the people, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then he strikes the rock twice and water pours out.
Some find significance in the fact that Moses struck the rock when God told him to speak to it. Others think the problem lay in the fact that Moses said, “Must we bring you water out of this rock?”, and they infer that Moses and Aaron were claiming credit for that miracle rather than attributing it to God. There are other suggestions as well. What is not in dispute is this: in some way, Moses dishonored God before the Israelites. That’s what the text says. Numbers 20:12: the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
Then, 48 chapters later, in the next book over, Deuteronomy, when Moses was about to die, God reminded him of this incident. Moses, despite all his pleadings and his earnest desire, would not be permitted to cross the Jordan and plant his feet on the soil of the Promised Land. He would only get to see it from a mountaintop far away. Deuteronomy 32:50-51 God says:
There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.
Among the conclusions that can be drawn from these sober events are these two: Moses, righteous as he was, angered God. Secondly, there were consequences to Moses’ wicked actions. Irrevocable consequences that were directly enforced by an angry, loving, holy God.
Sometimes we may have the mistaken impression that being forgiven means suffering no consequences. This is often indicated with the kind of rhetoric we hear that says “When you’re forgiven, the past is past! It is completely forgotten, and you’re given a clean slate. And the word ‘justified’ means ‘just-as-if-I’d' never sinned.’” But biblically there is a much different nuance. Consider King David.
When David took Uriah’s wife Bathsheba to bed with him, had Uriah killed, and then was confronted with his sin, he confessed it and repented of it. Was he forgiven for his sins? Yes, he was. That’s what the Bible says. In 2 Samuel 12:13, when David said to the prophet Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord,” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin.”
Wonderful. Great. Perhaps you can imagine David breathing a deep sigh of relief as he wipes away his tears. “Amazing grace how sweet the sound! I have done the worst thing in the world and God has forgiven me. Praise God! Well then, glad that’s over. The slate is wiped clean, and now I can go back to normal.”
Not so fast. Nathan’s next few words indicate just what is meant by “forgiveness.” He says to David, “You are not going to die.” Death would have been the just penalty. The punishment for adultery was death. The punishment for murder was death. David had committed two capital crimes, either one of which could have justly resulted in his being stoned to death by his fellow Israelites, or being supernaturally extinguished by God – as God did to Onan, Uzzah, Ananais, Sapphira, Herod Agrippa I, etc. David was forgiven in the sense that his life was spared. Neither God nor the Israelites were going to kill him for it. But there were still consequences. Devastating, heart-breaking consequences that would last for decades. In the very next verse, Nathan says to him, “But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.”
And that was not the only son born to David who would die before his time. Sometime later David’s son Amnon would violate his half-sister Tamar, and one of David’s other sons, Absalom, would kill him for it. Later on Absalom would rebel against his own father and wage war against him, and die in battle. Later on Solomon would kill another of David’s sons, Adonijah, in a power struggle between those two. If you are keeping track, that’s 4 dead sons of David. The prophet Nathan had said, “The sword will never depart from your own house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own” (2 Samuel 12:10).
When you are tempted to sin (and who is not tempted to sin?), never let creep into your mind the beguiling thought, “God will forgive it. That’s what he does. He won’t even get mad. He never gets mad. He’ll just wipe the slate clean and forget that it ever happened, and we’ll go on as before.” That’s not the way it works. Forgiveness is a lot more sober than that.
Bob Bennett has a wonderful little song – it’s worth looking up - called A Hand of Kindness. In that song he writes,
Forgiveness comes in just a moment.
Sometimes the consequences last.
And it’s hard to walk inside that mercy
When the present is so tied up to the past.
Indeed, the present is tied up to the past, even as the future will be tied up to the present. The sin that you contemplate today, even if forgiven, will tie up your future in irrevocably tragic ways. Moses found that out. David found that out. They both experienced it. And by God’s grace they left a record to instruct us in those truths. Those who maintain that you cannot provoke God to wrath and will suffer no consequences for your sin are false teachers who do not know their Bible and have no business instructing God’s people.
Some might say, "But didn’t this bit about God’s wrath all change when Jesus came?" I know that some people teach that. They will acknowledge that God used to get angry in the Old Testament but once Jesus came and died on the cross that exhausted all the wrath of God, so there is none of it left. Therefore they tell us, “Don’t worry about God’s wrath. It’s over!” Nine years ago today, June 18 of 2014, Pastor R W Glenn of Redeemer Bible Church in Minnetonka Minnesota tweeted the following: “Christian, you don’t have to fear God’s wrath any more than you have to fear a tornado that happened 2000 years ago!”
You see his point. Tornados are terrifying and destructive, and if one is on the way we take efforts to avoid it. But none of us are afraid of a tornado that happened 2000 years ago. Well, Christian, Pastor Glenn said, “God’s wrath is like that. It expired 2000 years ago at the cross of Christ.” So now you’re free to get up and walk about. Nothing but blue skies ahead for you. Nothing to fear.
Is that what the Bible says? About 25 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Apostle Paul addressed some sinners at the church in Rome, and he said this to them in Romans 2:5-8,
Because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will repay each person according to what he has done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
A few years later when Paul wrote to the Ephesian church, he said, in Ephesians 5:5-6,
No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.
God’s wrath comes upon the disobedient. Only a fool refuses to fear the wrath of God. Fools like R W Glenn. When he tweeted that we don’t have to fear God’s wrath any more than a 2,000-year-old tornado, he was at that time cheating on his wife. His infidelity was discovered, and in September of that year and he was fired from his church. Thankfully, the last I heard he is no longer in the ministry.
I plead with you not to listen to the lies of R W Glenn, Steve Brown, Joyce Meyer, or that worship director at my friend’s church. If you sin, you better believe God is mad at you. That’s all over the Bible.
Does that mean that all is lost and you’re going to hell? Not necessarily. Not yet anyways. But indeed there are some people who reach a tipping point in their rebellion against God such that no amount of consequences ever get through to them to teach them a lesson. They never get it. They never repent. Revelation 9 speaks of such people. It says that even though they suffered horrible plagues as a judgement of God, verses 20 and 21 say that still they did not repent, still they did not stop worshiping demons, committing murder, or indulging in sexual immorality.
Then there are people who reject the voice of God that calls to them through conscience and nature, and keep rejecting his voice until God says, in effect, “Very well. Have it your way.” That too is an expression of God’s wrath, and we read about it in Romans 1:18 and following. Romans 1:18 says
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
Then that passage goes on to say how God’s anger is revealed in such people. It is a matter of them being given over to their sin. It says that 3 times: Verse 24, “God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts.” Verse 26, “God gave them over to shameful lusts.” Verse 28, “God gave them over to a depraved mind.”
Beware of ongoing sin. Do not treat it lightly, lest God, in anger, turn you over to it. I have found to my horror that you can often tell when a person has been given over to their sin. It’s when they’re not even ashamed of it. They feel no guilt. They feel no fear. They often regard themselves as victims rather than perpetrators of evil. They’re even proud of their sin.
But as I said, if you have sinned, and God is mad at you, and disciplines you with long-lasting consequences, that is not necessarily the end of the world. It wasn’t for Moses, it wasn’t for David, and it need not be for you. Do what they did. Confess your sin. Repent. Acknowledge that God is holy, and whatever he does is right.
Hebrews 12:5: says “Do not lose heart when God rebukes you.” And it goes on to say that God disciplines those he loves. He punishes his sons and daughters for their own good just as any wise father does to his own children.
I do not know how any of you experience the rebuke and discipline of God. I can tell you how it comes to me. It comes through his Word, the Bible, and faithful preaching from it. That is where I hear God’s holy rebuke, and I know it is good for me. I have very little tolerance for teaching that is showy, entertaining, light on Scripture, designed to make me feel good about myself. I also am revolted by the teaching of men whose personal lives are so chock-full of hypocrisy and wickedness as to make a mockery of whatever good they are trying to say. But when I hear Scripture faithfully explained by humble men of God who stand under its authority – men like D A Carson, James Montgomery Boice, Warren Wiersbe, then I feel those yearnings that make me mourn my sin and desire to be a better man before God.
I close with this. God got angry with Moses and told him that he would not get into Promised Land. I’m sure that broke Moses’ heart. But he accepted it, and acknowledged that God’s way was right. And he died up on the mountain viewing the Promised Land off in the distance.
But his death was not the end of the story. Are you aware that after his death, he got to the Promised Land after all? I don’t mean metaphorically – I mean for real. We see it in Luke chapter 9, the Mount of Transfiguration. Three of Jesus’ disciples, Peter James and John, went up with him to a mountain top where Jesus’ glory was revealed. It was as though, for a brief time, a window opened and heaven broke through on earth. And part of that transcendent experience included appearances by Moses and Elijah. Verses 30 and 31 say this: Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.
Among the many things that could be said about that extraordinary occurrence is this. Though Moses sinned by dishonoring God before all the Israelites, though he provoked God to anger, and though God punished him by prohibiting his entrance into the Promised Land, that punishment was for this life only. It did not carry on into the next. It is as though God said to Moses, “My child, you will someday get to the Promised Land. But it will be after your death. And it will only be in the company of my Son Jesus Christ.”
Let us pray.
Lord God, we sinners acknowledge with sorrow that we have provoked you to your face and invited your righteous anger. By your mercy, do not hand us over to our sin. Soften our hearts to receive the painful lessons of rebuke, and grant us repentance unto life. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Hold before our minds that future joy of beholding the face of Jesus and fellowshipping with him just like our fellow sinners Moses and Elijah. Thank you that Jesus’ death and resurrection on our behalf can make that happen. Amen.
Scripture texts:
Deuteronomy 3:23-27: At that time I pleaded with the LORD: 24 “Sovereign LORD, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do? 25 Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan—that fine hill country and Lebanon.” 26 But because of you the LORD was angry with me and would not listen to me. “That is enough,” the LORD said. “Do not speak to me anymore about this matter. 27 Go up to the top of Pisgah and look west and north and south and east. Look at the land with your own eyes, since you are not going to cross this Jordan.
Deuteronomy 32:48-52: On that same day the LORD told Moses, 49 “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. 50 There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. 51 This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. 52 Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”
Hebrews 12:5-6: And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
