Free download reflections of a man
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): They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods With abominations they provoked Him to anger. This may surprise many, but one of God’s righteous attributes is anger. 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. As a result, we start to think properly (i.e., think God’s thoughts after him). To correct them, we need to align our views with God’s Word, just like everything else. As sinful beings (Romans 3:23, 5:12), our perceptions and thoughts can be wrong. When our perception of reality is refuted by God’s Word, we need to change our perception. God (and by extension his Word) is the absolute authority in all matters, including in describing his own attributes (Hebrews 6:13). As sinful beings, our perceptions and thoughts can be wrong.
(Exodus 20:5 NKJV) God (and by extension his Word) is the absolute authority in all matters, including in describing his own attributes. 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. 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. When I grew up, I was taught that hate, anger, and jealousy were sins. I don’t say this lightly I’ve been the person on the other end of this. 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 John 1:5 2 Corinthians 5:21 Deuteronomy 32:4) against their view where God would be deemed a sinner if hate is a sin. This response often surprises the person who truly loves God and his Word. 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. I’ve heard people say that the Bible teaches that hate is a sin. 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.Ĭonsequently, 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. 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? Many Christians often focus on the attributes of God that show his grace, kindness, mercy, patience, and especially love. “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) “Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” says the Lord. Introduction The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.