displeased – Praying Pint

46.q. “Wilderness” – 10.w. “The anger of the LORD blazed hotly”

Num 11:10 Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the LORD blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.”

The childish weeping of the people not only angered the LORD; it also displeased Moses. This frustration drove Moses to God, and he complained that he could never meet the needs of so many people. Moses responded to God the way many of us do in a time of trial. He essentially said, “God, here I am serving You. Why did You bring this upon me?” It’s easy to say God did not bring this upon Moses – a carnal and ungrateful people did. Yet, though God did not directly afflict Moses with this, He ultimately allowed it. God allowed this for the same reason God allows any affliction – to compel us to trust in Him more, to partner with Him in overcoming obstacles, and to love and praise Him more through our increased dependence on Him and the greater deliverance He brings. For these reasons and more, God sometimes appoints affliction for His people. Understanding that the job of leading Israel was too big for Moses was good. It could lead him to rely on God, and not try to do the work apart from God. Moses could not bear all these people alone; God will do it in him and through him. In a sense, God wanted Moses to see his wretchedness – his inability to do what God called him to do in his own strength. As the Apostle Paul later learned, God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. (Guzik)

Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families,…. So general was their lusting after flesh, and their discontent for want of it; and so great their distress and uneasiness about it, that they wept and cried for it, and so loud and clamorous, that Moses heard the noise and outcry they made every man in the door of his tent: openly and publicly, were not ashamed of their evil and unbecoming behaviour, and in order to excite and encourage the like temper and disposition in others. The anger of the Lord was kindled greatly; because of their ingratitude to him, their contempt of the manna he had provided for them, and their hankering after their poor fare in Egypt, and for which they had endured so much hardship and ill usage, and for the noise and clamour they now made, Moses also was displeased; with the people on the same account, and with the Lord also for laying and continuing so great a burden upon him, as the care of this people. (Gill)

Do you ever find yourself complaining because of wanting something you don’t have or wanting more of something you do have? There are always things of this world that will entice us to covet them. There will be times that we aren’t tempted by it and other times out of the blue we are just acting childish before God with our selfish desire(s). We are told to make our requests to Go, but let us be sure they are in line with His will and purpose and our hearts are not seeking worldly pleasure over service to God.

10.r. “Do you do well to be angry?”

Jonah 4:1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

James 4:5-6 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

James 1:19-20 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

It is hard for me to understand why Jonah was mad enough to want to die. Did he see their sin and wants to see them punished as God said He would do if they did not repent? Did he want to see the judgment upon the city and all of the people rather than see them repent? I just don’t know. Jonah seemed to have a death wish for some reason. “Cast me into the sea” and “Please take my life from me” and “It is better for me to die than to live” are all death wish statements. It is very hard to understand why but what is recorded tells us much about the grace of God. He saved Jonah from the depths of the sea and the belly of the great fish. God saved Nineveh from destruction after they repented. God had pity on them for they were blind to their actions and when they were exposed, called out, they repented. God is gracious and full of mercy and steadfast love. We honor and glorify Him by recognizing our sin, repenting, turning away from our wayward ways, trusting, relying on, following, and obeying Him.

1.h. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

1 Chronicles 21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel. And David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know the sum of them. And Joab said, Jehovah make his people a hundred times as many as they are: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? why doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of guilt unto Israel? Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. And Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and a hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword. But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them; for the king’s word was abominable to Joab. And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel. And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing: but now put away, I beseech thee, the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.

Job 1:6-12 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”

Zechariah 3:1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.

Matthew 4:3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

John 13:2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,

Acts 5:3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?

James 1:13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Satan is very real. Satan temps us and is able to see weaknesses within us. Satan is able to temp our lust for sex, want of and reliance in wealth and intelligence, and exploitation of our anger, pride, honor, and need for recognition, and a host of other self-seeking, self-centered fleshly and earthly desires. Do we think we are immune to these attacks? Do we even know when we are being attacked? Is it possible that we give in so easily to our sinful nature that we don’t even need to be tempted?

If God’s word is not in our heart, mind, and soul there will be a good chance that we will yield to our sinful natures’ desires rather than needing to be tempted by Satan. If God’s word is in our heart, mind, and soul then we need to be mindful of Satan’s temptations. Satan’s attacks and temptations are to get us to yield to our sinful nature. The only way we will know these attacks, is by knowing God’s word and testing our thoughts, actions, and words against it. We need to seek to be filled with the wisdom and understanding of God’s word through time in it and yielding to the indwelling and filling and leading of the Holy Spirit.

God’s word within our heart, mind, and soul will strengthen us to be courageous, empower us to be victorious, and give us hope and faith to rely on, cling too, and trust in Jesus Christ. Do not yield. Do not give in. Stay in His word and learn what is sinful nature and what is tempting to it. Combat it with the word of God and an intentional choice to live humbly serving, honoring, following, trusting, and obeying Jesus Christ.

100. “But the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

1Samuel 8:1 When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey their voice and make them a king.” Samuel then said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.”

The nation of Israel did not have an earthly king for many years, they were under the guidance of God. Men like Samuel were God’s intermediary between God and the people. Samuel was the last of the Judges of Israel. Because Samuel was getting old and his appointed sons did not follow after God, the people of Israel they demanded that Samuel appoint them a king so they would be like all the other nations. They wanted a King he could judge them, and go out before them and fight their battles. God was not enough for them. They rejected His Lordship.

Do we possess a secret desire to reject the Lordship of Jesus in our lives? Do we want to benefit of the relationship, but we seem to be complacent when it comes to developing the relationship with Him? “They have not rejected you; they have rejected me as their king.” Are we walking down a watered down walk of faith without realizing the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives is being rejected? God told Samuel to listen to the people, but also to warn them of what will happen if they choose to want an earthly king to rule over them. Likewise, any time spent in God’s word reveals that there are two paths of life we can pursue, the path with Jesus as Lord and the path without Him. Both of these have consequences. One leads us on a path of searching for satisfaction in things of this world and what it offers to fill the yearning and every day is filled with uncertainty. The other leads us on a path of joy, rest, peace, satisfaction, hope, courage, faith, and certainty for eternity.

When one chooses to reject the Lordship of Jesus in their life, they are not free, they are enslaved to sin. God allows people to make the choice but it is a choice they will have to live with. God will allow you to choose who will be Lord of your life, but know you will live with the consequences of that choice.

Samuel warned the people of what was to come if they chose the path they were on. They refused to listen to Samuel. No, they said. We must have a king over us then we’ll be like all the other nations: our king will judge us, go out before us, and fight our battles.” The nation wanted to trade God in for corrupt man, the nation wanted to trade God in for sinful man. “For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools”

Do not be fooled and give any ground to a complacent life with Jesus. He died for us so that we might repent, turn away from sin, be forgiven and live an abundant life with Him now and for eternity. Choosing to reject His lordship over your everyday life is rejecting Him for eternity. Spend time in His word, humbly server, honor, follow, obey, and rely on Him each waking moment of every day.

You provoked the LORD to wrath

Exodus 4:14  Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses

2 Samuel 6:7    And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error,

1 Kings 11:9     And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD,

1 Chronicles 21:7    But God was displeased with this thing, and he struck Israel

Numbers 12:9     And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them

Deuteronomy 3:26     But the LORD was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me. And the LORD said to me, ‘Enough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again

Deuteronomy 9:8     Even at Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, and the LORD was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you.

Psalms 78:58-60   For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols.  When God heard, he was full of wrath, and he utterly rejected Israel.

Philippians 2:21    For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

2 Timothy 4:10    For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

Proverbs 4:23    Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Anger of God. Wrath of God. We hear much preaching and devotionals of God’s grace, mercy, and love but do not hear that much about His anger.

“Colin Smith” wrote an interesting devotional about this and after I read it I deleted what I wrote and shared his with you.

As peace is a truth widely loved, wrath is a truth widely loathed. Many in the history of the church has been embarrassed by God’s wrath and have wanted to revise this biblical truth.Yet, this theme of the wrath (or anger) of God toward sin and sinners is clearly and widely taught in the Bible. This truth is so interwoven with the hope of our peace with one another and with God that if we lose our grasp on the one, we lose our hope of the other.

1. The anger of God is not like our anger.

When we speak about the wrath of God, remember that it is the wrath of God. So everything we know about God—he is just, he is love, and he is good—needs to be poured into our understanding of his wrath.

The words “anger” and “wrath” make us think about our experience. You may have suffered because of someone who is habitually angry, loses his temper, or flies into a rage. Our anger can often be unpredictable, petty, and disproportionate.

Although these things are often true of human anger, none of them are true of the anger of God. God’s wrath is the just and measured response of his holiness toward evil.

2. God’s wrath is provoked.

The anger of God is not something that resides in him by nature; it is a response to evil. It is provoked.

The Bible says, “God is love.” That is his nature. God’s love is not provoked. He does not love us because he sees some wisdom, beauty, or goodness in us. He loves you because he loves you, and you can never get beyond that (Deuteronomy 7:7).

But God’s wrath is different, his holy response to the intrusion of evil into his world. If there was no sin in the world, there would be no wrath in God. So the Bible’s teaching about the wrath of God is different from ancient mythologies, gods who run around frustrated and fuming. God’s anger is his settled resolve that evil will not stand.

3. God is slow to anger.

Why does God allow evil to continue in the world? Why does he not wipe it out?

God holds out the offer of grace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:9). People are coming to him in faith and repentance every day, and God patiently holds open the door of grace. The day of God’s wrath will come, but God is not in a hurry to bring it because then the door of grace will be closed.

4. God’s wrath is revealed now.

How does God reveal his wrath when sinners suppress the truth about him, exchange the truth for a lie, and worship created things rather than the Creator? God gives them up (Romans 1):

Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity (1:24).
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions (1:26).
God gave them up to a debased mind (1:28).

One writer states, “Paul is not teaching that one day God will punish Roman civilization for its vice and decadence. On the contrary, the vice and decadence are themselves God’s punishment…Their punishment was their greed, envy, strife, deceit, violence and faithlessness.” [2] When we see the moral fabric of our culture being torn, then as Christian believers we should cry to God for mercy.

5. God’s wrath is stored up.

The whole Bible story leads to a day when God will deal with all evil fully, finally, and forever. This will be the day of wrath, when God will recompense every evil and bring to judgment every sin.

God will do this in perfect justice. The punishment for every sin will match the crime. When the judgment is done, every mouth will be stopped because everyone will know that God judged in righteousness and justice. Then God will usher in a new heaven and a new earth, which will be the home of righteousness.

6. God’s wrath is on sinners.

In John 3:36, he does not say, “The wrath of God will come on [the disobedient].” He says, “Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remainson him.” It is already there. Why is it already there? By nature, we are children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). It is the state in which we were born.

What, at the end of the day, is the greatest human problem? It is not that we are lost and need to find our way on a spiritual journey. It is not that we are wounded and need to be healed. At the core of the human problem is that we are sinners under the judgment of God, and the divine wrath hangs over us unless and until it is taken away.

How God’s Wrath Is Removed

The Bible speaks about God’s wrath being poured out at the cross: “I will soon pour out my wrath upon you, and spend my anger against you” (Ezekiel 7:8). This takes us to the heart of what happened there: The divine wrath toward sin was poured out on Jesus. He became the “propitiation” for our sins (Romans 3:25), which means that the payment for our sins was poured out on Jesus at Calvary.

Don’t ever get the idea that God loves you because Christ died for you. No, it’s the other way round. Christ died for you because God loved you! He loved you even when you were the object of his wrath! God so loved the objects of his wrath that he spent the wrath on himself at the cross.

The outpouring of God’s wrath was the greatest act of love this world has ever seen.

[Tweet “The hope for sinners is that between us and the wrath of God stands the cross of Jesus.”]

The hope for sinners is that between us and the wrath of God stands the cross of Jesus. Sin was laid on Jesus and the Divine wrath toward it was poured out, spent, and exhausted in the darkness of Calvary. And when it was done, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “It is finished!” The wrath of God that will one day be poured out on all sin was spent at the cross with regard to all who are in him.

Then Christ rose from the dead, and he stands before you today, a living Savior! He offers to you the priceless gift of peace with God. He is ready to forgive your sins and fill you with his Spirit. He is able to save you from the wrath and reconcile you to the Father. He has opened the door of heaven, and he is able to bring you in.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Denying pending judgement of God, denying the anger and day of wrath of God, and living as though there is no consequence to being complacent and neglectful to God, does not make it untrue or go away. It just means your heart is of stone, your eyes are blind, and your ears are deaf to the holiness and righteousness of God and the ability to know of His grace, mercy and love. Seek Him while He may be found. Desire to have Him soften your heart, open your eyes and ears to knowledge and understanding of Him.