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A Good Friday Devotion from Pastor Jan Case

“His Anger Has Turned Aside”

Is it just me or have you also noticed a great deal of anger floating around out there lately? For example, numerous recent news stories have reported angry outbursts between airplane passengers for butting in line to grab the best seats, for stubbornly stealing another passenger’s assigned seat, and even for refusing to mute phones, tablets, or other audio devices during the flight. And that’s assuming they can even get on their flight given the chaos at the airports these days. Yikes!

The book of Proverbs declares, “Fools give full vent to their anger, but the wise remain calm in the end.” (Proverbs 29) Unfortunately, each one of us comes up very, very short when it comes to being wise, don’t we? What triggers your anger? Perhaps it’s jealousy, pride, insecurity, or long-standing resentments. None of us is really immune to anger. Sad to say, but this is our natural anger-prone character, and “a man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” (James 1)

Alarmingly, the Bible also teaches us about God’s anger. On the one hand, the anger of the Holy Righteous God consists of His abhorrence to sin - of all sorts. But on the other hand, and most important of all, God’s anger consists of sincere grief toward those who sin. As such this means that God doesn’t sit on His anger or feed His anger. Instead, the Lord, lovingly intends to bring a blessed life to those who miss the mark of His perfection standards: “I am merciful,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 3)

The prophet Isaiah was well-acquainted with God’s mercy and wrote, “I will praise you, Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me.” (Isaiah 12) In describing this divine grace, Isaiah knew through faith that the day would come when God would demonstrate His ultimate “turning away.” This would occur when the Heavenly Father turned away from His Son, Jesus, on Good Friday and literally “He made Him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin for us.” (2 Corinthians 5) Our Savior would suffer the complete abandonment from God that we deserve. As Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27), our Savior announced that the full burden of our sin rested on Him as He was nailed to the Cross of Calvary.

Indeed, just as our brother in faith, Isaiah, declared, we, too, know, trust, believe, and take comfort in that same gracious fact: “Although you were angry with me, Lord, Your anger has turned away and You have comforted me.”

The outpouring of God’s love for you in Jesus brings you the identical blessings that Isaiah grasped through the hand of faith: salvation, joy, comfort, and life everlasting with the Lord and His people. Deeply loved as we are by our Lord, we, with our brother Isaiah, give praise to His Name and make known among the nations what He has done. Yes, Lord, although You were angry with me, Your anger has turned away, and You bring to me true and everlasting life through Him Who died and rose again.

Pastor Case

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