The Spirit of Indignation

Scripture:

And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled.

1 Samuel 11:6

READ: 1 Samuel 11:1-11

Observe

Nahash the Ammonite threatens to humiliate the people of God. His offer of a treaty is to put them to open shame by gouging out all the right eyes of the men of Jabesh. Then, in an unusual act of mercy (driven surely by arrogance) Nahash allows for the men to send for help. The news reaches the ears of the recently appointed king Saul who’s returning from a day’s work in the field. Saul is not pleased by what he hears. The Spirit of God rushes upon him and the Spirit of God is angered by the situation and Saul responds in kind. 

It's often the case that people find the idea of God getting angry a difficult one. Familiar, only as we are, with our all too human surges of uncontrollable rage or tempestuous toddler tantrums. Our fits of anger are so often motivated by selfish desire or personal vendettas that we struggle to see how God’s anger could ever be any different. But anger is not wrong. In and of itself anger is just an emotion and emotions are neither right nor wrong. What is right or wrong is how we handle or respond to our emotions.

What we know about anger is how difficult it is to keep it in proportion. I can discipline my child carefully and exact punishment with a laser like precision to correct the behaviour without hurting the child, but when I’m angry my sense of precision is shot through. Anger is eruptive and when it erupts there’s plenty of unwanted collateral damage. This is not the case with God’s anger. 

God is indignant at sin, furious about injustice and incensed by the oppression of the poor. He is passionate about his people and unrelenting in his pursuit of his glory. He is all those things, but he is never out of control or angry over nothing. He is able to harness his great strength and put it to perfect effect. He is able to bring his anger to bear with great force and with perfect precision.

It is this anger that the Spirit of God kindles in Saul. Saul is righteously indignant about something close to God’s heart. God burns with passion for his people and for their reputation since they carry with them his reputation on the earth. It simply will not do that his people are threatened with such an humiliation. 

Apply

The Spirit of God is living within you if you are a Christian.

After Jesus made atonement for our sin an he was crowned king at his ascension and afterwards sent his Spirit to be with us. Saul was unusual in his day for knowing the Spirit of God in him, but in our day every Christian can know the Spirit with them. What this means is that every Christian can know the heart of God for themselves and for others. As we walk in step with the Spirit we shall bear more and more of the Spirit’s fruit in our lives. This doesn’t mean we’ll become mild-mannered, polite, middle-class Englishman (God save us!), but that we burn with the things God burns with. 

Proverbs 3:5-6 puts it this way: ‘trust in the Lord with all your heart… and he will give you the desires of your heart.’

He will both put the right desires within you and give you what you desire. This is part of what the Spirit of God comes to do in us. He has come to make you like Jesus and one thing we know about Jesus is that he was a passionate man. Full of zeal for God’s glory he was furious with the moneychangers practices in the temple. Then, full of anger at the uncaring Pharisees he healed a man on a Sabbath and so angry was he at death that he raised Lazarus to life. 

The Spirit of God comes to cause you to burn with God’s passions. To love mercy, to act justly and to fight injustice.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, please fill me with your Spirit. Please cause your desires to become my desires and make me care about the same things you care about.

Amen