God loves us and desires to extend grace and mercy to us. This is a comforting truth. However, we must be aware that God is capable of emotions and feelings other than love and warmth. If we persist in sinful rebellion, His feelings toward us can be truly frightening.
Psalm 106 recounts Israel’s history—particularly their proclivity to forget God and worship false gods and idols instead. Again and again, Israel was faithless. Verse 40 says, “Then the LORD became angry with his people and, though they were his own chosen nation, he loathed them.”[1] That’s not something you hear every day—God loathed His own chosen people. But that’s how angry God can get when His love and mercy are spurned again and again.
So, what about us? Are we faithful or faithless? Has God’s grace transformed us, or do we abuse that notion? Don’t be like ancient Israel—don’t waste God’s grace and stoke His anger through stubbornness and disobedience.
[1] REB