Be Made New: Emotions
March 10, 2024Pastor Patrick Tanton presented today's message, "Be Made New: Emotions." A video of the message is here.
Let's dive a little deeper into God having emotions...
I must admit, it was a little startling the day I first pondered God having emotions. Up till then I associated emotions with "less than strong" or "overactive worrying" or weakness. You know, "men don't cry" kind of stuff. So how in the world could God have emotions?
But ponder this... How could God not have something we have? We are made in His image. From this point of view, it stands to reason God has emotions. The difference is that God's emotions are always checked, controlled, used for good, and the like (e.g. "slow to anger" in Psalm 103:8). God's emotions do not lead to capriciousness. Sadly, we can't say that about our emotions.
So, when in the Bible do we see God showing emotion? I could argue that God expressing that He was pleased with Creation, "saw that it was good," was born of emotion. Sounds like happy to me. But if you don't buy that one, Genesis 6:6 is pretty clear (in the opposite way): "The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled." Other translations use "grieved," "sad/sorrow," "broken hearted," "hurt," "deeply pained," and the like. So, there is regret and sadness.
Prager includes in his Rational Bible: Genesis a story about Rabbi David Hartman asking, "who's the most tragic figure in the Bible?" As you might expect, Hartman got all kinds of answers from his audience, including many I might have offered. But the rabbi's answer was "God." Countless times throughout the Bible, God is terribly disappointed by man.
In pondering all this, it dawned on me that we Christians constantly say, "God is Love." I think it's pretty clear that love has a large emotional component. Of course, God is a lot of other things, too, including justice, but we won't get into that now.
God and Jesus both express emotions throughout the Bible. Consider one of the shortest verses in the Bible, "Jesus wept" (John 11:35).
For a discussion of 10 emotions felt by God as described in the Bible, read this article from iBelieve.com (laughs, mourns, hates, loves, rejoices, pleasure, displeasure, anger, jealousy, and compassion).
Additional emotions felt by God in the Bible include:
Joy (Zephaniah 3:17; Isaiah 62:5; Jeremiah 32:41)
Tenderness (Matthew 10:25)
Abandonment (Matthew 27:46)
Delight (Isaiah 42:1)
Desire (James 4:5)
Pity (Judges 2:18)
Sympathy (Hebrews 4:15)
Distress (Isaiah 63:9)
Laughter (Psalm 37:12-13)
Longing (1 Timothy 2:4)
Lastly, God is said to have a soul: "Your New Moons and appointed Feasts my soul hates," (Isaiah 1:14). Soul suggests feelings.
While God does have emotions, the Bible does not indicate that God has "passions of the body" such as hunger, tiredness, sexual drive, bodily pain, etc. Remember, God is not physical.
Did you know there was a term for attributing human emotions to things other than humans, e.g. God, animals, etc.? Anthropopathism.
There is a Christian doctrine, Impassibility, which means God does not experience emotional change. That does not preclude God from having emotions. It simply means that God does not change or do things simply because of the emotion.
What about comfort? Seems to me that wishing comfort upon a people (Isaiah 40:1) is a kind of emotion.
Bonus
You Really are Your Own Worst Enemy
Or as Prager puts it, "Your battle is with your own nature(s), not outside forces (e.g. society or its ills)." As he points out, there are exceptions to this, e.g. living under an oppressive, authoritarian government. But, for those of us in the United States, the statement is generally true.
This topic is discussed both in his current Fireside Chat and in an earlier one wherein he interviews his own son who's made a comeback from addictions. I enthusiastically recommend both of these to you. And while you're at it, watch the entirety of both episodes; I'll bet you get interesting thoughts from the balance as well. You can watch these here:
Life Advice for the Next Generation (topical part starts at 7:00).
Dennis and His Son on Addiction and Hitting Rock Bottom. The key quote from his son when asked "when did things turn around for you," was: "The day I ran out of others to blame for my problems."
"For the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth," Genesis 8:21 (partially).
Bonus2
Reductions of the 613 Laws
One of the Jewish rabbis (Rambam/Maimonides, 12th Century A.D.) compiled all the laws/commands of the Torah into a list of 613. Over the centuries, these have been expanded, explicated, fenced, and supported by "case law." In other words, many more words have been used/added to fully describe these laws.
Here we deal with going the other way. Here we see examples of Biblical texts that reduce the laws to just a few much broader statements that cover in far fewer words the intent of the laws. These are but a few examples:
Psalm 15 - "Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others; who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord; who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind; who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent. Whoever does these things will never be shaken."
Isaiah 33:15-16 - "Those who walk righteously and speak what is right, who reject gain from extortion and keep their hands from accepting bribes, who stop their ears against plots of murder and shut their eyes against contemplating evil— they are the ones who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. Their bread will be supplied, and water will not fail them."
Micah 6:8 - "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
Isaiah 56:1 - "This is what the Lord says: Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed."
Habakuk 2:4 - "See, the enemy is puffed up: his desires are not upright— but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness."
Romans 1:17 - "For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed — a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith."
And, of course:
Matthew 22:36-40 - "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Which comes right from:
Deuteronomy 6:5 - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."
and:
Leviticus 19:18 - "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord."
My thinking is that we need to understand in detail most of the 613 laws. Certainly, we need to understand fully the behavioral do's and dont's relative to other people. Likewise, there are behavioral do's and dont's with regard to our relationship with God. Some of the latter, rituals in particular, while not practiced today, are good to know about and understand why they were helpful.
In my mind, obedience to the will of God as spelled out in the Bible is the proper response to God and his gifts to us, including the gift of His Son.
If you're curious about the 613 laws, what they say and where they're found: click here.