Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:36 — 8.8MB) | Embed
Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, the scarecrow is my favorite character from The Wizard of Oz , and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living.
Like many households and many of you, we love The Wizard of Oz in our house. We probably watch it at some point every year. I’m still amazed by the special effects, moved by the music, and charmed by the characters. That’s quite a remarkable feat for a movie that came out in 1939 and I’ve seen dozens of times. The movie is based on the book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum, published in 1900. The book became a quick success and the library of congress has declared it to be, “America’s greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale.”
One of the most interesting scenes in the movie is when Dorothy and her friends first visit
Oz. While the book refers to him as the “Great and Terrible” Oz, the movie refers to him as the “Great and Powerful” Oz. As Dorothy and her friends approach him, they are terrified.
Oz appears before them as a floating green head with a loud, booming voice. Flames and smoke billow around him. One by one each of them approach him, each shaking uncontrollably, overcome by fear. The Cowardly Lion even passes out, overcome by his fear and terror.
Perhaps this scene resonates with you when you think about God. Thoughts of God bring about imagery of a powerful entity in the sky, looking down upon you in judgement, waiting for you to screw up so he can hit you with a lightning bolt or some other form of painful punishment.
The Bible has a lot to say about God and his attributes, and it’s easy to understand how some of these passages can be interpreted to paint God into an image similar to that of Oz. But is that accurate? Just as Dorothy and her friends learned the truth about Oz when they pulled back the curtain and had a face to face conversation with him, I think if we dig in and pull back the curtain a bit today, a better understanding of God’s character will be revealed.
Similarly to Dorthy and her friends, many of us have perceptions about God’s attributes that don’t match reality – especially when it comes to descriptions like “fear,” “jealousy,” and “anger.”
These words often trigger negative associations in our minds. We hear that we should “fear God” and picture cowering in terror. We read that God is “jealous” and imagine a controlling, insecure deity. When Scripture speaks of God’s “anger,” we envision an unpredictable, rage-filled force.
But what if our understanding of these terms is clouded by human experiences? What if divine fear, jealousy, and anger are fundamentally different from their human counterparts?
When I was younger and first encountered the concept of “fearing God,” I was confused. The same Bible that told me “God is love” also instructed me to “fear the Lord.” I read verses like Proverbs 9:10 which says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” Matthew 10:28 which says, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell,” and 2 Timothy 1:7 which says, “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” These seemed contradictory until I started digging in to understand the Hebrew concept behind this teaching.
The biblical “fear of the Lord” (Yirah in Hebrew) is better understood as profound reverence and awe. Think about standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon or watching powerful ocean waves crash against rocks. The feeling isn’t terror – it’s wonder at something greater than yourself.
When Proverbs 9:10 tells us, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,” this isn’t suggesting that wisdom begins with being terrified of God. Rather, wisdom starts when we acknowledge God’s greatness and our proper place in relation to Him.
This kind of fear leads not to hiding from God but drawing closer to Him with appropriate respect. It’s recognizing that while God loves us intimately, He isn’t our “buddy” – He’s the Creator of the universe whose thoughts and ways transcend our understanding.
Jealousy is another one of God’s attributes that can easily cause confusion and trip people up. Oprah famously said it was her preacher talking about a passage declaring “God is a jealous God” that caused her to question things and stop going to church.
Human jealousy usually stems from insecurity and possessiveness. We get jealous when we fear losing something we believe belongs to us. But God’s jealousy operates from a fundamentally different place.
Exodus 34:14 describes God as jealous and says, “For you must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” The Hebrew word for jealousy here is “qanna,” which conveys a zealous protection of what is precious. God’s jealousy is more like a parent’s protective instinct than a teenager’s possessive relationship.
I remember when my children were young, how protective I felt when something threatened their wellbeing. That wasn’t insecurity – it was love in action. Similarly, God’s jealousy is His passionate desire for our ultimate good, knowing that turning to other gods or idols harms us.
In Exodus, immediately after God describes Himself as jealous, He makes a covenant of love with His people. His jealousy exists within the context of a committed relationship – more like a spouse who wants exclusivity not out of control but out of devotion.
Okay, let’s look at another often misunderstood attribute of God, anger. Perhaps the most misunderstood divine attribute is God’s anger. Human anger is often selfish, destructive, and out of control. But divine anger functions differently – it’s His righteous response to evil, injustice, and everything that harms His creation.
God’s anger isn’t the short-fused temper of an unpredictable tyrant. It’s the measured, appropriate response of perfect justice. When Psalm 103:8 speaks of God being “slow to anger,” it emphasizes that His anger isn’t His default state – it’s His reluctant response when love and mercy are rejected.
Think about it this way: if God weren’t angered by evil, could we really call Him good? A god who remains neutral toward suffering, injustice, and moral corruption would be, at best, indifferent to our wellbeing.
The beauty is that even God’s anger serves His redemptive purposes. It’s never punitive for its own sake, but corrective – designed to bring about repentance and restoration. That’s why the prophet Ezekiel quotes God saying, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live” (Ezekiel 33:11).
Here’s what I learned.
Understanding these attributes intellectually is one thing. But what about those whose experiences with earthly fathers have created emotional barriers to trusting God?
Many people have experienced fathers whose “jealousy” manifested as controlling behavior, whose “anger” was unpredictable and terrifying, and who used “fear” to manipulate rather than guide. For these individuals, describing God with these same words can create significant barriers to faith.
I’ve spoken with people whose difficult relationships with their fathers made it nearly impossible to relate to God as “Father.” Some have said that when they hear that God is jealous and angry, all they can think about is hiding, because that’s what they did when their dad came home in those moods.
This is where understanding the vast difference between divine attributes and their human counterparts becomes crucial. God isn’t like an imperfect human father with supernatural powers – He’s completely different in essence.
When someone has experienced a father’s destructive jealousy, they need to hear that God’s jealousy is protective love that creates safety, not control that generates fear. When someone has cowered under a father’s unpredictable rage, they need to understand that God’s anger is the consistent, appropriate response of justice that ultimately serves restoration.
Sometimes we need to take a step back and take time for self-reflection in order to put ourselves into a position where we can see these things from a fresh perspective. Like many moments and areas of life, we benefit when we allow ourselves to have a perspective shift and we may need a perspective shift to properly understand these divine attributes. The problem isn’t with God’s character, but with the limitations of human language and our experiences that color our understanding of these terms.
The Bible uses anthropomorphism – describing God in human terms – to help us relate to Him. But these descriptions are always approximate, limited by the constraints of language and our finite understanding. As Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
When we truly understand these attributes, far from making God less approachable, they actually make Him more trustworthy. A God who has no jealousy for our devotion wouldn’t truly love us. A God who feels no anger toward evil wouldn’t be good. And a God who doesn’t inspire reverent awe wouldn’t be worthy of worship.
For those struggling with these concepts due to painful experiences with earthly fathers, healing comes through several pathways.
First, acknowledge the pain and don’t rush to theological explanations. Jesus wept with those who suffered before He offered solutions, and we should do the same. The hurt caused by abusive, absent, or negligent fathers is real and deserves to be treated seriously.
Second, recognize that God understands this specific pain deeply. Jesus himself cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” on the cross. God knows what it’s like to feel abandoned.
Third, look to Jesus as the perfect revelation of God’s character. If you want to know what God’s “fear,” “jealousy,” and “anger” look like in action, look at Jesus, who is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). Jesus’ righteous anger always targeted systems and behaviors that harmed people, never the vulnerable themselves. His jealousy manifested as passionate protection of people’s relationship with God. And He inspired fear not through intimidation but through love and moral authority.
Finally, give yourself permission to use different language if traditional terms create barriers. If “father” is a triggering word, it’s okay to relate to God initially through other biblical metaphors – shepherd, friend, healer, or refuge – while healing takes place.
I believe that as we grow in relationship with God, we begin to experience these attributes as they truly are – not as threats, but as expressions of His perfect love. Perfect love that protects us jealously. Perfect love that stands against everything that would harm us. Perfect love that inspires wonder and awe.
Today, I encourage you to examine your understanding of God’s nature. Are there attributes you’ve misunderstood based on human experiences? Are you pulling away in those moments based on human understanding and assumptions, or are you digging in to discover truth and expose false assumptions. Are you allowing God to reveal Himself as He truly is, rather than viewing Him through the lens of human imperfection?
The journey toward trusting God often begins not with theological arguments but with small steps of openness – willingness to consider that perhaps God is better, kinder, and more trustworthy than our experiences have led us to believe – for His perfect love drives out fear and transforms our understanding of who He truly is.
I’m Darrell Darnell, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
I want you to be a part of the next Monday Mailbag on June 30th! Monday Mailbag is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. You can send in questions or responses to my SILY episodes, and I’ll respond to them via Monday Mailbag episodes. You can participate in Monday Mailbags by visiting the Golden Spiral Media listener feedback page.