Each of the past two evenings after work I sat for three hours in a desk at traffic school. I was not there learning to be traffic. And you might guess that I was not there because it was an exciting and fascinating thing to do. No, I and the thirty-some other people who showed up were there because we had gotten traffic tickets, and decided to go back to school rather than have the violations show up on our permanent records and raise our auto insurance rates.          

It turned out not to be so bad, actually. The teacher was a young cop named Jason.  He knew none of us were thrilled to be there, and he made it as painless as possible. The most interesting parts were the times Jason talked about his work as a police officer.          

“So I pull a car over for speeding,” says Jason, “and I had decided I would only give the guy a warning because he was going seven over, and I wasn’t gonna ticket anyone unless they were going more than 10 over the speed limit. So I get up to the car and the guy rolls down his window and starts taking my mother’s name in vain, calling my wife unmentionable terms, and cursing the city’s entire police force. So what do you think I do then?”          

“Nail the guy!” says the fellow sitting behind me. “He definitely gets a ticket,” says a woman sitting near the front.           

“Naw, I just gave him the warning,” said Jason. “I’m not gonna let my emotions control me in this job or I’ll go crazy. Besides, he wasn’t mad at me. He doesn’t even know me. He was mad at the situation, or at the uniform, or at his mother-in-law. Who knows? It had nothing to do with me. There was no need for me to take it personally.”          

Well, that took everyone by surprise. Most of us were probably pretty clear that we would have nailed the guy. Police Academy must teach these guys some pretty good stuff. Jason was not pretending to be the perfect cop. He also told some stories on himself that didn’t make him look so good. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help thinking how, at least in this instance, this cop was a little bit like God.          

I say that because I have been doing some thinking and reading lately about God’s wrath. You may think this is an odd thing to think about, but according to the English Bible scholar A.W. Pink, “There are more references in Scripture to the anger, fury, and wrath of God, than there are to His love and tenderness” (The Attributes of God, p. 75).           

Wait a minute, you may say, if God is love—and the Bible says that, right?—what’s with this wrath business?          

Well, let me tell you a little more about Jason. He also told us some three-o’clock-in-the-morning stories. In one sad case, it became his responsibility to drive to a house on a quiet street, wake up a sleepy husband and wife and tell them that their son had been killed earlier that night in an alcohol-related traffic accident. Twenty minutes later, when they had regained some composure, he had to tell them that his next duty was to go to another house—the home of their best friends—and tell them that their son had also been killed in the accident.  

Jason was angry at the convenience store clerk who had sold alcohol to minors. He was angry at a culture that seems to encourage kids to drink. He was angry that the kids’ luck ran out against a light pole that night and that their parents would live the rest of their lives grieving for their lost sons. Would you say this cop was wrong to be angry in this case? I’m sure there are plenty of ways in which Jason is not much like God at all, but in these two cases, I thought I caught a pretty clear glimpse of Godlikeness.  

Does God get angry? Certainly he does—at the pain and suffering caused by evil in the world. “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,” wrote the apostle Paul (Romans 1:18). Would you want to live in a world created by a god who didn’t care about justice, and who was happy to see wickedness prevail?          

But like Jason when he was giving the speeder a warning, God’s wrath is not a capricious, fly-off-the-handle, lose-your-cool fit of temper. It is a decision not swayed by circumstance or emotion. In fact, God’s wrath and His love are not contradictions; they are two sides of the same reality. If God were not angry at evil, He would not be truly loving. His omnipotence as Lord of the universe is most clearly exhibited by the fact that holy wrath and love coexist at the center of His character.                   

B. W.