• Is God Emotional?

I recently read somewhere that God not only has emotions, but is driven by emotions. According to that idea, God not only created the world, but He is also changed by it. Our actions can cause Him pain or joy, and He may react with anger, violence, or blessings.

However, the Bible says God never changes. For example, in the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible:)

For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished.

Malachi 3:6 [NRSV]New Revised Standard Version Bible by National Council of Churches USA, 1989

The New Testament agrees:

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

James 1:17 [NRSV]New Revised Standard Version Bible by National Council of Churches USA, 1989

In other places the Bible talks about changes in God's mood. For example, in the beginning:

God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 1:31 [NRSV]New Revised Standard Version Bible by National Council of Churches USA, 1989

He was pleased with His own creation. A few chapters later in Genesis, God, from our perspective, changed His mind:

Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth.

Genesis 6:12—13 [NRSV]New Revised Standard Version Bible by National Council of Churches USA, 1989

That is a dramatic mood swing, from everything is very good, to I am going to destroy them.

So what is true? Is God driven by emotions or does He never change? It looks like both views are supported in the Bible. Must we pick and choose? Is the Bible correct here but not there? If we do pick and choose, we are making up our own God rather than struggling to understand God.

I think C. S. Lewis came up with part of the answer. When talking about God, we use metaphors, mental pictures, because He is different from us, outside of our direct experience. We use metaphors even when trying to understand the material universe:

What [scientists] do when they want to explain the atom, or something of that sort, is to give you a description out of which you can make a mental picture. But then they warn you that this picture is not what the scientists actually believe. What the scientists believe is a mathematical formula. The pictures are there only to help you to understand the formula. They are not really true in the way the formula is; they do not give you the real thing but only something more or less like it. They are only meant to help, and if they do not help you can drop them. The thing itself cannot be pictured, it can only be expressed mathematically.

C. S. Lewis on page 54 of [MereChristianity]Mere Christianity by Clive Staple Lewis, 1952 publisher: Harper Collins

Scientists use mental pictures also. They understand formulas better than most people, but they understand them through mental images. Like the scientists making sense of the material universe, we use metaphors and mental images to help us understand who God is.

The Bible uses metaphors to explain God. Jesus told parables, which are metaphors in story form. Moses used metaphors in the Song of Moses:

Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power—your right hand, O LORD, shattered the enemy. In the greatness of your majesty you overthrew your adversaries; you sent out your fury, it consumed them like stubble. At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up, the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.

Exodus 15:6—8 [NRSV]New Revised Standard Version Bible by National Council of Churches USA, 1989

Did Moses really think God has a right hand and nostrils? Moses first directly encountered God speaking to him out of a burning bush. He heard God's voice, but saw nothing except a shining presence surrounding the bush. Later all the people experienced God as a pillar of fire and smoke leading the Israelites out of Egypt. Sometime after that, Moses met God on top of a mountain, heard his voice, and was given the ten commandments. Moses did not say he saw God with a right hand or nostrils in any of these encounters. So why did he use that language?

Moses needed metaphors to talk about God. The Bible says:

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:27 [NRSV]New Revised Standard Version Bible by National Council of Churches USA, 1989

Thus we are justified in using metaphors when comparing God to ourselves. Our images are always limited because:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8—9 [NRSV]New Revised Standard Version Bible by National Council of Churches USA, 1989

God is eternal. He is the creator of the material universe, not a component of it. He is not composed of parts, a nostril here, a hand there. If He were, then we could ask, Who or what created those parts and put them together? He is existence, not composed of things each of which has its own existence. He is The great I AM (see Does God Exist?^<1>)

So, what about emotions? Moses, in the above passage, attributes fury to God. The fury was short lived, only long enough to get the Israelites safely out of Egypt. Is Moses projecting human fury onto God, like he projected nostrils? Or is the fury of God real?

Jesus, God with us, experienced emotions. After His friend Lazarus died, Jesus wept:

He said, Where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, See how he loved him!

John 11:34—36 [NRSV]New Revised Standard Version Bible by National Council of Churches USA, 1989

Jesus showed us what it means to live a perfect life. He wept over the death of Lazarus. He showed His disciples, and us, a wide range of emotions. We are closest to God when we imitate Jesus, including His emotional connection to God and to the people around him.

Perhaps another image will help: a perfect parent. None of us are perfect, but imagine what that might be like. Our demands and expectations while raising a child change as the child grows, not because we change, but because the child now needs something different. If that child bites a playmate, discipline is required. We may or may not be angry, but the child must learn that biting is not allowed. Ideally, the discipline we apply is not driven by our emotions, but by a desire to teach the child. The child may see us as angry, whether in fact we are or not. As the child grows, other teaching methods are required.

Of course, in reality we are growing and changing while raising children, but not as fast as our children are changing. We are growing and improving our relationship with God, but God is not changing at all. However, He created a time–line for the material universe, and created us inside that time–line. He created us with emotions, and He interacts with us in our time–line. Do you think He knew we would see some of His actions as emotional reactions?

I do not think God has emotions, but He interacts with us, in part, through our emotions. I think talking about the emotions of God is a metaphor, but a metaphor that is closer to reality than some others, and probably the best we can understand. All people are sinful, and God is sorry to see that, but not surprised. (See Is God Logical?^<2> for a modified conclusion.)

What do you think? Is God emotional? Your thoughts are welcome in the comments sections.