The Emotions of God: Making Sense of a God Who Hates, Weeps, and Loves

by David T. Lamb

The God of the Bible is emotional. Many Christians don't want to associate emotions with God. Emotions feel irrational, and the idea of God experiencing hate, anger, and jealousy can be confusing and problematic. And yet the Bible is full of stories where God expresses deep emotion. Christians are often left wondering how to reconcile the tension of an all-powerful God expressing seemingly uncontrollable feelings. If God is hateful and angry at humanity, is he a God worth believing in? In The Emotions of God , biblical scholar David Lamb examines seven divine emotions―hate, anger, jealousy, sorrow, joy, compassion, and love―and argues that it is not only good that God is emotional but also that we as his image-bearers can express emotions in such a way that reflects his goodness to the world. With discussion questions and suggestions for application, Lamb challenges his readers to journey with him into a rich study of the stories surrounding God's emotions so that we might better know God and reflect the beauty of emotion to the world.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Religion

224 pages, Paperback

Published November 22, 2022

About the author

Lamb is associate professor of Old Testament at Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, Pennsylvania. He has worked in campus ministry with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. His first book was "Righteous Jehu and His Evil Heirs" (Oxford).

Reviews

[Elliot Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. An easy read that clearly communicates its main ideas, while still containing some real theological zingers. Caused me to examine my own portrait of God and take a good hard look at my discomfort and avoidance of a God who is prone to outbursts of emotion. 10/10

“The little Lord Jesus, loud crying he makes”

[Rev Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

So let me admit my bias. I had an emotional draw and longing to read The Emotions of God by David Lamb. I have always believed God is both emotional and that theologians do everyone, including themselves, a disservice when they discount or reason away the emotions of God as anthropomorphisms.
To finally read a book that simply track through God’s emotions was both a delight and an encouragement to me. It was a delight because God’s emotions are a good thing. We want a God who is emotional, who genuinely interacts with His people and not a god who is basically a computer program acting without emotion or feeling.
And it is an encouragement to see someone else who hasn’t allowed their theology on God to rewrite what the Bible says about Him.
Now Lamb never dives into the arguments used to reason away God’s emotions and reactions in the Bible. There are no philosophical debates here. Lamb is just taking the emotional writings on God and presenting them as given. It was refreshing and this decision keeps the reader tied to the Scriptures the entire time instead of wasting time with theory.
So I highly enjoyed and was encouraged and built up by David Lamb’s The Emotions of God.

In the Emotions of God, Lamb has two bookend chapters where he starts with a simple defense that emotions are divine. Emotions are as much a part of God’s person as they are our own. And he ends with a simple discussion on the emotions of people.
The bulk of the book – chapters 2-8 covers seven emotions of God. 7 emotions all mentioned in Psalm 69. The emotions covered in the book are hatred, wrath, jealousy, sorrow, joy, compassion, and love.
I really thought it was good for Lamb to start with what are viewed as the negative emotions so the book could end with the exclamation point of the Love of God. I also think it builds well because I believe it takes a combination of all the other six emotions to better understand the love of God.
God hates and God is jealous, because He is love. And you can’t understand His love without His sorrow or His joy. It was a really good flow. Either Lamb or the editors did well in the structure of the book.
I think this is one book everyone should read because it helps the reader understand God more. Can we really think we know God without a dive into his emotions?
We don’t have a complete understanding of God without knowing his wrath and his sorrow. His compassion and His hatred. Can you really appreciate the glory of God without looking into what He hates and why He hates it?
Or take God’s jealousy? How many of us have spent any time considering the implications of the jealousy of the LORD? We typically just see jealousy as something negative but as Lamb writes
Jealousy is good when it honors the relationship. It realizes relations are valuable even precious.
My favorite chapter was probably the one on jealousy as in his writings on Isaiah 9:7, he unveils the importance of jealousy behind the Christmas story and the sending of Jesus to the world. It is the jealousy of the LORD that accomplishes His great work in sending the Savior.
And one thing that should have obvious to anyone who has read through the Gospels is how Jesus displays the 7 emotions listed in this book throughout His ministry. When we ignore the teaching on God’s emotions, it also has a negative impact on how we view Christ, because we also no longer see Christ as He was or how the Holy Spirit inspired for Him to be described.
Jesus sorrows when his friend dies. He has jealousy and hatred when He is driving out the money changers or denounces religious leaders. His compassion moves Him to feed the 5000. The emotions of God are a vital part not just of God but driving God in how He acts.
In turn, we can’t hope to be Christlike or godly if we are burying our emotions and refusing to give them the chance to not just be a part of our response to the various ups and downs of life but emotions should lead us into action. Compassion and love should drive us toward holiness and service. Hatred and jealousy should pull us away from the sin that so easily entangles us.
As Lamb writes, It would be irrational in light of how positively emotions are viewed in the Bible-for both God and God’s people-to avoid discount, or downplay healthy displays of emotion.
And I loved this line on allowing emotions to flow forth from our entire physical being. The heart is connected with grief and joy, the nose with anger, the womb and bowels with compassion. Emotions are not to be stifled or merely spoken about, they need to be expressed with our whole body. Yell and weep, dance and sing, serve and love.
I think we are emotionally sick in America and a major reason why is because we take our emotions and bottle them up and refuse to release them. Let us be more like Jesus and allow our emotions to play the important part they are meant to have in our lives.
If you struggle with your emotional life or struggle with how the Bible portrays God at times, Lamb’s the Emotions of God could be a very helpful and encouraging book for you. Outside of a few small moments here and there - I certainly enjoyed it from beginning to end.

This is a transcript of a video review. You can watch the review at YouTube.com/revreads

[Tyler Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was so much I liked about this book and so much that drove me nuts.

Almost everything in the middle chapters was really helpful. Each chapter, Dr. Lamb takes an emotional category that Scripture applies to humans and to God (anger, jealousy, compassion, love, etc.) and discusses it. He begins with a survey of the relevant Hebrew and Greek words (with a helpful chart) and then analyzes some of the key passages where the author attributes that emotion to God. Dr. Lamb is really engaging writer, includes many illustrations and anecdotes, and usually helpful applications as well. These chapters would definitely be worth returning to.

What drove me nuts is what I also felt about God Behaving Badly: Biblical theologians are so much better when they are at least conversant with systematic theologians. I agreed to review the book, in part, because I knew that Dr. Lamb rejects impassibility, while I am a strong advocate for it. That most central topic to this discussion gets one comment in the introduction: “even though the issue of divine impassibility is relevant to this discussion of God’s emotions, I will not discuss it in depth. Discussions of the topic quickly become highly theological, philosophical, and abstract, which may be fascinating to theologians and Bible scholars, but not to so much to folks who don’t read Hebrew, Greek, or Latin" (6). Very disappointing.

But in general, I think more engagement with ST would benefit the book and the discussion. 1) What is the working doctrine of Scripture? Since there was no discussion of language being univocal or equivocal or analogical, Dr. Lamb would simply call emotions divine without consideration of the Creator-creature distinction applied to revelation. 2) What is the working doctrine of God. Beyond impassibility, I assume Dr. Lamb would affirm that God is spirit without body. Since our emotions are so intertwined with our physical bodies, how is it proper to jump right from our anger to God's anger with no caveats or negations? 3) What is the working doctrine of Christ's incarnation? In each chapters, he begins with examples of the emotion of YHWH in the OT, then Jesus in the NT. He explicitly affirms a doctrine of the hypostatic union. But how does the Word becoming flesh introduce experiences for Jesus that may not be possible for God in his essence? Some discussion of the communicato idiomatum, or something like that felt necessary, but neglected.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a copy of this book from the publisher and was asked to review it.

[Esther · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re skeptical concerning emotions or you’ve never heard/read much about what the Bible says about emotions and the emotions of God, this book is a great place to start.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: A study of the emotional language used of God in scripture, considering seven emotions spoken of both in Old and New Testaments.

The title of this book caught my attention. God has emotions? Readings in systematic theology taught me that God was impassible, that God does not experience passions or emotions, pain or pleasure, in ways that would change the unchanging God. Part of the reason for this is that emotions, at least as humans experience them do reflect real changes in our state of being, vacillating between highs and lows, sometimes unpredictably. Yet as this work amply demonstrates, scripture in many places attributes emotion to God. And the author freely admits that he does not believe in an impassible God, but rather one who is “affected emotionally by the behavior of humans” (p. 6). He chooses not to engage the theological discussion but rather to examine the biblical material supporting the idea of God having “emotions.”

It should be noted that in making this assertion that Lamb considers emotions not only to be strong feelings, but they may involve actions, can be rational, may be controlled, and may be understood. He then proceeds to introduce the scope of his study, seven emotions, all of which are evident in connection with God in the Psalms: hate (5:5; 11:5 45:7;), anger (6:1; 30:5; 78:21), jealousy (78:58; 79:5), grief (78:40), delight or joy (18:20; 22:8; 35:27), mercy (25:6; 28:6; 103:4), love (5:7; 25:6; 136).

In each of the following chapters Lamb takes one of the seven, defines the term, identifies the different Hebrew and Greek words used in Old and New Testaments respectively associated with the emotion, and then considers a number of key texts and what they reveal about these emotions in reference to God. With hate for example, he discusses what it may have meant to say “Esau I hated” or Jesus reference to “hating mother and brother and sister,” the latter which he would propose meaning “loving less.” In scripture, much of God’s “hatred” is directed against evil, and reflects the obverse of his intense love for his good creation, deeply hating anything that mars it and his good purposes for it. God hates injustice and falsehood. He discusses ways in which we do not hate like God (for example, being inconvenienced), and that we ought hate the things God hates, that sometimes, these should make us furious. He recommends that we take this to prayer but that this will also mean resisting evil and injustice.

In similar ways, Lamb moves from definition and word study to key texts to application with each of the seven. I particularly enjoyed his discussion of what God takes joy or delight in, from the creatures of the deep to his people, each and all of us! His chapter on sorrow centers on the reality that God may be grieved, and that Jesus wept deeply for Lazarus. He distinguishes compassion, which is more episodic and empathic with love that is faithful and enduring. In the process, Lamb invites us into the redemption of these emotions in our lives: to hate what God hates, to be angry but not sin, to be jealous for God and the things of God, to grieve and lament with God the world’s deep brokenness, to revel in and join in God’s delight in his world and people, to show mercy and compassion, and to love steadily and faithfully and selflessly.

My only wish would be that Lamb had said something more about emotions and how God may be both responsive and unchanging. We believe God is both transcendent and immanent, infinite and yet personal, is spirit, and yet in the second person of the Trinity, for eternity to come the Incarnate Son. As we hold other truths in tension, is there a way in which we are also called to hold God’s unchanging nature and evident emotional response to his creatures in tension? To deny a belief in impassibility does not seem enough, nor is a denial of the emotional language attributed to God. Often, we cannot fully explain these truths in tension, yet it seems we must hold them in tension in mystery, wonder, and faith, hoping that one day we will know more fully, even as we are known.

_______________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

[Samuel Muñiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Se trata de un estudio de siete emociones (o pasiones, como señala la escritura) de Dios: Odio, ira, celos, lamento, gozo, compasión y amor. Cada capítulo, estructurado de la siguiente manera: Análisis de los vocablos hebreos y griegos, exposición de ciertos pasajes bíblicos que emplean tales vocablos y reflexiones finales. Además cuenta con preguntas de estudio.

A continuación mis conclusiones generales:
1. Las emociones puede ser buenas o malas dependiendo del objeto receptor.
2. La escritura revela que Dios presenta distintas emociones.
3. El pueblo de Dios está sujeto y expuesto a cambios emocionales.
4. Dios demanda ciertas emociones de su pueblo.
5. Si Dios experimenta y demanda emociones, deben considerarse buenas.

Sin embargo, a causa de nuestro pecado estamos expuestos a formular concepciones inapropiadas de Dios. Entonces, podemos interpretar tales emociones en pos de nuestras propias experiencias. De modo que, moldeemos un Dios susceptible o indiferente.

Así que, si bien es cierto que suena alentador que Dios exprese “emociones” (como las mías) prefiero limitarme al núcleo de la doctrina de la impasibilidad divina en donde encuentro un balance: «Tales expresiones son antropomorfismos (figura retórica usada en la biblia para explicarnos principios divinos en términos humanos) que revelan si Dios está o no de acuerdo»

[David Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

One way to talk about God is to contemplate his attributes – his holiness, power, love, faithfulness, all-knowing, always presence, and so on. Another way to talk about God is to meditate on his names – the many biblical names and metaphors of God, of Jesus, of the Holy Spirit.

Another way to talk about God is to reflect on his emotions. And the purpose in reflecting on God’s emotions is the same as contemplating his attributes and meditating on his names and metaphors – to know God better.

For example, God hates sin and evil. While slow to anger, God gets angry about oppression, violence, disobedience, and idolatry. God is jealous of our love and loyalty and obedience. God feels sorrow over sin and sin’s consequences, and he feels our sorrows and griefs.

Further, God takes joy in his creation, in his people, in all things God-like, in you. God shows compassion to those in deep trouble and those who repent; and in compassion, Jesus heals the sick, comforts the bereaved, feeds the hungry, and feels the needs of the crowds. Indeed, God loves you because he loves you, and God loves you as you love him back.

God feels and expresses his deep emotions. And we can pray to our God who understands and feels our deep emotions.

Thank you, David Lamb, for directing my focus on the emotions of God. I know God better.

[Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased both the Kindle and the audible versions. The scholarship is good and helpful, but the frequent cites read in the Audible version makes it somewhat cumbersome to listen to. As a pastor and theologian, I was particularly interested in Lamb's biblical review of the emotions of God as contrasted with the "heresy of Patripassianism." Lamb's viewpoints on how God's love is consistent with hate (particularly of those things which harm those whom God loves) and jealousy (with an interesting discussion of Augustine's much quoted/misquoted "he who is not jealous is not in love") are insightful and helpful. I'm sure I will refer back to this book fom time to time when doing word studies for sermons.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lamb provides a necessary reminder that though we may be uncomfortable with it, God is emotional all through Scripture. He says we don't like emotions because they seem irrational, uncontrollable, and unknown. I would have liked to hear him talk more about why many Christians get stuck on a doctrine of "divine impassibility."

Lamb's conclusions are not surprising based on his previous books, and it was fun to hear him discuss more passages, so there wasn't too much overlap with his previous books. However, this book was less funny than the earlier books!

Also, he comments on it in the book, but he really likes listing three conclusions from each passage. I found that funny.

[Jon Bauman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that engages with the emotions of God and acknowledges that yes, God has emotions. I appreciated David’s conversational style, I loved his stories and pastoral interpretations of the scripture, and I thought that his tie-in to Inside out was relevant and helpful.

Dr. David Lamb was a professor of mine in seminary for my M.Div, along with his wife, Dr. Shannon Lamb.

I had David for an OT class and he led his class with his genuine love for Jesus that is firmly rooted in the realities of Jesus discovered within the Bible.

[Kelley Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written and accomplished what it set out to do, to explore the emotional wording in the Bible used by and of God and Jesus. While Lamb fails/refuses to address the impassibility of God as it relates to His emotions, I found the book to be well researched while managing to keep the topic on an easy to understand level. The only draw back I experienced is that I used an audio format and missed some of the charts and visuals the reader referred to, but this drives me to obtain a physical copy and "read" it again.

[Kari McDowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was incredible! It’s awesome to see how emotional God is in so many ways! Probably my favorite two chapters were on jealousy and compassion. The author is definitely more liberal than I am (theologically and politically), but I like to read from a range of perspectives. Highly recommend!

[Lori Neff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helpful look at emotions and God. For many, it can be difficult to connect meaningfully with the idea of God's range of emotions.
I loved the author's humor, too!

[ashley oliver-thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

a SUPER academic read which had me lost at times (and that’s coming from someone who loves academics) but I think every human should read this book !!! emotions are SO 👏🏼 BIBLICAL 👏🏼

[Bailey Minnix · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it. great book. would recommend. so good to read this after jennie allen’s latest because they go so hand in hand. what’s true of Gods emotions are also true of ours.

[Caitlynn Burnaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic approach to emotions. Using this as a reference for a deep dive into emotions with our students. I have gained such an appreciation and understanding of emotions and God.

[Dan Faultersack · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree heartily with the broad point being made, but felt this was a bit … surface level? A speedy read and a good reminder, anyway.