Does God get angry and hates?
Question:
Since humans were created in God's own image then does that mean we are sort of like God or that he imagined us? I am guessing that we are sort of like Him. (Why do we say "Him?") Does this mean God gets angry and hates because in the Bible it says He doesn't hate?
Answer:
God didn't imagine man, He created man, fashioning him to be like Himself.
"Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:26-27).
"This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God" (Genesis 5:1).
One difference is that men do not have the ability to live eternally on their own.
"Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" -- therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken" (Genesis 3:22-23).
Another difference is that we don't manage to retain moral purity like God. "Truly, this only I have found: that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes" (Ecclesiastes 7:29).
I suspect that there is both a spiritual and physical aspect of emotions.
It is incorrect to say that God does not hate: "For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with You. The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man" (Psalms 5:4-6). It would be more accurate to state that God does not hate without cause. And God also gets angry with sinful people. "God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day" (Psalms 7:11). You can see this in the Old Testament. God became angry with Israel a number of times because of their stubborn desire for sin. This is why Israel suffered invasion and captivity many times.
There is a big difference between God's anger and man's. God has just and reasonable cause for His anger. His response is measured, reasonable, and tempered with mercy because He loves men even while angry with those who sin. This is completely unlike people who typically stop thinking when they are angry. "So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God" (James 1:19-20).
To answer why God refers to Himself in masculine terms, see "Is the Bible sexist?"
