Emotions have the power hurt or heal. They can build up and they can destroy. They affect our relationships, our view of self and even our entire outlook on life. We can be lifted with happiness, enraged with anger, or deflated by depression. We can be moved by compassion, stirred with jealousy or paralyzed by fear. There is no denying that to be human, is to be an emotional being.

Our emotions play an enormous role in our day to day life as well as framing our entire worldview. Our emotions affect our marriages, our friendships, our church-life and every other relationship.  They even play a major role in how we view God and ourselves.

Emotions are so powerful that they can affect our physical health. Laughter and happiness have the power to heal while physical ailments can be attributed to anxiety, fear, and depression.

Emotions can be subtle or they can be overwhelming. Two people overcome by love can experience joy, even euphoria. Overcome with anger and bitterness, they can find themselves consumed with thoughts of revenge and hatred. Considering the major role that emotions play in the lives of every human being, it is not surprising to find the Bible to be a chronicle of human emotion.

The Bible – A Chronicle of Human Emotion

Love and Vengeance

In Genesis 34 we read about a young woman named Dinah – the only recorded daughter of Jacob. Dinah was taken and violated by the son of a gentile prince. The Bible says that Shechem “loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel.” Regardless of Shechems claim to love Dinah, his out of control emotions lead to a terrible sin. He had raped the daughter of Jacob and in turn, enflamed passions of hatred and vengeance in the hearts of Jacob’s twelve sons.

As the passage continues we see the unfolding of a murderous plot driven by an emotional thirst for revenge. In an act of deception, Jacob’s sons told Shechem that if he and all his men were circumcised, he could take Dinah to wife. Moved by his love for Dinah, Shechem complied and while he and his men were healing, the sons of Jacob descended and slaughtered every one of them.

After killing every male and spoiling all of their goods they returned to Jacob. Jacob lamented their actions. But as Jacob rebuked his sons, they simply replied “Should we have allowed him to treat our sister like a prostitute?”

This true story is saturated with emotion. Among others, we see love, vengeance, hatred, anger, wrath, disappointment and fear. Jacob feared that the emotional outburst of his son’s could have resulted in war.

Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house. Gen 34:30

It makes you wonder how many world events and major conflicts have at their root, unbridled emotion!

 Joy and Disdain

In 2 Samuel 6 we read about David’s unfettered joy as he brings the ark of God into his city. All of Israel went out with instruments, song and dance. The Bible says that David, overcome with joy,  “danced before the Lord with all his might”. David’s love for the Lord overflowed into a public display of rejoicing.

As contagious as this joy may have been, not everyone caught it. David’s wife Michal looked out of her window and saw her husband “leaping and dancing before the LORD”. Far from rejoicing with her husband, the Bible says that Michal “despised him in her heart”. Emotions of pride, contempt and hatred welled up inside of her.

After this exhilirating time of joy, worship, sacrifice and blessing, David returned to “bless his household”. There he was met by his wife who was overcome by her own emotion – not joy in the Lord, but disdain for her husband. Her words dripped with sarcasm as she said “How glorious was the king of Israel to day”. She continued:

How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself! 2 Sam 6:20

Michal was affected, not by joy but by pride. She wasn’t concerned with the honour of David as much as she was with her own reputation, specifically among the “lesser women”. She was so jealous for her standing among the people, and her own honour that she confronted her husband in contempt. David answered her with a scathing rebuke.

 It was before the LORD, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the LORD, over Israel: therefore will I play before the LORD. And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour. 2 Sam 6:21-22

David replied, what Michal viewed as dishonourable, God viewed as humble worship. David told his wife that not only would he humble himself again in likemanner, but moreso. He went on to tell her that while she looked upon his humble expressions of worship, pridefully lamenting the tarnishing of her reputation, others (specifically the “lesser” people, of whose opinions she was so concerned), would honour him for his devotion to God.

Ultimately, Michal’s ungodly pride and contempt for the things of God destroyed her marriage. The Bible says that she “had no child unto the day of her death”. This may have been because God cursed her, but it is equally likely that it is because David never took his bitter wife to bed again.

The above are only two examples of the power of emotion in the word of God. Consider also, the hatred and jealousy of Cain over Abel (Gen 4), the guilt of Judas Iscariot (Matt 27), love in the Song of Solomon, the anger of Moses (Num 20), the grief of Jacob (Gen 37),  and the joy of Hannah (1 Sam 2). As a book featuring the history of man, the Bible is naturally a book full of emotion.

The question then is not whether or not we are emotional beings, but whether or not there is a right and wrong way to express our emotions, and if so, how do we control them? Some misguided spiritualists may claim we should suppress our emotions. Others believe the key is to freely express our emotions at all times. Others still, believe that our emotions are so powerful that we dare not try to control them, as if we are helpless riders on the rollercoaster of our own emotional whims.

So what does the Bible say about our emotions? Is it valid to claim that we are, at times, victims of our own emotions? Are we responsible to control them? Is God able to influence our emotions? Can he command our emotions, or are they off-limits to him? We will explore these questions and more throughout this study and others in our series on Developing Godly Emotions.