Is God Altruistic? Is God Happy?

[Acrobat]

God doesn't have emotions, at least not in the way we speak of emotions, which result as a reactions to things, like seeing a newborn baby, or someone spitting on you. God is unchanging, so it would be false to say God feels one thing, then feels something different later on, etc.

We might use expressions that imply God has emotions like we do, but these are to be taken metaphorically, as a result of the limits of our language in our expressions about God. 

God's charachreristics  like Goodness Love, are statements about God's being, what he embodies. An expression like God hates sin, can be understand as sins reaction to God's love, like an objects reactions to being in close proximity to the sun, which implies not a change in the nature of the sun, just the object itself. 

When speaking of God natures an orthodox believer is referring to his eternal, unchanging nature.

'Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.'  How is this not an emotion?

Boru

Since God is immutable, God can't feel differently towards Jacob than he does towards Essau. It can only be that he is the same towards both of them, but both Jacob and Esau experience it differently. Since God's immutability is a fundamental orthodox belief, passages of scripture written of in such away are recognized more metaphorically than literally, as expression of the limits of human language when speaking of God. 

There's a passage in Paul about doing good towards one's enemies, and that doing good to them, is experienced by ones enemies as pouring hot coals over their head. Unlike when one does good towards one's friend. If one loves his enemies and his friends, while one's love might be the same towards both, that love is experienced differently by the two. 

The love of God feels like hatred upon those that are defiant towards God's will, and Grace towards those that do the will of God.