Attributes of God: Slow to Anger
Attributes of God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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We are looking at the Attributes of God, Who God is, from how he Describes himself
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
Last week we discussed how God was Merciful - Not punishing those who repent of their wrongdoing - and Gracious - giving gifts to those who walk with or follow him.
This week we are looking at the next major attribute, slow to anger.
This one is fascinating, not just in describing who God is, but the words used in saying God is slow to anger.
in Hebrew it is ”Erech Appayim”
Erech means Long
Appayim is the words for nostrils.
in other words God has long nostrils.
How do we get Slow to anger from the words “Long nostrils”?
Well in hebrew the word for nose and anger is the same.
Sort of how we have words that sound the same or are spelled the same.
Meet & Meat, Stake and Steak, here and Hear. Where and Wear and ware.
In addition, one of the things that happen when people are angry is they wrinkle their nose, or flare their nostrils, and everything
And So God is using the fact that the words are the same to make a sort of pun, that creates this word picture, that the Israelites would immediately recognize.
He has long nostrils, which means it takes time for anger to build up.
But once it builds up to the point where God is angry, he is VERY angry.
And perhaps this ties into the idea that when the Israelites make a sacrifice it creates a pleasing or soothing aroma
And the priest shall take from the grain offering its memorial portion and burn this on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
its almost as if making sacrifices cools God’s nostrils and makes him less likely to get angry.
Though i will point out that the sent God is concerned with comes more from the heart of the sacrifice, and not the sacrifice itself
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him.
God despises sacrifices that are done by people who do not really seek to follow Him, and for those who do seek him, a prayer is just as acceptable as a sacrifice.
God being slow to anger means he is patient with people’s wrong doing, to a point.
We See God’s anger at the Israelites throughout the old testament, so much so it is hard to see how he is “slow to anger” because the Israelites consistently push God to the breaking point with their lack of faith in Him.
But God never outright destroys the Israelites, he always gives them a chance to repent, and he consistently restores them.
And to be fair, if i had recused people from slavery and fed them food from heaven and cared for all of their needs, and then they complained that they were better off as slaves I think i would be pretty angry at them too.
Perhaps more clearly we see Gods patience in the book of Amos, in the first couple chapters, as God lists various nations one by one, and says something like this:
Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they delivered up a whole people to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood. So I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre, and it shall devour her strongholds.”
This is just one example out of 8 nations that God speaks against.
But the common phrase is “for three transgressions or for four”
We have all heard the phrase “three strikes your out”
here God is saying “I gave you three strikes, but I’ll give you one more, if you don’t shape up this is what will happen”
And notice with Tyre he only lists one offence.
With some of the other nations he list two or three.
Edom has three,
And then we get to Israel, and he lists 12.
Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals— those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted; a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned; they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined. “Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars and who was as strong as the oaks; I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath. Also it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. And I raised up some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young men for Nazirites. Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?” declares the Lord. “But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.’ “Behold, I will press you down in your place, as a cart full of sheaves presses down. Flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not retain his strength, nor shall the mighty save his life; he who handles the bow shall not stand, and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself, nor shall he who rides the horse save his life; and he who is stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day,” declares the Lord.
He lists 10 before he gets to how He has tried to protect and rescue Israel in the past, then lists two more
sell the righteous for silver
sell the needy for sandals
Trample on the poor
turn away to not help the afflicted
man and his son sleeping with the same woman
profaning God’s name
seek other gods at other altars
take clothes in pledge
get drunk in the temple
and not just getting drunk, but getting drunk on wine paid for by the temple tax
Then God talks about how he rescued them
Made the Nazirites drink wine - breaking their oath
and told the prophets to not prophecy.
God said he would punish them after 3 or four transgressions, but they have already commited 12. which just so happens to be three times 4.
I would say that is being very patient with Israel. But eventually judgment must come, we will look more into that in coming weeks
Jesus was hardly ever angry, except at the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, where they act religious but it is all for show and respect, and perhaps even more so because they prevent others from truly worshipping God
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
As a quick side note, some of you may have bibles that include verse 14 here “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation” the reason some Bibles do not have it is because it in not in all of the early manuscripts that we have, so it is a debated verse. It fits the theme and so it is possible that it should be included, again showing that the Pharisees in their desire for glory, destroy the helpless.
The Religious leaders, the ones that should have been helping people worship God, should have been caring for the poor, who should have been the examples to follow, were to concerned with being better than everyone else to help everyone else.
And that is what angered Jesus.
Everywhere else Jesus could have been angry we don’t see him as angry, rather he is forgiving people, speaking gently with them, and even as he is being nailed to a cross, he is not angry with the people crucifying him, but prays for their forgiveness
And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”
Jesus isn’t angry with the people nailing him to the cross, casting lots for his clothes, or mocking him to his face, because they do not know what they are doing.
And there is something here that I would like to explore...
And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.
This takes place the day before passover, which is the day before Jesus is crucified.
a years wages worth of nard.
Nard is very Fragrant, as most perfumes are.
It is entirely reasonable, that two days later, as jesus was being nailed to the cross, he could still smell the perfume, the pleasing aroma, given in an act of sacrifice and worship,
And the one time that Jesus had every right to be angry at those around them, he is instead slow to anger and forgives the very people murdering him.
Becuase he is long of nostril, slow to anger.
And we are called to be like Christ to the world,
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
How do we become slow to anger, by being willing to listen to those around us, and slow to speak - thinking about what we say before we say it.
too often speaking quickly and not listening leads to misunderstanding and anger.
so church let us learn to avoid anger, to forgive those who hurt us, to listen to others.
There is much more i could say
