Slow to Anger, but God IS Angry

Scripture: Nahum 1:1-15

Sermon Title: Slow to Anger, But God IS Angry

           Nahum is towards the end of the Old Testament. So, if you can find Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, go to the next book after Micah. If you’ve gotten to Habakkuk, Zephaniah, or Haggai, you’ve gone too far. Back in May, you might remember we looked at the minor prophet Haggai, and God’s message for his people was to rebuild his temple and experience his faithfulness after their exile. While God spoke in a way that convicted the people, the book as a whole was hopeful.

Nahum is a very different book from Haggai. There is still some hope, but overall it’s not one with much to smile about. It’s quite scary at times. This first chapter really just breaks the ice for what follows in chapters 2 and 3. This book is God’s proclamation of his judgment on Nineveh.

When you hear Nineveh, what might pop into your mind is the account of Jonah, which is what this map is alluding to. Jonah was called earlier—he was likely around between 800 and 750 BC—to go and preach a warning to Nineveh. He tried to get away by hopping on a boat in Joppa and heading the opposite direction, heading west into the Mediterranean Sea. That of course didn’t work, and eventually he took up God’s call to go this city. We’re told in Jonah 4:11, Nineveh, a major Assyrian city, had more than 120,000 people. They genuinely repented at that time, and God showed his mercy.

But that didn’t last. Their wickedness came before God again, and Nahum was given this prophecy likely about a century later. 612 BC is when Nineveh completely fell, and so he predates that. Here’s a contemporary map as well. The purple box on the left is around Israel. The red star marks what are believed to be the ruins of Nineveh in the modern-day city of Mosul, Iraq.  

Brothers and sisters in Christ, there are certain parts of the world around us and of life that function in kind of a paradoxical way. Perhaps you hear that word and you’re ready to zone out on the message. You’re thinking, “There Pastor goes again with using big words that should stay put in dusty books.” Believe me, I thought the same thing about that word for a long time, and yet more and more I think it’s vital that we do have some grasp of it.

What does it mean then? Oxford Languages Dictionary defines paradox as “a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true.” An example of a paradox by that definition would be when we talk about suffering that ends up as a blessing in disguise. Something was so painful, and yet it helped us. Another definition, and this is what I want us to focus on today, is “a situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities.”

When we think about water, most of us probably think of it as a wonderful thing. We heard in baptism a few weeks ago about water as cleansing and refreshing. Most of the time when rain falls, we’re thankful for it, but every so often, water is not a wonderful thing. When water is sinking your boat or flooding your home or fields or subways or church, it’s not something you enjoy. It’s not refreshing, it’s damaging and ruining everything it soaks.

           The same could be said about fire. Most of us probably enjoy sitting around a campfire or an indoor fireplace when the weather is cool. You can access a yule log channel on many TVs, which people sometimes put on in the background or use it to put them to sleep. To hear those crackling sounds and watch the flames lick up, to see changes in color with different levels of heat or substances, can be calming even mesmerizing. And yet if a house caught on fire or you see a wildfire—enjoyment and calm are gone. An uncontained fire is not just hot; it’s destructive and harmful and deadly. It, too, is paradoxical—it combines contradictory features or qualities.

           Hopefully, you see where this is going: The character of God is paradoxical. God’s character can hold multiple facets and qualities which are true and real, even though sometimes people think it’s impossible or contradictory. Some will say, “God is loving and gracious and merciful and kind. If that’s true, then he can’t be angry or wrathful or condemning or anything like that.” Some argue the God of the New Testament in Jesus is not the same as the God of the Old Testament. Yet Christians throughout the ages have held the truth that the Lord God Almighty, the Triune God, does not change. Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” The prophet Malachi recorded the LORD’s words, in Malachi 3:6, “‘I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.’” Who God has always been, he will always be, but there are some paradoxes in his character.

           For our first two points, we’re highlighting one of these paradoxes. First, it probably isn’t too hard to guess, the Lord is angry. As we go forward the next two weeks into Nahum 2 and 3, we’ll see that the oracle Nahum was given is graphic and detailed, particularly about what Nineveh should expect. But much of chapter 1 is about God’s character. What do we mean by angry? It began in verse 2, “The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies. The LORD is…great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished…Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger?”

           God, as portrayed here, is not happy, is not cheery; if you could make an image of God, this one probably isn’t what you’d hang on your living room wall. He’s angry. That is a characteristic of God that cannot be lost or forgotten. Maybe we think, “You know, God gets angry once or twice in the Bible—obviously, this is one of those times—but it’s not that often, it’s not that important.” That’s not true.

The anger of God cannot be and should not be minimized. These verses are a great example why. There are six Hebrew terms in just these three verses connected to God’s anger. That’s a lot of Hebrew, so I won’t try and pronounce all those words, but they’re the ones underlined. Referring to his jealousy, his vengeance, his wrath, his indignation, his fierceness, his anger. Looking through the Old Testament, at least 3 more Hebrew words refer to God’s anger and wrath.

           It’s not just that all these words are used to show God as really fired up a few times, but there are literally dozens and dozens of times when God is portrayed as angry. There were far too many for me to put them on the slides. If you ask, I can give you the start of a list with all of them. We find times in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, 2 Kings, the Psalms, and Jeremiah when God was angry with or warned his people about the potential for his anger towards them. Many of the times have to do with idolatry or other blatant acts of unrepented disobedience. God looked at what his people were doing or foretold what they would do, and it made him angry.

Two of the most frequently found of these words are that last pair in verse 6, which the NIV has translated here as “fierce anger.” Elsewhere in the Old Testament, they’re often translated “burning anger” or you’ll find another Hebrew word for fire or kindling around them. The Disney/Pixar film “Inside Out” did a pretty good job at capturing that emotion. Another interesting piece, though, is that specific Hebrew word for anger or angry is the word “aph,” which more generally refers to one’s nose. So you look at verse 6, it doesn’t make sense to read, “Who can endure his fierce” or “fiery nose?” but translators have figured out that this word is used for anger because it focuses on how one’s nose gets scrunched up and nostrils flair in an expression of anger.

When we come across passages like these, it can be easy to sweep them under the rug, to not include them in our understanding of the complexity of God. It can be easy to say, “That’s how God used to be; he’s not like that anymore.” But again, God doesn’t change. He’s still angry in all these forms against sin, against those who don’t repent and believe in him, against wicked and unjust and oppressive people. We may not see his anger so readily or frequently in the New Testament but remember how Revelation describes the pouring out of his wrath. Remember what the author of Hebrews writes in chapter 10, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God…It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Being mindful of God’s anger isn’t enough to save someone. Not wanting God to be angry at them, at us, is not enough to save. But it can lead a person towards faith, towards seeking God’s real mercy, hope, and salvation.

           That then leads us to the other part of God’s character that we’re focusing on in Nahum 1, why God’s character seems paradoxical—our second point, the Lord is good. Picking up what was left out in verse 3 and jumping to verse 7, “The LORD is slow to anger…The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him…” This word “good” in Hebrew is “tov,” and “tov" describes something or someone who is “pleasant, desirable, friendly, kind,” and what is probably most important in its context here, “morally good and excellent.”

           In our understanding and expression of anger as people, so often we can sin. Being enraged by someone’s morally wrong actions or something terrible and evil in the world, that emotional feeling sometimes doesn’t seem enough. We want to inflict pain on someone. If you’ve ever read the comments section online when there’s a post about someone who has abused people being released from prison, it’s not pretty. People want to take justice into their own hands and cause someone excruciating and lasting pain or disfigurement because of how that person has victimized others. Even in day-to-day expressions of anger, though, we can see selfishness, misunderstanding, getting back at someone, wanting to send a message. It’s why we’re told in Psalm 4:4 and reminded in Ephesians 4:26, “In your anger do not sin.” And “Do not give the devil a foothold.”

Yet the Lord being angry does not sin. Even in the execution of his wrath, which at times involves putting people to death, he is still morally good. He is good, because there is not and cannot be any evil in God. Part of the goodness of God is what we read at the beginning of verse 3, “The LORD is slow to anger…” Perhaps that reminds us of a larger proclamation spoken by God himself in Exodus 34. Shortly after the Israelites had infuriated him by building golden calves and he had told Moses he was ready to be done with them, he says, “‘…The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin…” That’s not found only once in Scripture, but we find parts of that message repeatedly. It’s in Numbers 14, after the Israelites expressed they should have stayed in Egypt and couldn’t enter Canaan; in Psalms 86, 103, and 145; in Joel 2 as part of a call to repentance; in Jonah 4 verse 2, the first trip to Nineveh and why Jonah was mad; and one last time in the Old Testament, back here in Nahum 1 verse 3.

This is the default quality or character of God that people feel drawn to. He’s nice, he’s merciful, he’s helpful, he’s forgiving. Yes, he is. Please don’t leave this morning and tell someone you heard a sermon all about God’s anger and nothing about his grace and mercy. God is good and gracious and merciful. That said, we don’t get to pick and choose who and what God is. He is both of these. The Lord is angry, and the Lord is good, he’s executing vengeance and wrath but he’s also slow to anger.

Two passages can help us to have a grasp on this. In Jeremiah 15:15, God’s slowness to anger is translated this way, “You understand, O LORD; remember me and care for me. Avenge me on my persecutors. You are long-suffering—do not take me away; think of how I suffer reproach for your sake.” The slowness of God’s anger isn’t just describing that it takes a lot or awhile for him to show anger, but he is actually “long-suffering.” He handles many things that we and others do that appropriately cause him to be angry. But in his goodness, he does not pour out wrath and vengeance every time we sin against him. That’s a good and gracious thing.

Another passage that can help shape our understanding of God and his good purposes regarding anger is Psalm 30 verse 5, “For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” When God does show his anger, at least towards his own, it’s intended to be short-term, to be a corrective. We probably will not and should not enjoy his anger if we’re on the receiving end, but if it leads us to repent and return to him and his commands, then it’s a good action for our good.

That brings us to our final point. If God is angry and God is good, what can believers expect from God? For the Old Testament Israelites, who continued to trust in the Lord, there was hope. Despite the troubles they experienced when God used foreign nations to punish them, God did not give lasting hope to their enemies. He promised freedom and hope for his people. Verses 12, 13, and 15, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Although they have allies and are numerous, they will be cut off and pass away. Although I have afflicted you, O Judah, I will afflict you no more. Now I will break their yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away’…Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your festivals, O Judah, and fulfill your vows. No more will the wicked invade you; they will be completely destroyed.”          

God promised not only peace and freedom, their own safety, and the destruction of their enemies, but he also promised that someone who would bring that. That may have spoke to other human deliverers, but ultimately it speaks to the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One of God. What’s ultimately unfolding here is a prophecy about Jesus, the one who takes both the anger of God towards all of our sin and who blesses us with the good of his righteousness unto salvation.

Because of Jesus, we, meaning all who currently believe and who will yet believe, we receive hope that we are not in danger, but are in the safety and refuge of our God eternally. Looking back to Hebrews 10, where we heard, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” the author writes at the end of that chapter, “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a little while, ‘He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.’ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.”  

The goal of this morning’s message isn’t that each of us will go to coffee or go home and completely comprehend God and his character. It’s not that we will be enlightened to the point of making perfect, total sense of paradoxes like God’s anger and goodness. It is, however, to recognize that both are very real. For true believers, we don’t have to worry about the eternal judgment of God, in the sense of his burning, fierce wrath and what that will do to us. We should take that seriously and recognize it as one piece of what we can share with those who are lost or distant from God. We can take that and when things aren’t going well for us or around us, we may consider if God is showing his anger, and to test that against Scripture. Understanding his anger can move us to think about discipline and obedience, and to be careful in our beliefs.

But let us then also rest in hope. When I say rest, I’m not talking about falling asleep, taking a nap, or being lazy, but that the love of God would drive out fear and anxiety and attempts to satisfy God on our own as a way to be saved. Hearing from Hebrews 10, be confident and persevere, by faith, in Jesus. As we consider the struggles of this life, as we present our burdens before God—both temptations to sin and our wonderings about evil and wickedness—let us live in the joy of knowing God’s will and that God will do what is just and right. Amen.