Slow to Anger, Great in Power: Part One

Nahum 1:2-3a, "The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty."

When God revealed himself to the Moses on Mount Sinai, he spoke these words: “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" (Exodus 34:6-7). As God’s self-revelation, the understanding of God being “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” became central to Israel’s understanding of the God they worshiped (the phrase occurs in several places in the Old Testament, e.g. Exodus 34:6, Numbers 14:18, Nehemiah 9:17, Psalms 86:15, 103:8, 145:8, Joel 2:13, Jonah 4:2).

These were words that God spoke about himself and they came to define how Israel thought about their God. So, it is odd that the prophet Nahum changes this description, “The LORD is slow to anger and great in power” (v. 3). Upon realizing a switch has been pulled, the reader should ask, nervously, “But what about the part that says God doesn’t get angry very quickly?

The background to Nahum is important in understanding why Nahum makes the switch. Nahum is addressed to the people of Nineveh, a nation that had experienced a dramatic religious revival and period of repentance during the ministry of the prophet Jonah; however, Nineveh did not continue living lives of godliness. Nineveh became the capital city of the mighty Assyrian empire, an empire whose brutality included the torture of prisoners-- flaying, burning alive, and amputating various parts of the body and face. As such, “Nineveh represented the brutal wickedness of the Assyrians that the Lord had determined to punish” [Andrew Hill & John H. Walton, A Survey of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), 511]. The book of Nahum records the prophesies of God, through Nahum, against the Ninevites. Nahum prophesied that the destruction of Nineveh, the supposedly indestructible city, would happen, and it would be at the command of the LORD God. God’s punishment against the evil of Nineveh was certain.

So, Nahum is a book about the judgment of God. In Nahum’s time, as in today, such talk of wrath often causes great distress, “God is love.” Praise the Lord that this is true! However, what is (wrongfully) implied by this reference to 1 John 4, seems to often be: if God is a God of love, he cannot also be a God of judgment. Love and judgment, it is suggested, live as irreconcilable opposites.

God doesn’t think so. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Nahum prophesies that while God doesn’t not move quickly to punish, he is wholly able to. It is his prerogative (that is to say, his divine right) to punish sinners and he has the power to do so. John Calvin provides this helpful paraphrase:

“[It is] as though [Nahum] said, ‘I see that the world everywhere trifle with God, and that the ungodly delude themselves with such sophistries, that they reject all threatenings [of God’s punishment]. I indeed allow that God is ready to pardon, and that he descends not to wrath, except when he is constrained by extreme necessity: all this is indeed true; but yet know, that God is armed with his own power: escape then shall none of those who allow themselves the liberty of abusing his patience, notwithstanding the insolence they manifest towards him’” [John Calvin, Calvin's Commentaries: Volume 14 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2009), 422].

Continued tomorrow...