“Slow to anger”
If you know the story of the Old Testament, you may find this phrase a bit strange at first. God is “slow to anger,” but He called down a flood to drown the world in its moral filth (Gen. 6-9). He called down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19). He called down a plague and had much of His own people slaughtered just the chapter before this verse (Ex. 33). Later in Numbers, He’d send down more plagues, a sinkhole, and failed battles to His people. Keep reading in the Old Testament, and it seems like God is pretty angry. How is it that He’s slow to anger?
Time in Narratives
When we read books, the authors are selective in the stories they choose to tell. We do this even when conversing with each other. Rather than recount every moment of the week, we briefly summarize high moments when speaking with friends. It’s not as if I was on a roller coaster all week – it was just that those 10 minutes happened to lift my spirits so much that I told you about them!
Let’s think about Sodom and Gomorrah. Before the city was destroyed, God conversed with Abraham about His plans to destroy the cities. Genesis 18 says that the evil of the cities (their reputation for sin) came up to Him like a stench to His nostrils. This implies that Sodom and Gomorrah had been persistent in their evil behavior for a while! Surely the surrounding towns had known of them for so long and complained with phrases like “How long? Will we have to endure this forever?” When God finally rains down judgment on these cities, to onlookers, He had taken quite a long time!
We can repeat this process for many other stories of Scripture, but the point remains. While the story reads like God is quick to anger, we only think that because the pages skip through vast periods of time. In reality, God endures decades, centuries, even millennia of corruption from people before visiting even a fragment of judgment due for them.
Slow to Anger
I can think of my own life. I am far from perfect, even in my anger toward others. I am quick to want to cut people off in traffic. I am quick to be impatient when others “don’t get it.” Call it growing up in Houston or being a smartypants. The Scriptures call it sin in me. I am without excuse, and I am rightly due punishment from the judge for my wicked heart (not to mention actions) towards others! Yet God rarely visits even discipline on me, let alone divine punishment for my rebellion. Instead, He is quick to offer me mercy and grace (like we covered last week), and He bides His time in His anger toward me.
We see this most directly in Christ. Instead of bringing down the judgment due to us, God waits for His Son to take on the weight of hell for His people. God is slow to anger that even the wicked might experience great mercy in their lives, and God is slow to anger so that there is hope for salvation for rebels like you and me! Without His patience, we wouldn’t have any time to wait for years, even decades to hear the Gospel and come to know Christ! We would be heaping piles of ash if He actually judged us in the moment.
Here’s a simple question to ponder this week: how has the Lord been slow to anger toward you recently? What kindness as He offered to you despite your rebellion against Him?