The Character of God Week 4 - Slow to Anger
Hebrew phrase “slow to anger” is ‘erek ‘apayim
English translations: slow to anger, longsuffering, not lightly angry
Literal translation: long of nose, long of nostrils
Now Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men. And Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.” —1 Samuel 17:28 ESV
24 Who gave up Jacob to the looter, and Israel to the plunderers?Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey?
25 So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle;it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand;it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart.God’s hot anger and wrath in the Bible are a major reason why many people struggle to read the Bible - I propose his anger is often misdiagnosed, in other words its often not anger. —Isaiah 42:24-25 ESV
Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust;for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked;and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets.For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
—Isaiah 5:24-25 ESV
You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— 15 for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. —Deuteronomy 6:14-15 ESV
How we react to God’s anger will depend on our
10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” 11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” 13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” 14 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do.
—Exodus 4:10-15 ESV
Focusing on our
4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.5 The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone.6 Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power, your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy.7 In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble.8 At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. —Exodus 15:4-8 ESV
7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
11 But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14 And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people. —Exodus 32:7-14 ESV
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1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.7 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah —Psalm 46:1-7 ESV
12 Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.13 You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the sea monsters[a] on the waters.14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.15 You split open springs and brooks; you dried up ever-flowing streams.16 Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.17 You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter. —Psalm 74:12-17 ESV
God is simply giving people what they
21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. —Genesis 3:21-24 ESV
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
—Genesis 6:5-6 ESV
And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. —Genesis 6:13 ESV
The flood is the
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
—Genesis 7:11 ESV
6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. —Genesis 1:6-8 ESV
**God’s anger is his
The most consistent
God will always
10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.
11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. 13 They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. 14 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. —Judges 2:10-14 ESV
7 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth. 8 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia. And the people of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years. —Judges 3:7-8 ESV
6 The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the Lord and did not serve him. 7 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites, —Judges 10:6-7 ESV
2 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin; he did not depart from them. 3 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them continually into the hand of Hazael king of Syria and into the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael. —2 Kings 13:2-3 ESV
17 Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem,you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath,who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.18 There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne;there is none to take her by the hand among all the sons she has brought up.19 These two things have happened to you— who will console you?—devastation and destruction, famine and sword; who will comfort you?20 Your sons have fainted; they lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a net;they are full of the wrath of the Lord, the rebuke of your God.
21 Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted, who are drunk, but not with wine:22 Thus says your Lord, the Lord, your God who pleads the cause of his people:“Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more;23 and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, who have said to you, ‘Bow down, that we may pass over’;and you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over.” —Isaiah 51:17-23 ESV
1 You will say in that day:“I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me,your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.
2 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid;for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” —Isaiah 12:1-2 ESV
2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.3 O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.
4 Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name.5 For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime.Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. —Psalm 30:2-5 ESV
7 For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you.8 In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you,but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord, your Redeemer.
9 “This is like the days of Noah to me: as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth,so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, and will not rebuke you.10 For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed,but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. —Isaiah 54:7-10 ESV