Slow to Anger

Next up on the list is “slow to anger.”

In Hebrew, it literally means “long of nostrils.” Think about what happens when you lose your temper: your chest sucks in a gulp of air and your nostrils flare out as you verbally unload on your victim.

But if you’re slow to anger, when you get mad, you shut your mouth, purse your lips, and breathe in through your nose.

You’re long of nostrils. Slow to anger.

You can make God mad, but you really have to work at it.

Now, there are two sides to this part of Yahweh’s character . . .

On the one hand, God is slow to anger.

Unlike the other “gods,” Yahweh doesn’t have a temper. He doesn’t fly off the handle or slam the door and storm out of the house in the God version of a temper tantrum. Yahweh is patient, long-suffering.

But on the other hand, God is slow to anger.

He does get mad. Really mad. The Scriptures speak of God’s “wrath” more than six hundred times.

There are times when the healthy, emotionally mature response to evil is anger.

But notice that God’s anger is very different from our anger.

Our anger is almost always from a wounded ego. But Yahweh’s anger is from a parent-like love for his children.

Our anger is usually unjust. It’s disproportionate to the offense. God’s anger isn’t like that; the punishment fits the crime.

Our anger is quick to flare up. Whereas Yahweh’s anger is on tempo. Patiently waiting. It builds up to the right time and place.

Let’s step forward to Jesus. Jesus says more about the coming judgment than any teacher in the New Testament. It was one of his major themes.

And in Jesus, we see that Yahweh’s anger is born out of his love. If you don’t get angry occasionally, then you don’t love. When you see somebody you love in pain, it should move you emotionally. And it should move you to action, to do something about it.

Maybe you need to hear that Yahweh is slow to anger. He’s patient. He sees your future—who you are becoming. And like a father, or even a mother, he’s coaxing and calling you forward, one step at a time, into your destiny.

But maybe you need to hear that God is slow to anger. God is not a permissive parent; neither is he an angry jerk of a dad. He’s a good Father—compassionate, gracious, and slow to anger.

And if Yahweh is slow to anger, we’re to be slow to anger.

In James' letter, he writes “Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!”

But notice his logic. For James, the “Judge is standing at the door!” Meaning, we’re almost to the day when Yahweh will finally judge the earth, when every human being who ever lived will stand before their Creator, and God himself will set every wrong right.

And because very soon Yahweh will set all the crooked things straight—we don’t have to.

Yahweh is the judge, not us.

Our job is simple: be like Yahweh.

Compassionate,
gracious,
and slow to anger.