Slow to Anger

if you tried to describe what god is like it could  be difficult or daunting but when the people who   wrote the bible pondered the mystery of god they  consistently describe god's character in this way   compassionate and gracious slow to anger  overflowing with loyal love and faithfulness   we're going to look at this third phrase  that god is slow to anger now that might   surprise some people isn't the god of the bible  mostly angry striking people down for their sins   well it turns out that god's anger in the bible  is way more nuanced than that and way more   interesting in hebrew the phrase slow to anger is  pronounced erik apayam or literally long of nose   but what does god's patience have to do with  a long nose well first we need to look at the   common biblical hebrew way to say that someone  is angry their nose burned hot like in the   story of joseph when potiphar thinks that joseph  tried to sleep with his wife his nose burned hot   it's usually translated his anger burned it's  describing how your body especially your face   gets hot when you're filled with anger and so in  hebrew the main words for anger are either nose or   heat or hot nose this is why a patient person is  called long of nose it takes a long time for their   nose to get hot like in the biblical proverb  a person's wisdom is their long nose that is   their slow anger now in the bible god gets angry  numerous times but god doesn't have a nose or get   hot these are metaphors using our experience  of hot anger to describe how god feels when he   witnesses human evil just like you would get angry  if you saw a child being bullied on the playground   so god gets angry when humans oppress each other  and ruin his world in the bible god's anger is   an expression of his justice and his love for  the world but he's slow to anger which means   he gives people lots of time to change like in  the story of the exodus when pharaoh enslaves   the israelites and has their baby boys thrown  into the waters god sends moses to confront   pharaoh and pharaoh is given 10 chances to  let israel go free but after the 10th refusal   pharaoh rides out with his chariots to destroy the  israelites and so god destroys him in the waters   pharaoh's own evil is turned back upon him and  we read that this is an act of god's hot anger   now that's really intense but think about it  god wouldn't be good if he didn't get angry at   pharaoh's evil and eventually do something about  it and notice that god's anger is expressed by   handing pharaoh over to the consequences of his  own decisions and this is actually how god's   anger is shown throughout the scriptures like in  the story of the israelites over and over again   for hundreds of years they betray the god who  rescued them from slavery and though he gives   them many chances to turn around they keep giving  their allegiance to the gods of other nations   and each time we read that the hot anger of god  burned against the israelites but notice what   always follows god gave them over into the hands  of their enemies israel wanted to serve the gods   of other nations and so god in his just anger  gives them what they want as those nations circle   back and defeat israel this is similar to what the  apostle paul says in his letter to the romans he   says god's anger is being revealed against human  evil and then three times he says what that looks   like god hands people over to their destructive  desires and decisions even if it leads to death   but paul also says god is patient giving people  time to come to their senses and change because   remember god's anger is a response to human evil  and it's based on a deeper character trait his   compassion and his loyal love god is not content  to let people sit in their own self-destruction in   the bible god's on a mission to rescue this is why  jesus said that he was going to jerusalem to die   as a demonstration of god's love for his enemies  he would stand in the place of his people who   were choosing self-destruction and take the  consequences of their decisions upon himself   in jesus life death and resurrection we see  god's anger and evil and his love for people   working together to provide forgiveness  and life for a humanity lost and self-ruin   so god's anger in the bible is really  important but it's not the end of the story   when god is angry and brings justice it's because  he's good and he's extremely patient working out   his plan to restore people to his love and that's  what it means to say that god is slow to anger you

Channel: BibleProject

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Id: TeQ1nq_YJD0

Length: 5min 21sec (321 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 10 2020