“The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished” (Nahum 1:3).
How slow is God to anger? Peter says God “is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance” (II Pe. 3:9). God withholds His anger for as long as He sovereignly determines is appropriate in order for all those He is calling to Himself to embrace His love.
Jesus says of Jezebel who mis-taught Christians in the church in Thyatira, “I gave her time to repent; and she does not want to repent of her immorality” (Rev. 2:21). Though God is patient in the exercise of His anger, “the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.” God’s patience never usurps His justice.
God is perfectly balanced in the exercise of His attributes. His patience constitutes one of His many characteristics. He is holy, righteous, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, immutable, infinite and He is a consuming fire. It is unfair for anyone to emphasize one of God’s features above another. He effects all of His qualities flawlessly.
In today’s world, there is much to read on God’s slowness to anger, His love and His grace. Many teach of His forgiveness and compassion. Far fewer have the courage to stand in the gap and proclaim the teaching of Jesus who said, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt. 25:41).
Throngs of people believe that all someone needs to do in order to go to heaven is to die! They are wrong.
The portrayal God’s preachers furnish is conspicuous, convicting and comprehensible:
- A jealous and avenging God is the Lord; the Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies (Nahum 1:2)
- You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell? (Mt. 23:33)
- These will go away into eternal punishment (Mt. 25:46)
- These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power (II Thess. 1:9)
- It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:31)
- If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15)
To deny God’s wrath is to deny His judgment. To deny His judgment is to deny the necessity of the blood of Jesus. To deny the necessity of the blood of Jesus is to deny the cross of Christ. To deny the cross of Christ is reserved for the foolishness of those who are perishing (I Cor. 1:18).
Are you presuming upon the Lord’s patience (Acts 17:30f.)?
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