…slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
—Exodus 34:6
…slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
—Numbers 14:18
…slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
—Nehemiah 9:17
…slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
—Psalm 86:15
…slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
—Psalm 103:8
…slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
—Psalm 145:8
…slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
—Joel 2:13
…slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
—Jonah 4:2
I’m not sure if Jonathan Edwards read the same Bible as me.
You may have heard of him. He was a revival preacher in early America, and part of the “Great Awakening.” This was a time when preachers would bring in converts by the droves. A time of tent revivals…
and a whole lot of fire and brimstone.
Edwards is famous for his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” where he describes sinners as spiders, dangled over the flame.
In other words–in his most famous sermon, he sought to gain converts by pretty much scaring them to death!
We’re related, actually. He’s something like my great, great, great, great, great, great, great grand uncle.
My, my, my. What he must think of me. I spend very little time talking about a wrathful God. Uncle John and I would have quite the conversation about this, I’m sure.
If I were to talk to the man, I’d have a question for him:
Did you miss the refrain?
The refrain–like a chorus for a song. I read the Old Testament and I see lots of threads carried throughout. This is a big one.
“The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”
Eight words. Eight times. One message: God is in no hurry to get angry. In fact, God is all about the love.
And here’s the kicker: The origin of this phrase is from Exodus, when God is telling Moses about God’s very nature. If this is the refrain, God is the one who first “sang” it.
It’s not that God never gets angry. You can find lots of examples, especially in the Old Testament. But that’s not what God leads with. That’s not the defining characteristic of our Creator.
Love is. It’s really a simple idea: Love? Steadfast. Anger? Slow.
I guess a message of love didn’t bring in the converts. Fear of God’s wrath did. Far too many Christians today still “do faith” based on the same dangerous message. There are pastors who throw wrath around in a way that borders on abuse!
Some people have based their whole faith outlook on a fear of God’s wrath–and the notion does show up in Scripture. I just don’t think wrath is God’s default posture, and I have eight verses, above, to back me up.
Does God ever get angry? I assume so. Angry, or disappointed. I can’t imagine God looking out at humanity today and feeling great about where we are as a people.
When we talk about love in my church, we leave room for God to get angry. We talk about problems in the real world. We search our souls for ways we have fallen. We speak, sometimes with real anger, about the need for justice in the world.
I’d guess we might characterize God’s anger as transformative, not damning. There’s patience involved, and judgment, and time, and forgiveness. Above all, there is steadfast love.
Sorry, Jonathan, if you think I’ve sullied our good name. But I’m less interested in spiders dangling over flames,
and more interested in clinging to the web of Grace.
Have a great week,
Mitch
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