Verse from Nahum

“耶和华不轻易发怒，可是大有能力；他绝不以有罪的为无罪。耶和华乘着狂风暴雨而来，云彩是他脚下的尘土。”

那鸿书 1:3 

“The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, And the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, And clouds are the dust beneath His feet.”

Nahum 1:3 

As Amy and her friend went for a walk, they talked about their love for the Bible. Her friend  surprised her when she said, “Oh, but I don’t like the Old Testament much. All of that hard stuff and vengeance—give me Jesus!”

We might resonate with her words when we read a book like Nahum, perhaps recoiling at a statement such as, “The Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath” (Nahum 1:2). And yet the next verse fills us with hope: “The Lord is slow to anger but great in power” (v. 3).

When we dig more deeply into the subject of God’s anger, we understand that when He exercises it, He’s most often defending His people or His name. Because of His overflowing love, He seeks justice for wrongs committed and the redemption of those who have turned from Him. We see this not only in the Old Testament, as He calls His people back to Himself, but also in the New, when He sends His Son to be the sacrifice for our sins.

We may not understand the mysteries of the character of God, but we can trust that He not only exercises justice but is also the source of all love.

God’s justice and mercy intersect at the cross.