God Is Not the Orkin Man

I absolutely refuse to throw-up! I know that's an odd and slightly disgusting way to start a blog post, but it is the truth. My wife has actually used the phrase, "If you throw up you'll probably feel better." My normal response is to pick up my fever soaked brow, glare at her and say between clenched teeth, "I refuse to throw up!" By my recollection, I was in second grade the last time I did. My mom had taken me to the doctor, and I had to go to the restroom. To put it politely, it took a while for me to eat pepperoni pizza again. My mom probably doesn't remember this, but for some reason it sticks in my mind. The reason I bring this up is because of the misconception I had as a child that somehow the pizza caused the sickness. There are any number of things that could have caused me to become sick, but the meal I had two hours before was most likely not the culprit. Our perception of reality is often just as important as what actually happened. If any of you have kids then I'm sure you've heard the "They did it on purpose!" cry. To a four year old, or a thirteen year old for that matter, the accidental bump of a sibling was not only on purpose, but done with the evil intention to maim them and/or possibly kill them. My four year old twins are quite often proof of this. Adults may chuckle at this picture, but we're not much different. How often have we been offended by the casual remark of a family member, friend, or acquaintance and then fumed at home for days about it. Sometimes we go so far as to let misunderstandings change life long friendships, our career, even our families.


There are many misconceptions about God. I've known this for years, but with the invent off the Internet it is so much easier for anyone to express their beliefs. It troubles me greatly to see an article about an archaeological find or maybe a scientific discovery because I know that if I scroll down to the comments, there will be a war of words concerning God, Jesus, and the Christian faith. So many people know so little about who God really is, but they think they know everything. Maybe they've never taken the time to research the Bible. Maybe someone in their past hurt them in some way and they blame God. Maybe the actions of Christ's followers don't line up with the teachings of Christ and they use that to not even try. The topic today is one that seems to be at the root of a lot of the misconceptions about God. This one is hard, but I ask you to keep an open mind as we look at the next part of Exodus 34:6-7.

And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."

Here's a little tidbit that I found interesting.  I'll give it to you free of charge. The Hebrew phrase "slow to anger" actually translates as something like "long in the nostril".  Like our phrase, "It's raining cats and dogs", this is an idiom used in that culture. When someone is angry, one of the physical signs is an increased breath rate. I'm sure we've all seen how heavy someone breathes when they get really mad. For the ancient Hebrews, if someone was short in the nostril, he was quick tempered. It doesn't take much for them to get really mad. God is saying that he is not quick tempered. End of commercial, let's get back to the verse.

Anger is a part of who God is. For some, it is impossible for them to see God as loving and angry at the same time. My initial and calloused response is that these people must not be parents. Most parents can easily understand desperately loving their children while also being angry with them for disobedience. As I sit and ponder, it seems that the problem is really, how could a loving God send his children to a never ending punishment called Hell. I think this is one of those misconceptions that we frequently fall into. If we look back at my previous blog, Holmes and the Ant, we see the analogy of God relating to us like we would relate to an ant. There is only so much God can convey to us because of our limited ability to comprehend. I personally believe that our emotion of anger is inadequate in describing God's character, but it is the closest thing we have.

Let's be honest, when we get angry we often say or do things we regret later. Why is this? It's because our anger tends to be sinful. As I've read through commentaries this week, I've found some guidelines for sinful anger. Anger is sinful when it rises too soon without reflection (New Unger's Bible Dictionary). Anger becomes sinful when it is causeless, excessive, or protracted becoming vengeful(Easton's Bible Dictionary). After reading these this week, I start to replay any personal instances of anger in my head. Why am I angry that my kids won't be quiet and go to bed? Is it a righteous anger because they are being disobedient and they need their sleep? Or am I just irritated because it's noisy and I can't hear the television. If I punish them for the latter reason, isn't that technically revenge? They hurt me so I'm going to hurt them back.

Thankfully, God's anger is not sinful. Here's a definition from Nelson's Bible Dictionary,

Wrath is the personal manifestation of God's holy, moral character in judgment against sin. Wrath is neither an impersonal process nor is it irrational and fitful like anger. It is in no way vindictive or malicious. It is holy indignation-God's anger directed against sin.
God's wrath is an expression of His holy love.

The King James Bible translates "slow to anger" as "long suffering". I like this phrase a little better because of the picture it paints. God puts up with our sins for a long time giving us every opportunity to correct them. Unlike us, God doesn't store his grievances with us; letting them fester and boil waiting for a chance to unleash on us. The Bible does speak to God being a God of vengeance but to take those verses singularly is to take them out of context. Let's look at Nahum 1:2-11,

2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;
the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.
The LORD takes vengeance on his foes
and maintains his wrath against his enemies.

3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power;
the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
and clouds are the dust of his feet.

4 He rebukes the sea and dries it up;
he makes all the rivers run dry.
Bashan and Carmel wither
and the blossoms of Lebanon fade.

5 The mountains quake before him
and the hills melt away.
The earth trembles at his presence,
the world and all who live in it.

6 Who can withstand his indignation?
Who can endure his fierce anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire;
the rocks are shattered before him.

7 The LORD is good,
a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him,

8 but with an overwhelming flood
he will make an end of [Nineveh];
he will pursue his foes into darkness.

9 Whatever they plot against the LORD
he will bring to an end;
trouble will not come a second time.

10 They will be entangled among thorns
and drunk from their wine;
they will be consumed like dry stubble.  

11 From you, [O Nineveh,] has one come forth
who plots evil against the LORD
and counsels wickedness.

In v. 2 it is obvious that God's vengeance is a sure thing. But it also shows that it is only directed against His enemies; those who would choose to align themselves against Him. In v. 3 his vengeance is further described as being slow and directed as punishment toward the guilty. He has taken the time to look into their actions and has weighed them. This is not a rash decision based on emotion. Now look at v. 7. It says that God is good. He is a refuge in times of trouble. It plainly says He cares for those that trust in Him. If you look closely at this verse you can see it is open ended. God doesn't define who He is referring to. To be honest, what trouble could be greater than to have God Almighty filled with wrath because of your sin? It seems that even the person God is preparing His punishment for is welcome to trust in God and find refuge in Him. The only thing keeping the guilty from experiencing God's forgiveness and goodness is themselves. For further proof, read through the book of Jonah. Watch God spare the entire city of Nineveh because they turned away from their sin. The events of this book took place some two hundred years before the Prophet Nahum received the declaration from God we just read. God is definitely long suffering, more so than you or I could ever be.

My wife hates, absolutely hates, roaches. To be honest, she's not going to be happy that she has to read about them in this blog. I've seen her look frantically around the bathroom for a shoe to kill one with and then finally resort to killing it with hairspray. I'm not sure if it died, or just got stuck and couldn't move. If...and this is a big if...we were roaches and God were us, he wouldn't immediately kill us for simply being roaches even though he feels about our sin the same way most of us feel about roaches. This is what I believe God would do. He would find a way to speak to the roaches and let them know about the diseases they carry and how disgusting they are. He would then decide that is better to show than to teach, so He would turn himself into a roach to show them what they should be doing. He would spend years with them teaching on their level showing the way to avoid their fate. He would make teachers of the ones who decided to follow Him and help them to establish an institution led by the transformed roaches designed to further warn and guide new roaches to safety. After years of warnings and interventions He would decide that they had enough chances and would then squish the ones who decided not to change. The remaining transformed roaches would then be welcome in the house and given a special room He had been preparing just for them where He would take care of them and visit with them. They would become like His children.

Now I know I left some steps out, namely Jesus and His gift of salvation by the cross, but the illustration serves it's purpose. God's anger is not like ours. He has gone above and beyond what we would do. I dare say we would be hard pressed to do this for our own children that love us and always obey. God became one of us and surrounded Himself with the filth of sin for years. God did all this knowing that many would never turn from their own ways to Him. And yes, they get what they deserve. But ultimately, they get what they choose. The truth of God's anger shows just as much about His Love.


All scripture taken from the New International Version