THE WRATH OF GOD IS DELAYED

When people oppose Him and reject His loving rule, God is rightly angry. But how does He respond to those who provoke His anger? Must His anger inevitably lead to the pouring out of His wrath on them?

The answer to that question, from the Bible, is no - it is not inevitable. Having considered what it is that motivates God's anger, we are better able to understand how God responds to those who have made Him angry. If it is His love that has motivated His anger, it will be love that both guides and motivates His response.

God's wrath is slow

God does not in fact want to pour out His wrath on anyone. This is his 'alien' task - one that He performs always with great reluctance and with sorrow in His heart. It gives Him no satisfaction whatsoever. So when any of His creatures rebel against Him, He does not immediately react with an angry outburst. He does not immediately insist on them paying the due penalty of the law. Instead He reacts with great patience and loving concern, giving them plenty of time to repent and turn back to Him and in many cases pleading with them to do so.

As se have seen, God's desire is for mercy rather than judgement. Judgement only follows when His offer of mercy has been rejected. And throughout the Bible we see that God often warns people of judgement long before it actually happens. His judgement is delayed while He waits patiently for people to repent and turn back to Him so that they can avoid judgement and receive mercy instead.

In the Old Testament, God's patience with people is illustrated by the 120 years that Noah pleaded with the people of his day, warning them of the judgement that would surely come unless they repented of their evil ways. It is illustrated by the 450 years that God allowed the Canaanites to continue in their barbarity, before finally ordering that they be utterly removed from the land in which His people were to dwell. It is illustrated by the two hundred years in which the prophets pleaded with the people of Israel to turn back to God before exile took place.

The New Testament tells us that 'God has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed' (Acts 17: 31) and Peter tells us why this day of judgement has also been so long delayed. 'The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance' (2 Peter 3: 9). 

The longing of God's heart is that His creatures turn back to Him, that they turn away from evil and do good, that they choose the path that leads to life rather than the path that leads to destruction. We see this in what God says to His rebellious people through the prophets. As well as warning them of the consequences if they fail to mend their ways, we often find God tenderly and lovingly appealing to them to come back to Him.

'Come now, let us reason together,' says the Lord: 'though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.' Isaiah 1: 18 (ESV)

'Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.' Isaiah 55: 6-7

''O Israel and Judah, what should I do with you?' asks the Lord. 'For your love vanishes like the morning mist and disappears like dew in the sunlight...I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.'' Hosea 6: 4, 6 (NLT)

'Now this is what the LORD says to the family of Israel: 'Come back to me and live!'' Amos 5: 4 (NLT)

‘Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'Return to me,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘and I will return to you.’' Zechariah 1: 3

Commenting on Hosea 6-9, Joe Wittwer writes:

'The prophets are known for announcing God’s judgment on Israel and Judah.  Consequently, they can be hard to read - dark and gloomy.  But shining through the gloom are rays of God’s love. The prophets not only announce judgement, but make the appeal of love. Through them, God pleads with His people, begging them to return, and announcing His love and desire to redeem them. He wants for them to show love in return and to truly know Him. But sadly, His people are stubborn and rebellious, unwilling to love Him and know Him. Their love vanishes like a morning mist, like dew in sunlight.  

Read the prophets through the lens of God’s love appealing to His people to return to Him.  The prophets’ priority is not to announce judgement but to call to repentance.  God’s desire is to redeem, not to condemn.'1 

I often think that when God's pronouncements of judgement are read aloud, they should be read in a tone of voice that conveys deep sorrow rather than furious anger. The words that were spoken by the prophets are preserved for us - but not their tone of voice. It is possible to read the words accurately but completely misrepresent the heart behind them by the tone of voice we use.

The Bible frequently describes God as 'slow to anger' and 'abounding in steadfast love'.

'This theme of covenantal love and slowness to anger is constantly said to be the basis of God’s action in the story of Israel. The psalmist recounts how God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, only to have the people grumble and rebel against him. Yet, despite the way in which 'they were not faithful to his covenant' (Psalm 78: 37), the psalmist tells that 'time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath' (Psalm 78: 38). 

Similarly, the prophet Ezekiel runs through Israel’s history from their time in Egypt onward, showing how they continually were unfaithful to God, even while God repeatedly withheld his wrath (Ezekiel 20: 8-9, 13-14, 21-22). God’s wrath is eventually expressed, but it was the very last resort.

We sometimes find God looking for a reason, any reason, to withhold his wrath. Jeremiah 5: 1 records God’s instruction: 'Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city.' God similarly invites Abraham to intercede on behalf of Sodom, eventually declaring: 'For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it' (Genesis 18: 32). Again, wrath is God’s last resort to people’s sin and unfaithfulness, his final plan when all other strategies are exhausted. As a good summation of this general point, 2 Chronicles 36: 16 records how 'the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people' - but only after his people had 'mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets' until 'there was no remedy.''2

The burning desire of God's heart is to restore and to redeem, to forgive and to heal, rather than to condemn. Not only is this true in the context of His own people's rebellion against Him, it is equally true in the context of the wickedness of the Gentile nations around them. During the time of Abraham, for example, we are told that 'the sin of the Amorites (had) not yet reached its full measure' (Genesis 15: 16) and so, as we noted above, God waited patiently for 450 years before finally bringing His judgement upon them. Presumably, this was to give them time to acknowledge their wicked ways and to repent of them, rather than to allow them to develop further. Sadly, this was an opportunity they failed to take so that in the time of Moses, God finally says: 'Because the entire land has become defiled, I am punishing the people who live there. I will cause the land to vomit them out' (Leviticus 18: 25). By contrast, when Jonah was sent to warn the Ninevites of God's judgement '(they) believed God. A fast was proclaimed and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth (and) when God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened' (Jonah 3: 5, 10).

God reasons with His people when they rebel against Him and urges them repeatedly to come back to Him.  He sends His prophets to the Gentile nations too urging them to repent of their wickedness. What He longs for is that people will 'seek Him and live' (Amos 5: 4). But if they will not, then they will have to face the consequences of the choice they have made. God will not, and indeed cannot, lower His righteous standards to accommodate them.

The choice has always been clear. The Bible shows us clearly that God is irrevocably opposed to every kind of evil. He will not tolerate it for ever. We cannot have friendship with Him and at the same time persist in doing evil. By the grace of God, those who have rejected His loving rule in the past are given every opportunity to repent and receive mercy. God waits lovingly and patiently to welcome them back into His embrace just as the father welcomed his wayward son and celebrated his return with great rejoicing in the story Jesus told.

But the choice is ours and those who refuse to 'come to their senses' and turn back to Him as the source of all goodness and love, as the one in whom they can find ultimate satisfaction and security, are in effect choosing to bring God's judgement upon themselves. With great reluctance and with deep sorrow, God will grant them what they have chosen - eternal separation from Him - and they will bear the consequences of that choice forever.

God's wrath is certain

God is slow to anger but His patience is not endless. His wrath may be delayed but one day it will finally come.

'Several times in the New Testament the anger of God is described as something that comes. John the Baptist asks, 'Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?' (Matthew 3: 7). It is coming, but it has not yet come. Jesus rescues us from 'the wrath to come' (1 Thessalonians 1: 10). Because of immoral behavior 'the wrath of God is coming' (Colossians 3: 6  cf. Ephesians 5: 6). It is coming, it is coming, it is coming. But it has not yet come. Because God is slow to anger. God waits to give time for repentance...but when the Lord Jesus returns, the final judgement will come.

One day the wrath of God will come in its fullness. Writing to self-righteous but stubborn and impenitent religious people, Paul says, 'Because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgement will be revealed'. (Romans 2: 5; cf. 2: 8). It is true that the anger of God may be seen in the present day, but the full outpouring of that anger waits for the last day.

In Psalm 2 we are warned to bow the knee to God’s King in David’s line. 'Kiss the Son' we are told; that is, bow the knee to the King and kiss him with the kiss of homage. It is important and urgent to do this 'lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled' (2: 12). What does it mean that his wrath is 'quickly kindled'? Does this not contradict the words 'slow to anger'? No, it means that while God waits patiently, when the time comes for him to act in judgement, that judgement will be very sudden. And then it will be too late - too late to appease, too late to plead for a postponement, too late to repent, too late to flee, too late to escape. One day his anger will be poured out. And then it will end. Or as the book of Revelation puts it, the day will finally come when 'the wrath of God is finished' (Revelation 15: 1).

God is angry. His anger is evident now to some extent. But it is slow. He does not suddenly fly off the handle. He waits. He watches with outstretched arms, waiting for repentance. But one day it will be too late.'3

Notes

1. https://lifecenter.net/joes-blog/2020/gods-appeal

2. What About The Wrath Of God? by Kevin Kinghorn

3. The Heart Of Anger by Christopher Ash & Steve Midgley