9th February 2025. What does it mean to be a child of the God who is slow to anger?

It’s not nice being around someone who loses their temper at the drop of a hat. I suspect that all of us have some experience of people like that. Say the wrong thing, or say it in the wrong way, and you will soon know that you have caused offence. In the worst cases, people lash out against those who have angered them. In other cases, their simmering anger sets out to make you feel guilty for upsetting them. Even if things get better, you know that anything, at any time, could spark another bout of rage.

Anger exists to alert us to the fact that someone or something is obstructing our will. There is nothing wrong with anger per-se. God, after all, gets angry. If God didn’t get angry at sin, evil, and injustice, He wouldn’t be the loving God that He is. But while God’s will is good and perfect, and driven by love, our wills are broken and selfish, driven by vanity, hurt, desperation and an ultimate powerlessness.

I remember an occasion when someone, unhappy with the speed I was driving, swerved around and in front of me, and shared his anger by giving me the middle finger. It wasn’t actually a big deal. Someone who was behind me was now in front of me. But my anger immediately rose. I was driving at the speed limit; this person had no right to act like they had. Angrily, I flashed my lights at them. A small thing, maybe. But what’s scary is how quickly my anger rose.

If Jesus was driving, would he have flashed to anger like that? In Exodus 34:6-7 God describes himself as “slow to anger.” What does that look like, and what does it mean for us?

Today’s text: Judges 6