Opus 2025-396: Wrath and Patience

My list of divine attributes gets a bit conflicted at times.  I’m thinking in terms of the attribute of wrath and the attribute of patience.  I believe both of them can be documented through scripture.

How can the same God have both juxtapositioned characteristics?

I think all you need to do is read through the prophets.  I think almost any one of them will do, although I’m not an expert on the prophets.  I’ve recently read all the major ones and I see the same pattern in each.  They seem to be overwhelmingly full of the wrath of God.  They talk about the punishments that He is going to bring upon Israel.  There is no ignoring or watering down God‘s anger.

Then in between you find these verses or short sections that talk about forgiveness, restoration, God’s care and love for His people.  How do the two go together?

Well, here’s where you have to read with your brain turned on.  Although there is a lot of mention of retribution, there is also adequate documentation of the offenses committed.  In the complexity of life, God really doesn’t ask too much.  He obviously expects the basic morality that we’ve come to expect in a culture, which is based in Christianity.  In addition to that, He demands that they worship only Him and not turned to other gods.  It’s almost as if they set out to try and break every rule in the book.

Sandwiched in, sometimes almost hidden, is God’s commitment to the faithful remnant.  Very obvious, if you’re paying any attention to the historical narrative, is God’s patience.  While He is guaranteeing to keep his eye on the remnant, he is waiting, waiting, and waiting again for the rebellious majority to come to their senses.  It’s a couple hundred years between the time of Solomon and the deportation of the Northern Kingdom.  It’s a couple hundred more years before the Southern Kingdom has brought down and Jerusalem was destroyed.

I think that qualifies as patience. I think that deserves wrath.

homo unius libri