Week 33 Joel
This year I’ve been trying to be a bit more alert to see what I can find out about the Lord and so what Joel says is pretty interesting: the Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish.
It’s really easy in the bible – especially in the OT – to get the impression that the Lord is angry a lot and that he gets angry quickly. So this slow-to-get-angry phrase is helpful. I check a couple of other versions:
The Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in grace, and willing to change his mind about disaster.
The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
The versions agree that the Lord is Slow to Get Angry.
One reason I noticed anger was because when I was reading Isaiah & Jeremiah in July I was thinking about the Lord getting angry. I don’t know if either Isaiah or Jeremiah use that exact slow-to-anger phrase. But I got the impression with them that the Lord is Patient Patient Patient Patient Patient & Patient…(before the hammer finally falls).
The hammer has to fall. There’s no getting round it. But the falling of the hammer seems like a When-All-Else-Fails strategy. It takes a long long time and a lot of provocation before it does.
Note: quote from Joel 2:13 (NLT / Complete Jewish Bible / English Standard Version)