Slow to Anger
A.W. Tozer has said what we conceive God to be like in our deepest heart is the most important thing about us. At a deep level, our image of God shapes almost everything about us, particularly how we relate to God, to one another, and even to ourselves. In Exodus 33-34, Moses makes a bold request of God: Show me your glory! It is a desire to know what God is really like and to know it at a deep, pervasive, life-shaping level. God's response is surprising: He declares his name (YHWH!) and his character to Moses, letting Moses in on God's own deepest heart reality. Between now and Thanksgiving, we're looking at Exodus 34.6-7, the most often quoted verses in the Bible by the Bible, taking God's self-revelation seriously and asking YHWH to meet us by his Spirit, to open the eyes of our hearts, and to make us know the full reality of his Name. This week, we look at what it means for God to be slow to anger, that his anger is both warranted and restrained.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Read Exodus 34:1-9
Read Exodus 34.1-9, taking note of what emotions rise in you as you read God is "slow to anger."
What does "anger" bring to your mind? What was your experience of anger growing up?
Read this quote, and discuss: God's wrath is his morally appropriate, carefully considered, justly intense reaction to our evil, to our demeaning of his worth and destroying of our own capacity to enjoy him. God cares about that. He is not a passive observer. He’s involved emotionally. (Ray Ortlund)
How is it good news that God is angry? How is it good news that God is slow in his anger?
In what ways might trusting God's anger shift how you relate to Him, to yourself, and to others?
Oct 29, 2023 - Steve Hart