Scripture Commentaries

The Passion of God: God’s Anger, God’s Mercy, God’s Love
Irene Nowell, OSB

Originally published in God’s Word Today
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The Old Testament tells us clearly that God is passionate! Sometimes God is described as “a jealous God” (Exod 20:5; 34:14; Deut 4:24; 5:9; 6:15). That phrase could also be translated “a passionate God.” God is passionate about his people. In Zechariah God says, “I am passionate about Jerusalem and Zion; I will turn to Jerusalem in mercy” (Zech 1:14, 16) and again “I am passionate about Zion, stirred to passionate anger for her” (Zech 8:2). This passion shows itself in several ways. Sometimes God is angry, sometimes merciful and forgiving. But God’s passionate love endures forever!

God’s Passionate Anger
God cares so much for his people that when they turn away he becomes passionately angry. The language of the prophets reveals the intensity of this divine anger. The first words of the prophecy of Amos strike us with terror: “The Lord roars from Zion” (Amos 1:2). God roars in judgment against all the nations who have used violence to increase their wealth or power. But most of all God roars against the beloved people Israel (Amos 2:6-16). They have worshiped other gods. They have trampled the poor in their greed. They have failed to recognize that everything is God’s gift. Yet they are the people God loves most, “more than all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2). So God will punish them.

In Hosea God is an angry husband who denies his children and drives away his wife (Hos 1:6–2:7). God is a lion who tears the people apart (Hos 5:14). God will tear out their hearts like a bear robbed of her young (Hos 13:8). Why? Because “they ate their fill and forgot me” (Hos 13:6). God complains that they strayed and sinned: “Though I wished to redeem them, they spoke lies against me” (Hos 7:13). So God “will remember their guilt and punish their sins” (Hos 8:13).

Micah describes the coming of the Lord in judgment (Mic 1:2-4). As he advances, “the mountains melt under him and the valleys split open like wax before the fire, like water poured down a slope” (Mic 1:4). His condemnation falls particularly upon the leaders who have failed to shepherd the people and lead them toward God. Instead these wicked leaders are like cannibals devouring God’s beloved people. So “when they cry to the Lord, he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done” (Mic 3:4).

The prophet Micah also gives us a glimpse into the wounded heart of God. God brings the people to trial (Mic 6:2). But when it comes time to accuse them of their crimes, God cries out instead: “My people, what have I done to you, or how have I wearied you? Answer me!” (Mic 6:3). God longs for this people passionately. God has given them everything and yet they ignore him. When they plead guilty, God does not impose a harsh sentence. God still has not given up. Their sentence reveals God’s hope for them: “Do the right, love goodness, and walk humbly with your God” (Mic 6:8).

Thus it is not surprising that Micah does not fear God’s anger. He knows God “does not persist in anger forever” (Mic 7:18) and so he is determined to wait. “The wrath of the Lord I will endure because I have sinned against him, until he takes up my cause and establishes my right” (Mic 7:9). God’s anger is not the last word.

God’s Passionate Mercy
The three prophets whose words we read this month -- Amos, Hosea, and Micah -- were compelled to deliver painful messages to God’s sinful people. Yet all three of them knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that God’s mercy would always overcome God’s anger! In two visions of disaster the prophet Amos pleads with God to relent. “Forgive, O Lord God! How can Jacob stand? He is so small” (Amos 7:2, 5). Twice God holds back the disaster. How could God resist? But in the other two visions (Amos 7:7-9; 8:1-3), God announces judgment before Amos can speak. The end will indeed come. Still there is a niche for hope. Perhaps the Lord will again have mercy (see Amos 5:15). This little crack in the wall of God’s judgment makes room for the announcement of mercy at the end of the book of Amos: “I will not destroy the house of Jacob completely” (Amos 9:8). “I will bring about the restoration of my people Israel” (Amos 9:14).

The longing of God to have mercy on this beloved people is even more evident in Hosea. In the midst of God’s attempt to divorce himself from this people he announces: “I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart. She will respond there as in the days of her youth” (Hos 2:16-17). Even the poor child who is named “Not-Pitied” by an angry God has her name changed to “Pitied” (Hos 2:3). The thought of punishing the people wrings this cry from God’s heart: “How could I give you up, Ephraim, or deliver you up, Israel? My heart is overwhelmed; my compassion is stirred. I will not give vent to my blazing anger” (Hos 11:8-9).

It is Micah who most eloquently describes God’s mercy: “Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance; who does not persist in anger forever, but delights rather in mercy, and will again have compassion on us, treading underfoot our guilt, casting into the depths of the sea all our sins?” (Mic 7:18-19). God’s passionate desire for this people will not allow him to let anger have its way. God’s love is always stronger than God’s wrath.

God’s Passionate Love
The prophets teach us over and over, “God’s love endures forever” (see Psalm 136). The whole prophecy of Amos depends on God’s declaration of love: “You alone have I favored, more than all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2). The repeated cry in chapter 4, “Yet you returned not to me,” is the cry of a lover who longs for the beloved to come back (Amos 4:6, 8, 9, 10, 11). Even though this book is so full of harsh words, they all spring from the yearning of God’s heart for reunion.

God’s longing is made clear in Hosea. Nothing else will do except a return of love for love: “It is love that I desire, not sacrifice” (Hos 6:6). God tells the story of this passionate love: “When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son . . . . I taught Ephraim to walk, took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks” (Hos 11:1, 3-4). So God’s final word must be healing: “I will heal their defection, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them” (Hos 14:5).

It is because of enduring love that God brought this people out of the land of Egypt and gave them wise leaders to guide them through the wilderness. It is because of enduring love that God brought them into the Promised Land, so that they might realize what God has done for them (Mic 6:4-6). In the last analysis, everything comes from love. Everything flows from the insight expressed at the end of the book of Micah: “You will show faithfulness to Jacob and love to Abraham as you have sworn to our ancestors from days of old” (Mic 7:20). It is true: God’s love endures forever!

Afterthought
I once had a student in my undergraduate prophets course who taught me much of what is in this reflection. This young man -- strong, kind, sufficiently bright -- was not in my class because he was so interested in the prophets. He was there because he needed another religion credit and my course did not conflict with football practice. But he was cooperative and willing to do the work.

We studied Amos without much response from Mike. Then, as we studied Hosea, Mike began to worry about God. He was concerned because God threatened to punish the people but then relented and forgave them. “In my Marriage and the Family course,” said Mike, “we’re learning not to do that. Parents shouldn’t threaten unless they are going to follow through.” From that moment on, as we read prophet after prophet, Mike continued to be anxious about God’s apparent wishy-washy attitude. About halfway through the course he said, “You know, these people are going to figure this out. They’re going to realize that God keeps forgiving them and they’re going to take advantage of him!” The last prophetic book we read was the book of Jonah. As you know, God forgives the hated Ninevites, much to the distress of the prophet. Mike slammed his Bible down on the desk and said, “There he goes again!”

In my final examination I asked this question: “What is the most surprising or challenging or troubling or comforting or whatever thing you learned in this class?” Mike responded, “Well, you know what mine is. I knew they told us God forgives us. I just didn’t know God did it all the time!”

Mike taught me to see that God’s anger was never the last word, but rather that God’s mercy always triumphed over God’s anger. But Mike and I needed to go one step further. It is God’s love that triumphs. Everything that God does flows from passionate love. God’s passionate anger rages when the beloved people turn away. It is the anger of a lover who knows that the beloved is walking into danger. This anger flashes out against the beloved and also against the threatening danger. But the anger against the beloved cannot last. As soon as the beloved is safe, the lover longs to comfort. The energy of God’s passionate anger is transformed into passionate mercy. But even mercy is not enough. The yearning of God’s heart is always for love. God never stops saying, “It is love that I desire.” In the fullness of time, God determined out of love to come and share everything with us. “In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him” (1 John 4:9). In this way we learn how passionate is our God!