A jealous and avenging God is Jehovah an avenger is Jehovah, and full of fury Jehovah taketh vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth [wrath] for his enemies.
Nahum's prophecy speaks to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, yet it does not open by listing that city's crimes. It opens with God Himself, and twice calls Him an avenger — which raises the question every reader feels: how can jealousy and vengeance belong to the God of love?
Before any sentence falls on Nineveh, the prophet shows who is passing it. One writer sees a portrait of God, drawn against what He puts up with from human pride:
It begins with a display of the character of God, in view of what He has to bear from the pride of man. God is jealous, and the LORD avenges. It is a solemn thought that, however great His patience, a day is coming which will prove that He does not put up with evil. Yet it is also a comforting thought. The vengeance of God is the deliverance of the world from the oppression and misery of the enemy's yoke and of lust. Then the world may flourish under the peaceful eye of its Deliverer.
Where does this jealousy come from? One writer traces it to God's love for the people He chose, and His avenging flows straight out of it:
It is a sublime description. God is a jealous God. The jealousy of God has its source in the love of His elect people... "For you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" (Exodus 34:14). He is jealous over His people, in case they serve other gods. And because He is a jealous God, a holy, sin-hating God, He must be an avenger of whatever is against His character. He will take vengeance on His adversaries and reserves wrath for His enemies... God is the God of Love as much as He is the God of Wrath. He must be that, or He would not be the God of Light and Holiness. He cannot afford to let evil go on forever.
The adversaries here are not vague. God used Assyria as a rod on His own people, but Assyria wanted plunder and glory for itself, and its pride brought this sentence down:
The Lord, in that action, had used him as a rod upon His disobedient, rebellious Israel; but "he did not mean it so." He planned "to take spoil and seize plunder." Pride gives him his only language: "Are not my commanders all kings?" he says (Isaiah 10). The Lord God was angry. He pronounces a burden upon him, and Nahum delivers it. "The LORD is a jealous and avenging God."
God's anger and God's patience look like opposites. One commentator says they belong together, and that anger itself belongs to moral perfection:
Are we not all apt to set these things against one another? But in truth it is not so. The stronger God's feeling against what destroys His own glory, the more worthy it is that He should be slow to act on His indignation... Usually, slowness to anger is the proof of moral greatness. In extreme cases, though, waiting would show a lack of right feeling.
The same writer points to Jesus Himself:
Today quite a few Christians shut holy anger out of what is morally perfect. There is no greater mistake. Our Lord Jesus on one occasion looked around with anger... The Christian who does not share such feelings is completely lacking in what is of God... But for this very reason He too was slow — not, of course, to form a judgment, but to carry it out on man.
To "keep wrath" means God stores sin rather than overlooking it. The reason lies in what He is:
God never treats the guilty as innocent. It is contrary to His nature, and it would not be the truth. He may put the sin away and receive the sinner cleansed; but He cannot act as if it did not exist when it does, nor be indifferent to it while He remains Himself... But He cannot leave sin anywhere as though it did not exist or did not matter.
- Character first. The prophecy opens by showing who God is, not what Nineveh did — the Judge Himself explains the sentence.
- Jealousy is love. His jealousy has its source in love for His people; He is jealous in case they serve other gods.
- Love must avenge. Because He is jealous and hates sin, He must avenge whatever is against His character. He cannot let evil run forever.
- Delay is not weakness. He is slow to act on His indignation, and that slowness is the mark of moral greatness, not of indifference.
- Vengeance delivers. He stores sin; He never waives it. When His vengeance falls, it frees the world from the enemy's yoke.
Jehovah is slow to anger, and great in power, and doth not at all clear [the guilty] Jehovah, -- his way is in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
Nahum's opening vision sets God's patience beside God's vengeance. This verse is where the two meet. If God is slow to anger, why did Nineveh fall? And does His refusal to clear the guilty leave anyone any hope?
The verse before this one speaks of jealousy and vengeance. This one speaks of slowness. One writer says we misread God when we set the two against each other.
Are we not all inclined to set these things against one another? But that is not the truth. The stronger God's feeling against what destroys His own glory, the more fitting it is that He should be slow to act on His anger... Slowness to anger is usually the proof of moral greatness, though there are extreme cases where waiting would show a lack of right feeling.
God's patience is not a softer version of His anger. One writer finds it both solemn and comforting.
It is a solemn thought that, however great His patience, a day is coming which will prove that He does not put up with evil. Yet it is a comforting thought too. God's vengeance sets the world free from the oppression and misery of the enemy's yoke, and from lust... He is not impatient, as our poor hearts are. He is slow to wrath — a wrath all the more terrible because it is the justice of One who is never impatient. He is great in power, and will not at all acquit the guilty. Who can stand before His indignation?
Nineveh had already tasted that slowness. God sent Jonah to this same city long before, and the city repented.
God's earlier dealing with Nineveh through Jonah may witness to us, in this day of judgment announced by Nahum, that He is "slow to anger." He sent a preacher then to warn them and turn them to repentance. He accepted that repentance, and He spared them. But the One who is slow to anger does not "acquit the wicked."
Older translations read "will not at all acquit the wicked." That word acquit carries real weight. One writer draws a sharp line between acquitting a person and not counting his sin against him.
Not counting a person's iniquity against him is a very different thing from acquitting him. He never acquits the wicked as such. There is no stronger condemnation of wickedness than when He does not count iniquity. The reason He does not count iniquity against the believer is this: He has counted it, and He has dealt with it according to His own horror of evil and His just judgment of it all at the cross of Christ.
Another writer asks what an acquitted man actually receives, and what the sinner receives instead.
He forgives the sinner, but that is not acquitting him. He justifies the ungodly — that is, He counts him righteous who was not righteous... Acquittal is a word used of someone found not guilty... An acquitted person receives no favour. He only receives what, in righteousness, he could claim.
The second half of the verse puts the most frightening forces a person can imagine under God's feet. One writer contrasts the ground man walks on with the ground God walks on.
To the mind of man, what is more impressive than towering storm clouds? What is more terrifying than a rushing whirlwind that flattens the forest? Man is a creature of dust. He walks on the dust of the earth, and to that dust he returns in the hour of death. But the LORD has the clouds as the dust of His feet.
One writer applies the same words to Job, whom God answered out of a whirlwind:
The whirlwind itself was meant to impress on Job that every circumstance of swirling trouble and confusion stood under the controlling hand of the Creator.
One writer holds both halves of God's character together, without softening either.
He is good, and His people find Him a stronghold indeed in the day of trouble. His wrath is not easily stirred; He is "slow to anger." But when evil lifts its head in constant hostility to good, and will not be put down, God shows that He is not indifferent... His pity is infinite, but He "will not at all acquit the wicked."
- Slow — God's delay is not weakness. Slowness to act on righteous anger is a mark of moral greatness. Nineveh had tasted it once already, when God sent Jonah and spared the city.
- Sure — that same patience makes the judgment heavier when it comes. It is the justice of One who was never impatient.
- Not acquitted — God never declares a sinner "not guilty." Acquittal would be a right earned, not a favour received.
- But forgiven — He does not count the believer's sin against him, because He has counted it and judged it at the cross. That condemns evil more strongly, not less.
- Under His feet — the whirlwind and the storm are not chaos escaping God. The clouds are the dust He walks on. This is the God His people find to be a stronghold in the day of trouble.