The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and 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?
Two Truths That Belong Together
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.
William KellyAre 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.
What "Slow to Anger" Costs the Wicked
God's patience is not a softer version of His anger. One writer finds it both solemn and comforting.
J. N. DarbyIt 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.
J. G. BellettGod'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."
Not Clearing the Guilty
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.
William KellyNot 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.
C. E. StuartHe 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.
Clouds as Dust Beneath His Feet
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.
Arno C. GaebeleinTo 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:
Leslie M. GrantThe whirlwind itself was meant to impress on Job that every circumstance of swirling trouble and confusion stood under the controlling hand of the Creator.
The Comfort Hidden in the Threat
One writer holds both halves of God's character together, without softening either.
H. P. BarkerHe 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."
Summary
- 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.