What are we to do with Nahum’s vision of an angry, avenging God? How does this fit in with the Scriptures that tell us God is love (I John 4:8)? Frankly, this contrast is such a big problem for some theologians that they go so far as to say that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament aren’t the same. Others content themselves with ignoring the Old Testament (except for the Psalms and Proverbs).

We need not go to such extremes to understand passages like this one. In the first place, love and anger are quite compatible, even in our human experience. After all, it’s easy enough to shrug off unkind words or actions from a stranger. But when someone we love does or says the same sorts of things, they really hurt. Our anger is precisely a product of our desire to be in a close relationship with someone who is treating us so poorly.

Just so, we find the key to understanding this passage in Nahum 1:2 – the Lord is a jealous God. As our creator, He longs to be relationship with those He made in His image. And so whenever we turn away from Him, He is not only sorrowful, but righteously angry with us – precisely because He loves us so much.

But I think there’s another reason we modern American Christians have trouble understanding passages like this one – we simply have it too easy. But the sad truth is that there are people all over the world today who are in deadly danger just because they have trusted in Jesus as their Savior and bowed the knee to Him as their Lord. Such people have no trouble at all rejoicing in the fact that God is just, and that He will one day take vengeance on all those who persecute His people.

So, what can we learn from passages like this one? We can rejoice when God’s love moves Him to protect His people from harm (1:7). We can rejoice that God’s justice will one day make all things right (1:15). And if we haven’t yet acknowledged God’s claim on our lives, we need to take God’s jealous love seriously and surrender to Him – before it’s too late.

Nahum 1:1-8 (NASB)

The oracle of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
2 A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; The LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies.
3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, And the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, And clouds are the dust beneath His feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; He dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither; The blossoms of Lebanon wither.
5 Mountains quake because of Him, And the hills dissolve; Indeed the earth is upheaved by His presence, The world and all the inhabitants in it.
6 Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, And the rocks are broken up by Him.
7 The LORD is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him.
8 But with an overflowing flood He will make a complete end of its site, And will pursue His enemies into darkness.