in wrath remember mercy

The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;
   the LORD is avenging and wrathful;
the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries
   and keeps wrath for his enemies.
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.
He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;
   he dries up all the rivers;
Bashan and Carmel wither;
   the bloom of Lebanon withers.
The mountains quake before him;
   the hills melt;
the earth heaves before him,
   the world and all who dwell in it.

Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.
The LORD is good,
a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
But with an overflowing flood
he will make a complete end of the adversaries,
and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

(Nahum 1:2-8 ESV)


I sat in the Boise airport last night, reading first Nahum then Habakkuk.

I got tingles.

My sandals are off my feet.

I can hardly bring myself to gaze at the burning bush aflame before me in these prophet words.

Holy.

Let’s just say I had no problem getting on the plane after reading them. No problem with this trip to LA for my nephew’s funeral.

I gladly take refuge in you.

What rhythms!

Alternating rhythms of wrath and mercy. And yet I feel no incongruity. No need or even desire to harmonize these two. They both belong. Even in the great epistle of gospel and grace that we know as Romans, wrath and mercy meet in the same dance.

Two arrogant, windbag regimes spread like a cancer across the ancient world, bringing oppression and pain and death in their power plays. And both now scramble, “the chariots race madly through the streets and rush to and fro through the squares” as the mighty fall before the Mighty.

“Behold his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.”

Arrogance, oppression, violence, flagrant disregard for human beings made in the image of God that mean no more than fodder for empire. Dehumanizing. Self-aggrandizing. All signs that clearly mark the wrath bound road.

“But the righteous man will live by his faith.” Simple trust and deepening worth, justice and mercy. The only signs of religion along this path of refuge, of wholeness, of salvation in all its rich hues is in the “religion” of Micah: “And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” The righteous man will live by his faith.

All of us take one path or the other. We walk by faith or by sight. We follow the ways of this dog-eat-dog world, using and being used, abusing and being abused, treating as mere objects, as personal stepping stones those whom he has made precious, who reflect his glory. Or we walk as He walked, we go about doing good and healing all who are oppressed by the devil; lives of simple faith and hope and love, “good measure, pressed down, shaken together.”

I think we can be eager in our immaturity to speak of hell and damnation and judgment – until we look in this mirror and perhaps are given pause to ponder (in your mercy, O Lord!) – does our very religion make objects of people he loves and longs for? Theological chess pieces moved about – or worse, tipped over, ripped apart, discarded, resigned to the flames of our own skewed visions? On which path is my religion found? Where would Habakkuk see me?

And the final gift in the reading for me? A new prayer from Habakkuk: “In wrath, remember mercy.”

Pray it.

Speak it.

Live it.