Leelee

More that one verse in the Bible states that God is slow to anger. These are a few:

Psalm 86:15

But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

Psalm 103:8
The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

Joel 2:13
Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

However, many of the Biblical God's actions contradict this description.

Here are a few examples:

The Death of Nadab and Abihu

Leviticus 10:1-3

1 Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. 2 So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 3 Moses then said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD spoke of when he said:
" 'Among those who approach me
I will show myself holy;
in the sight of all the people
I will be honored.' "
Aaron remained silent.

Elisha and the bears

2 Kings 2:23-24

23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!"
24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.

God kills Uzzah for touching the Ark of the Covenant

1 Chronicles 13:9-10

9 When they came to the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark, because the oxen stumbled.10 The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark. So he died there before God.

Wow. He tried to keep the ark from falling and that's the thanks he gets?
Yes, I know he was not supposed to touch it because he was not a Levite, but he was just trying to keep it from falling and God was definitely not "slow to anger" in this instance.

God kills 70,000 people because David took a census.

1 Chronicles 21:14

14 So the LORD sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead.

makerowner

But remember, a day to God is 1 000 years, so uh, what seems slow to him, might not be to us...
(I wonder why people feel the need to hire professional apologeticists. It's so easy to come up with this bullshit!)

Leelee

I agree, LOL.

GakuseiDon

Where does it say that God killed them in anger? Maybe He killed them with love and compassion.

(ETA) Oops! I didn't see 1 Chronicles 13:9-10. OK, I was wrong.

Steven Carr

God knew that these things would happen , even before he created the world.

So God knew he would kill people for using the wrong kind of incense 15 thousand millions of years before he killed them.

How slow would you like?

gstafleu

Doesn't that usually mean that one of God's days equals a 1000 human years? If so, if God were slow to anger by his lights, say he took a couple of his days to build up a good outburst, then in human years this would take 2000 years, which is super-slow. I suspect what you mean is that it may seem slow to us (say a few years), while by his timescale it is only a few seconds or so.

Gerard Stafleu (who likes picking a good nit)

juergen

Good OP, I had never thought of that.

Leelee

Thanks