⚖️ God Is Love, But He Is Also Just | Nahum 1 Devotional (7-Step QT)

June 25, 2026

7-Step QT Notes

1. 🙏 Quiet Time

Pause.

Take a deep breath.

Ask Him to lead you to repentance, faith, and refuge in Jesus Christ.

2. 📅 June 25, 2026

Today’s passage reminds us:

God is slow to anger, but He will not ignore unrepentant sin forever. His love and justice never contradict each other.

3. ✝️ Nahum 1:1-8

Nahum announces God’s judgment against Nineveh. The LORD is jealous, avenging, and powerful; though slow to anger, he will not leave the guilty unpunished. Creation trembles before his wrath. Yet the LORD is good, a stronghold in trouble, and he knows those who take refuge in him. But his enemies will face complete destruction.

4. 📖 Key Verse

The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty (v. 3).

5. 📝 Reflection

The phrase “God is love” is extremely well known. Even people who do not attend church and do not believe in the name of Jesus Christ are familiar with these words. However, many people do not know that God is also just, and that in Him love and justice never contradict each other. As a result, many misunderstandings about God arise. Some assume that because God is love, He will unconditionally forgive every sinner. Others fall into the kind of antinomian misunderstanding that has appeared since the early church, thinking that those who are saved may live however they want. An even greater problem is that many either do not know or do not care that there will be judgment at the end of the world, and that some will enter not eternal life but eternal destruction.

When the people of Nineveh repented after Jonah’s proclamation, God relented from the disaster He had intended to bring upon them. Jonah became very angry because of this, but God taught him that His compassion extends even to people outside the covenant community. Yet afterward, Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire returned to the way of violence and pride. God patiently endured their injustice for a long time—more than a hundred years—but at last He proclaimed judgment through Nahum. This time, Nineveh did not repent. As a result, according to God’s justice, the wrath of the LORD came upon Nineveh. Today’s passage is Nahum’s oracle concerning that very wrath of God.

Then is God inconsistent? Is He a moody God who forgives when He feels pleased and sends disaster when He does not? Absolutely not. God shows mercy to those who repent, but He surely judges evil that persists in opposing Him. In Jonah’s day, Nineveh repented, but that repentance did not continue in later generations of Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire. God endured their injustice for many years, but eventually the day of judgment came, and God’s wrath fell upon Nineveh. This is because God is both loving and just.

Beloved congregation, God is patient and abundant in mercy (cf. Exodus 34:6). Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (cf. Exodus 34:7; Nahum 1:3). That is why He spared Nineveh when it repented in Jonah’s day, but judged Nineveh when it refused to repent in Nahum’s day. Therefore, repent today. God is slow to anger, but when His appointed time comes, He will surely judge sin that remains unrepentant. His wrath cannot be escaped. Remember that the way of forgiveness and life is open only to those who come to God in repentance and faith, on the basis of the blood of Jesus Christ.

6. 💬 What does this passage speak to you today?

Have I been treating God’s love as permission to ignore sin?
Is there any area of my life where I need to stop making excuses and repent?
Do I truly believe that God is both loving and just?
Am I confusing God’s patience with His approval?

7. 🙏 Prayer

Our heavenly Father, thank You for being patient, merciful, and slow to anger.

Help me not to misunderstand Your love or take Your grace lightly.

Teach me to see my sin honestly and to come before You with true repentance and faith.

May I not hide from You, but run to You as my refuge.

Amen.

Scriptures

📖 (Nahum 1:1-8, ESV).

1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.

God’s Wrath Against Nineveh
2 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.
3 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.
4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;
he dries up all the rivers;
Bashan and Carmel wither;
the bloom of Lebanon withers.
5 The mountains quake before him;
the hills melt;
the earth heaves before him,
the world and all who dwell in it.
6 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.
7 The LORD is good,
a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
8 But with an overflowing flood
he will make a complete end of the adversaries,
and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

7-Step Quiet Time Devotional