AC 10431 - The Lord Is Not Always What He Seems

AC 10431

In many passages of the Word it is said of Jehovah
that He burns with anger and is wroth (angry),
and also that He consumes and destroys.
But it is so said because it so appears to the person
who turns himself away from the Lord,
as is the case when he does evil;
and as then he is not heard, and is even punished,
he believes that the Lord is in anger against him;
although the Lord is never angry, and never consumes,
for He is mercy itself and good itself.
From this it is evident what is
the nature of the Word as to the letter, namely,
that it is according to the appearance with a person.
In like manner it is said
that “Jehovah repents,” as in what follows,
when yet Jehovah never repents,
for He foresees all things from eternity;
from which it can be seen
into how many errors those fall
who when reading the Word do not think
beyond the sense of the letter,
thus who read it without doctrine from the Word
to teach them how the case really is.
For those who read the Word
in accordance with doctrine
know that Jehovah is mercy itself and good itself,
and that it cannot possibly be said
of infinite mercy and infinite good
that it burns with anger and consumes.