I love the book of Isaiah. It doesn't matter how many times I read it, I always come away with something new that I missed the last time through, or I discover things about G-D, such as the idea that He is way more complicated and human like then I had ever really considered.Now before you break out the stakes and fire consider this; if we are made in the image and likeness of G-D, as we were according to Genesis, then it stands to reason that many of our characteristics can be found originating with G-D.
Did you know that G-D can be a very angry G-D?
The flood came about because G-D was sorry that He had ever created man because of their continued and increasing wickedness. World wide destruction came as a result. In the time of Moses we have G-D bringing plague after plague onto the Egyptians and in the end He caused their first born to die. Time and time again the Israelite s angered G-D and He destroyed many of them, in the wilderness ,eventually killing all of those of that first generation,including Moses, before they ever reached the promised land.
After the children of Israel conquered the promised land, they were punished time and again for disobeying G-D and chasing after false gods and the heathen practices of their neighbors.
The writings of the prophets are filled with G-D's wrath, not only on the Jews, but on the entire world because of the way that the Jews are treated.
If this was all there was to G-D it would be very scary, but there is much more, and again it's very human like.
You see there is another part of this picture that we seem to forget. Like every human parent, G-D warned the people of what was to come if they didn't change their ways or come back to Him, and like every good human parent, when your child still continues to disobey, you mete out the appropriate and foretold punishment. Yes you give them a chance to change things, but eventually you have to follow up on your threats or you, as a parent, will have no credibility with your children. Why would they obey if there is no real threat of punishment?
My son learned obedience at an early age. When I told him not to do something and he did it anyways I punished him just as I said I would. This was a lesson he learned well and he tried to pass on to one of his friends. One day while my wife and I were watching some friends kids, I warned one of the boys that if he didn't behave there was going to be punishment coming, he continued what he was doing and tried to ignore me in the process. As you can guess I wound up punishing him just as a said I would but not before my son tried to warn him by saying "you'd better do what my daddy says because he will do it." If I, as a human father, will punish my kids when it is needed, and my children figured that out, why are we so surprised when G-D does the same, especially after He warned that He would?
Even though G-D is a G-D of justice ,and He will punish as needed and as foretold, He is also a G-D of compassion and forgiveness and peace. Go back and re read the stories. Yes He punished for a time, but then he had compassion. How many of you have ever stayed permanently angry with your children? Don't you come to that point of where you have forgiven? Does your love go away simply because you are punishing your child? I know that at least for me I don't stay angry with my children for very long and I never lose my love for them. This is called unconditional love and this is how G-D treats us as well. He punishes, He gets angry, but He also forgives and He heals. Look at Isa. 65:17-25.
“See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered,nor will they come to mind.But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create,for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.“Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child;the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them,or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.
G-D ,through Isaiah, has told us that the day is coming when everything as we know it will be changed forever. What I have quoted here is but one of a multitude of texts telling of what some of the changes will be. Yes G-D gets angry,and Yes He punishes, but in the end He is compassionate and He will heal the world. Some of you may doubt that, but I would humbly submit to you that if the punishments that He warned about came to be,and they have, just ask the Jewish people, then you can also know that the healing and compassion will come as well.
Shalom
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