Nothing causes me to feel my own humanity, my smallness, than standing on the edge of a large body of water or gazing up at a high mountain peak. In such grandeur, the perceived infiniteness highlights my own finite being. Gazing into the ocean, I cannot help but contemplate God’s eternal nature. Whatever He has been, He will ever be, total and complete.
In Isaiah 54:7-10, God speaks openly of two emotions He feels. It is great comfort to me to know that God experiences the same emotions I experience. As I feel sadness, joy, astonishment, and, yes, anger, God feels these things too. He states that He has felt anger with His people. This is not my selfish anger when a situation at work doesn’t go the way I want, when I am stuck in traffic that is causing me to fall behind my set schedule. God experienced anger with His people for their ongoing propensity to turn away from Him, to worship something else.
Even in His anger, He cannot help but proclaim His incredible, everlasting kindness and compassion. When my children disobey the rules that I have in place to protect them and grow them, I do become, correctly, angry with them. Yet their disobedience never cancels my continual love for them. So, it is with God. Twice in this passage (verses 9 and 10), God mentions His past oaths and covenants to not show anger and to bring peace. And we know that God keeps His promises.
As Christians who live after Jesus’ death and resurrection, we live in these promises. I Thessalonians 5:9 states, “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I do not believe it is an accident that God identifies Himself in Isaiah 54:8 as, “The Lord, your Redeemer.” Jesus suffered God’s wrath in His death, so that we could receive salvation! He redeemed us through His blood, purchasing our salvation. There is no clearer picture of God’s everlasting kindness, deep compassion, unfailing love than the Cross.
For reflection:
- How have you experienced God’s great compassion today? How can you pass that compassion to others today?
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