For I am God and Not a Man.....

Here I was ... calmly reading away in Hosea 9-11 , reading about how God was going to punish the Israelites for the evil that they were doing. How God was going to use the surrounding nations to punish them. The Israelites were worshipping a false god, getting involved in licentious behaviour and so forth. I was thinking to myself....so after we do sinful things....God will punish us. I know this, it makes sense to me.

And then I read these verses:

7My people are bent on turning away from me,
and though they call out to the Most High,
he shall not raise them up at all.
8How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.
9I will not execute my burning anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and not a man,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.
10They shall go after the LORD;
he will roar like a lion;
when he roars,
his children shall come trembling from the west;
11they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,
and like doves from the land of Assyria,
and I will return them to their homes, declares the LORD.
12 Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,
and the house of Israel with deceit,
but Judah still walks with God
and is faithful to the Holy One.

God doesn't want to punish the people that he loves. He's led them, fed them, cared for them, and despite all he has done, the people have turned away. BUT that doesn't change one single fact..... GOD LOVES THEM.

And He makes a decision... "I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim". He will show mercy to them. Why? As God says himself "for I am God and not a man". It makes no sense does it? After all the evil and turning away and rejection that God has suffered at the hands of his very own people...he will show mercy to them. He will be the "Holy One in [their] midst"

This passage just shows that God is God. And as people we can't always comprehend him. And why should we? He is God. Not us. We are man, God came, dwelt among us as a man in order that we could better understand, in order that we could be "made okay with him", in order that we could truly again be his children. Imagine that love. Just think about it awhile.

We who rejected him time and time and time again,
are shown mercy by one who is GOD not a man.

To me, this is so truly remarkable. :)