Isaiah 10:20-34

It is a wonderful thing to be able to rest in the Lord, when you can let all your muscles relax and your troubles and burdens and deadlines melt away as ice on a hot summer day. That is how I am feeling this morning, and I don't want it to end.

As I am able to find this wonderful peace and rest, I read the last part of Isaiah 10 and am quite comforted. Through all God's power and anger and judgment, he has not forgotten, we nor should we forget, his gentle side. "O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians. . . For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction" (vv24-25, ESV). God has not forgotten his people. No where in this passage does it mention gentleness, but I sense it implied in his love for the Israelites. His fury will come to an end. He is hard and angry toward the enemy, but toward his own children he has become gentle. I am having a hard time describing this gentleness in light of the passage, but I hope you can understand anyway.

Today, let us not forget that God is the all powerful god of the universe with whom we should be afraid, but let us also not forget that this God is also gentle an loving, particularly to his own people, his own children. Let's turn not turn away from him, but to him at all times.