God of Justice and Mercy

God is definitely mad at Israel in Isaiah 10. He has allowed other rulers to oppress them. (The funny thing is one of those guys thinks he did it all himself, not understanding God allowed him to reign. See Isaiah 10:12-16 for more about that.) Yet God does not like to see oppression. He says through Isaiah, "Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and rob my oppressed people of justice, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless" (Is. 10:1-2).

However, God is a God of pure goodness; no sin can be associated with Him. Despite being oppressed by others, God's people are not sinless. Therefore, "yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised" (Is. 10:4b.

What then can be done? Can we do anything to change our sinful state? Nope. We can't. But as God told the Israelites in this chapter, "Very soon my anger against you will end" (Is. 10:25a).

Can God ignore sin? No, He can't. But God is a generous and creative God. He has always had a few tricks up His sleeve to trump what Satan intends to do to us. I glanced at the title for Isaiah 11. It looks like tomorrow holds some good, encouraging reading! Stay tuned....