“I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them.” (v.4)
The purpose in judgment is healing. God will ultimately prevent us from prospering in our sin until we repent. For He longs to turn us from apostasy (falling away from Him) to bringing us into His arms so He can bless us. God does not delight in our suffering but, like any loving father, He will chasten those He loves.
This shows God looks on our backsliding more like a disease than a crime. He does not say, “I will pardon their backsliding.” It is “as though he said, ‘My poor people, I do remember that they are but dust; they are liable to a thousand temptations through the fall, and they soon go astray; but I will not treat them as though they were rebels, I will look upon them as patients, and they shall look upon me as a physician.” (Spurgeon).
God did not say here, “I might heal” or “I could heal” or “I can try to heal,” but I will heal their backsliding.
Come to God for healing of your backsliding, and He will do it! God is too great a physician to allow any patient to leave His office without being healed.
The Truth: “But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.” (Psalm 78:38)
The purpose in judgment is healing. God will ultimately prevent us from prospering in our sin until we repent. For He longs to turn us from apostasy (falling away from Him) to bringing us into His arms so He can bless us. God does not delight in our suffering but, like any loving father, He will chasten those He loves.
This shows God looks on our backsliding more like a disease than a crime. He does not say, “I will pardon their backsliding.” It is “as though he said, ‘My poor people, I do remember that they are but dust; they are liable to a thousand temptations through the fall, and they soon go astray; but I will not treat them as though they were rebels, I will look upon them as patients, and they shall look upon me as a physician.” (Spurgeon).
God did not say here, “I might heal” or “I could heal” or “I can try to heal,” but I will heal their backsliding.
Come to God for healing of your backsliding, and He will do it! God is too great a physician to allow any patient to leave His office without being healed.
The Truth: “But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.” (Psalm 78:38)
