I used to get bogged down reading that great chunk of the Bible known as the prophets. 27%–just over 1/4–of the Bible is predictive. Some were fulfilled in the first coming of Christ. Others are being fulfilled today, but the majority are still to come.

I struggled reading judgement after judgement as I worked my way through the Old Testament, however, having walked painful, long, tortuous paths with women and children who suffer at the hands of others, specifically husbands and fathers who pledged to love, protect, honor and cherish them, I am comforted. Satisfied. Encouraged. Grateful.

Chapter after chapter, page after page I am reminded that God has been sinned against. He does not take evil lightly. He sees it. He will put it to right. He doesn’t wave a magic wand, cover a multitude of sin, forgive and forget, trust, and reconcile.

God provides for reconciliation and restoration, but on His terms–accompanied by humility, confession, personal responsibility, repentance, and total dependence on His holy provision; His Son. His way, not mine. And the result is transformation. Not just atonement, but rebirth. Change. Even then, He does not remove all consequences.

God does not demand confession, bowing the knee, and submission. Yet. (Philippians 2:10-11)

And I am reminded that God is different–so altogether, wonderfully different. He is trustworthy. All-seeing. All-powerful. Holy. Just. Kind. Gentle.

In Christ, there is hope. Apart from Christ there is judgement. And regardless of man’s response, God will be glorified–revealed for who He is and how He works. And we will worship. Awestruck. Wonder-full.

A pronouncement concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:

² Lift up a banner on a barren mountain.
Call out to them.
Signal with your hand, and they will go
through the gates of the nobles.
³ I have commanded my consecrated ones;
yes, I have called my warriors,
who celebrate my triumph,
to execute my wrath.
⁴ Listen, a commotion on the mountains,
like that of a mighty people!
Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,
like nations being gathered together!
The Lord of Armies is mobilizing an army for war.
⁵ They are coming from a distant land,
from the farthest horizon—
the Lord and the weapons of his wrath—
to destroy the whole country.

⁶ Wail! For the day of the Lord is near.
It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
⁷ Therefore everyone’s hands will become weak,
and every man will lose heart.
⁸ They will be horrified;
pain and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look at each other,
their faces flushed with fear.
⁹ Look, the day of the Lord is coming—
cruel, with fury and burning anger—
to make the earth a desolation
and to destroy its sinners.
¹⁰ Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations
will not give their light.
The sun will be dark when it rises,
and the moon will not shine.
¹¹ I will punish the world for its evil,
and wicked people for their iniquities.
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant
and humiliate the insolence of tyrants.
¹² I will make a human more scarce than fine gold,
and mankind more rare than the gold of Ophir.
¹³ Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will shake from its foundations
at the wrath of the Lord of Armies,
on the day of his burning anger. (Isaiah 13:1-13)