If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.
~ C. S. Lewis
I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with Me; I trod them in My anger and trampled them in My wrath; their lifeblood spattered on My garments, and stained all My apparel. For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and My year of redemption had come. I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so My own arm brought Me salvation, and My wrath upheld me. I trampled down the peoples in My anger; I made them drunk in My wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.
I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to His compassion, according to the abundance of His steadfast love. For He said, “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely. And He became their Savior. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
~ Isaiah 63:3-9
Oh my beloved. These two sets of verses seem like they are from two totally different passages of Scripture. They are not. They are the same thing.
We do indeed serve a G_d who is willing to do whatever it takes to bring us into a right relationship with Himself. He is indeed angry at the truth that we will – to a person – refuse to fully believe that He is the Truth He claims to be.
And it is in this anger where He will go to work.
The comfort in our lives begins to disappear. Oh, it is not that Comfort is not available to us. It is, rather, that He begins to pull out and away any of the things we leaned on in the past that are not Him.
The peace we have built into our existence begins to fade. For He Himself is our peace, and any other “peace” we try to engineer is at enmity with who He is.
The circumstances of our lives begin to disintegrate. For any of the plans we have made for ourselves are almost always at odds with the plans (for good and peace) He already has laid out for us.
And eventually, blessedly, our own self-identity and flesh begin to bleed out and die. For we are, in Him, new creations totally not needful of any of the old baggage of who we were.
Can we see it? He destroys the ugliness in us because we cannot do it ourselves. And in the place of the ugliness, He brings His very self and the joyful strength and message of His Presence in our lives. This is not vengeance for vengeance sake. This is a vengeful Love who has a profound concern that our lives become conformed to the only image that can enter eternal life.
There are deep truths to the Gospel beloved. And very few of them should make us feel comfortable about who we are, apart from Him. However, just as deep as the horrible truths about who we are, is the even deeper truth about who He is – and what He has done (and does, and will do) to tear us away from our self-caused discomfort.
And as discomforting as some passages like this are, they are very good news.
Luv it!