So often we see the Lᴏʀᴅ portrayed as a hard taskmaster, uncaring, vindictive, punitive, even belligerent yet there in the midst of today’s passage we have the phrase that among the Israelites who are captive in other nations, there will be those who recognize the truth about the Lᴏʀᴅ:
Before God is ever identified as hard-hearted, we must first see through His eyes how He has been heart-broken over the breaking of relationship with Him by those He created. Can we even begin to imagine the love of the Creator for those who He created with such capacity for relationship and then to rebel against Him? For He knows the anguish, the pain, the suffering they will inflict upon themselves before they realize the consequences of getting what they insisted be theirs.
Consequences. Getting what we insist comes to us. Making idols of our desires for self-fulfillment. Not comprehending that with choice comes the results that we may not have anticipated. God has wisdom beyond what we think we have—He knows what comes from life apart from Him. When He gives us the ability to make choices by a free will, He does not remove our fruitfulness of receiving the results of those choices. “They shall know that I am the Lᴏʀᴅ. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them” is God’s indication that He will not prevent them from harvesting the fruit of their self-idolatry. God ‘doing this evil to them’ is God’s determination that they should be able to ‘have it their way’ without Him if they so choose.
Think for a moment how much pain it causes the Lᴏʀᴅ to see us willfully turn away from Him and then to let us suffer the consequences. But He must remain true to His word that we can have it our way and get the just result . No, He is not hard-hearted but rather broken-hearted. He is even broken-hearted enough for Jesus to be slain to give us the Way back to Him. That’s tenderness!