God describes Himself saying, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.”

There’s always a balance when you talk about God. When people talk about fire and brimstone and the wrath of God and God’s justice, they are talking truth about God. When people talk about God’s love and forgiveness and grace and mercy, they are talking truth about God.

We start with the fear of the Lord, understanding we are sinners and He is a holy God who hates sin and can’t have any part of it. We see our need for God and know we have to get rid of our sin problem to be with Him.

We see the cross and the blood shed to pay for our sin and to cleanse us from our sin. We receive the power of the Holy Spirit to live godly lives, to be transformed from glory to glory into the image of Christ. We walk in His presence and are loved perfectly.

We never lose that knowledge of a holy and just God, though. It’s who He is just as much. God is love. God is holy. God pours out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5), and He pours out wrath (Revelation 16).  God warns the people again about the laws and their need to obey.

He’s going to do a marvelous thing and remove people from the land and give it to Israel. People today who are working to divide up Israel and give it to their enemies are working against God. He describes this removing the natives and giving the land to Israel as an awesome thing and a marvel that has never been seen before.

They just need to keep from other gods. They just need to follow God’s directions and it would be theirs. He’s trying to protect them from the false gods of the land, gods that would have them sacrifice their children and hurt themselves. He loves His children and as their good father, He knows what’s best for them. They just need to trust Him.

There is every reason to trust Him and no reason not to. So, why can it seem so hard?