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My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge:
Hosea 4:6.
I’ve been reading theough the OT prophets and in the past had always seen God presented in that negative, judgmental light.
But reading it recently, when you do it carefully, you see God as being loving and merciful, warning time and again of coming judgment for sin, calling people to repent so as to bless them, delaying judgment as long as possible and even as the people on occasion DID repent and change their ways temporarily.
He did not judge until there reached a point at which nothing else was an option, and even then, God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
Seeing that mercy throught the OT has helped me tremendously in overcoming the twisted view of God that I had had over the years of being harsh, demanding, intolerant, and ready to judge and damn for the least little offense.
And why wouldn’t God destroy the northern kingdom after they had adopted false gods and vile heathen practices? The way those Assyrians are described makes Al Qaeda look like a bunch of sissy moderates. God gave the Assyrians a free hand.
After all, many years before He commanded Joshua and the children of Israel to spare none—not even women and children—as they invaded Canaan, where child sacrifice and allegiance to false gods was practiced daily. They were to be wiped out without mercy.
But the Israelis refused to obey and the world suffers for it to this day, especially the nation of Israel.
Thank God for His mercy. but the attempt to use "but his hand is stretched out still" as "a brief reminder that God’s hand of mercy is still outstretched" is erroneous. For the contextual meaning is that despite the judgments that have already come, the Lord's hand is still stretched out in judgments, which is why they are consequently described.
The word for "but" is not in the Hebrew, and that the Lord's hand is still stretched out only has to do with more judgment.
Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament acknowledge this also on Is. 5:25: This judgment, which was closer at hand, would consist in the fact that Jehovah would stretch out His hand in His wrath over His people (or, as it is expressed elsewhere, would swing His hand... But “for all this” (Beth, = “notwithstanding,” “in spite of,” as in Job_1:22) the wrath of Jehovah, as the prophet foresaw, would not turn away, as it was accustomed to do when He was satisfied; and His hand would still remain stretched out over Judah, ready to strike again.
Likewise Barnes:
For all this - Notwithstanding all this calamity, his judgments are not at an end. He will punish the nation more severely still. In what way he would do it, the prophet proceeds in the remainder of the chapter to specify;
Also Jamieson, Fausset and Brown:
For all this, etc. — This burden of the prophet’s strains, with dirge-like monotony, is repeated at Isa_9:12, Isa_9:17, Isa_9:21; Isa_10:4. With all the past calamities, still heavier judgments are impending; which he specifies in the rest of the chapter (Lev_26:14, etc.).
And Gill:
but his hand is stretched out still; to inflict yet sorer judgments. The Targum is "by all this they turn not from their sins, that his fury may turn from them; but their rebellion grows stronger, and his stroke is again to take vengeance on them;'' which expresses their impenitence and hardness of heart, under the judgments of God, which caused him to take more severe methods with them.
This is not the first time you posted error as a blog post here.