I was just reading Isaiah 5 which says:
The Song of the Vineyard
1 I will sing for the one I lovea song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.
3 "Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?
5 Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.
6 I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it."
Then in Isaiah 14 it says:
3 On the day the LORD gives you relief from suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:
How the oppressor has come to an end!
How his fury [a] has ended!
5 The LORD has broken the rod of the wicked,
the scepter of the rulers,
6 which in anger struck down peoples
with unceasing blows,
and in fury subdued nations
with relentless aggression.
7 All the lands are at rest and at peace;
they break into singing.
Here's what struck me. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He does not change. He is Love. The way that Love behaves is to tear down those things that hinder us from bearing fruit, from being good and beautiful. He destroys so that he can replant - so that the vineyard will make much good wine. He does this with individuals, nations, tribes, and the history of the world. You "break" a horse when you train it. God breaks us, not to train us, but to lavish his goodness and his love upon us.
God is so good.
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