As I read my Bible, I am always on the hunt to discover the heart of God. Not just the history, the rules, or even the promises — wonderful as they are — but things that reveal the core of God’s being.

Also, when we start getting close to Advent, I have two things on my mind: Black Friday sales, and the Old Testament prophecies about the birth and incarnation of Jesus. Odd combo, I know, but hey, I’m a Bible teacher who loves a bargain.

Reading the prophets can be off-putting. Through His prophets God spoke terrifying things as He aired out His righteous anger and dire judgments over the sin of His people. I don’t recall one student in my classes ever declaring that a prophet’s book was one of their Bible favorites. (If you’re an exception to that, post a comment below, tell me your favorite prophet book and why. We’ll be Bible nerd friends.)

Still, even the hard stuff draws me, because God is SO transparent, laying His heart out there for all to see, and holds nothing back. I’ve read it enough to know that after the anger and dire judgments, almost always comes the tender Father heart of God to His people.

This is especially true of Isaiah, which is MY favorite prophet book. Consider these verses from Isaiah 40 with me:

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

(Isaiah 40:1-5

In the quiet conversation between them, God instructs Isaiah: Comfort my people. I want to reassure them I still love and care for them, even after their failure.

Okay, let’s pause for context. The failure that happened here was one of the most colossal ones in the Bible, where the entire tribe of Abraham, having been rescued by God from 400 years of slavery in Egypt and given the promised land, proceeded to abandon God and give their worship (and reliance for help) to false, vile idols by means of sex with temple prostitutes and throwing their children to their deaths in flames.

This was a far cry from ignoring God for months, or cheating the boss out of time, money or effort; or being unfaithful to your spouse in a fit of selfishness. Not that any betrayal of God is unimportant, but it is important to note that this moment reveals the heart of God after the worst kind of persistent betrayal by an entire nation.

Yes, they paid dearly for their refusal to repent, when their land was invaded and they were carried off into captivity for seventy years. If you’re God, you did the right thing with all that severe punishment. After all, You pleaded and warned them of the consequences, multiple times over hundreds of years, to deaf ears. They broke your heart, and when you’re God, with the biggest heart of all, that’s a big break.

Now, all is done. Sin has been judged and the price paid. Isaiah’s mission is express God’s heart to comfort them as they recover. And we discover the heart of God, who adds, Isaiah, speak tenderly to my people as you tell them that their sin is paid for.

God didn’t just dictate His words to Isaiah. He told Isaiah to say them in a way that conveys how tenderly He still feels for them. However big their sin was, and however deserving of judgment and punishment, these did nothing to dampen God’s love and tender devotion for His beloved.

I know what it’s like to sin big. To ignore God, to betray Him with deliberate blindness so I can go after what I want. I know what it is to live through the consequences of my own making. And I know how hard it is to forgive yourself. I know what it’s like to self-banish in utter confidence that I deserve to be estranged from God’s loving arms. God had to break through that confidence so I would receive His comfort and return to rest in His tender love again.

The Spirit tucked this very Scripture away in Isaiah just for me, so I would dare to believe. Not just in God’s commitment to forgive me through Christ, but to keep offering me His tender love.

It matters. It’s like the difference between having a parent spank you and make you earn your way back into their good graces, or having a parent spank you, then hug you tenderly and cry over having to spank you at all.

I just wanted you to know what kind of Father you have, Beloved.