This verse sent a shiver down my spine

I was reading in Isaiah last nigh for my read-trough-the-Bible-in-a-year program (yes I'm behind, but I am catching up) when I came across this verse:

Isaiah 5:25
Therefore the LORD's anger burns against his people;
his hand is raised and he strikes them down.
The mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.

Isaiah paints a bleak picture of the results of the anger of the Lord, but even more striking is the final statement that "his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised." How amazing, awesome, and terrible this picture of God is. It is a glimpse of the time when He will pour out His wrath relentlessly on those who have rejected Him.

There are many more sad pictures in the Bible, but I believe the one that strikes literal grief into my heart is in Lamentations 5:21-22:

Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may return;
renew our days as of old unless you have utterly rejected us
and are angry with us beyond measure.

I remember reading that for the first time and felt the desperation of the people who have caught a glimpse of the possibility that God would not restore them. The only One who could, quite simply, may not be interested in doing so. That is sad indeed.

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