The antagonism is wholly on man's part.
True, man's opposition necessarily turns certain sides of the divine character to present a hostile front to him. Not only God's physical attributes, if we may so call them, but the moral attributes which guide the energies of these, namely, His holiness and His righteousness, and the acts of His sovereignty which flow from these, must be in opposition to the man who has set himself in opposition to God. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil.' If it were not, He would not be God.
But still, God's love enfolds all men in its close and tender clasp As the context says, in close connection with the threat to burn the briers and thorns, Fury is not in Me.' Man's hostility does not rouse God's. He wars against the sin because He still loves the sinner. His love must come with a rod,' but, at the same time, it comes' with the spirit of meekness' It gives its enemy all that it can; but it cannot give all that it would.
He stoops to sue for our amity. It is the creditor who exhausts beseechings on His debtor, so much does He wish to agree with His adversary quickly. The tender pleading of the Apostle was but a faint echo of the marvellous condescension of God, when he, in God's stead, besought: Be ye reconciled to God.'
