Giver of Pain and Forgiveness?

When it comes to pain, the first impulse for most of us is to try and avoid it. This is certainly true for me and I'm assuming you'd probably agree. There might be some differences in how much pain we're willing to endure, but sooner or later we'd all have enough and look for the way out. This being the case, I found the following verse intriguingly counter-intuitive:

"The people did not turn to him who struck them, nor inquire of the LORD of hosts." (Isaiah 9:13 ESV)

A moment for context. Preceding verses (v. 8-12), inform us that Israel is facing God's judgement. In fact, there have been repeated judgments. Throughout this pain though, God expects Israel to run back to Him. Okay, I'll admit that this doesn't sound super foreign, after all, that's how repentance should work, right? It's certainly a familiar concept for most of people who have spent most time in church. Read that verse again though:

"The people did not turn to him who struck them..."

That is not the typical viewpoint that you will get of repentance. When repentance comes up in sermons or conversations, it will more likely be surrounded by descriptions of God's love and willingness to forgive. Those are both aspects of God's nature, but they are not the facet that Isaiah uses when looking at Israel's lack of repentance. Isaiah examines their response from the fact that God is the one dealing out the punishment. God inflicted the pain and Israel was supposed to run back to Him. I don't know about you, but I find running back to love and forgiveness much more appealing than running back to the source of pain and punishment.

Granted, these two concepts are not really separated like I have described them. Repentance involves turning back to God who has both punished us and desires to forgive us. However, I wonder how often we separate them and focus solely on the love and forgiveness and forget that God is also the one Who deals out justice on me. And in so doing, what have we lost from our knowledge of God that would impact how we live? For instance - consider the dichotomy that I presented above: punishment vs. love and forgiveness. Is God's punishment actually another facet of His love? If this is true, how should it effect our interactions with each other?

These are questions that I haven't thought all the way through before, so I don't necessarily have great answers for them. However, that's the advantage of starting a conversation, you don't need to have all the answers ahead of time! In other words, you are formally invited to join the conversation. Leave a comment with your thoughts - I'd be really interested in hearing them.

To restate them, here are some of the questions under consideration: What, if anything, is lost from our understanding of God when we ignore His role as corrector? Is God's love separate from his punishment? And, how should our lives change in light of the answers we give to these questions?