Cruel, not a word normally associated with God by many!

I ran across this scripture today and it provoked what I think is an interesting question.

Isaiah 13:9(NKJV)

9    Behold, the day of the Lord comes,      Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,     To lay the land desolate;     And He will destroy its sinners from it.

If we accept that "the day of the Lord" is referring to the second coming, then this says that Jesus himself has some really cruel stuff planned for somebody.  It also says pretty clearly that Jesus is really, really pissed off. 

That sure doesn't match with the view of a loving and forgiving Jesus does it?

Now let me give you the fuller context. 

Isaiah 13:6-16(NKJV)

6    Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand!      It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

7    Therefore all hands will be limp,     Every man’s heart will melt,

8    And they will be afraid.     Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them;     They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth;     They will be amazed at one another;     Their faces will be like flames.

9    Behold, the day of the Lord comes,      Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,     To lay the land desolate;     And He will destroy its sinners from it.

10    For the stars of heaven and their constellations     Will not give their light;     The sun will be darkened in its going forth,     And the moon will not cause its light to shine.

11    “I will punish the world for its evil,      And the wicked for their iniquity;     I will halt the arrogance of the proud,     And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

12    I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold,     A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.

13    Therefore I will shake the heavens,     And the earth will move out of her place,     In the wrath of the Lord of hosts     And in the day of His fierce anger.

14    It shall be as the hunted gazelle,     And as a sheep that no man takes up;     Every man will turn to his own people,     And everyone will flee to his own land.

15    Everyone who is found will be thrust through,     And everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.

16    Their children also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes;     Their houses will be plundered     And their wives ravished.

Wow!

You know what my first thought was?  What ever happened to love your enemies? 

Jesus has some pretty cruel stuff planned for His enemies.  Doesn't seem very loving does it?  And remember that God and Jesus are always in agreement so it isn't like Jesus went all rogue or anything. 

So how do we square this with love your enemies?  Try this and see if it makes sense.

The people who are going to feel the full wrath of Jesus are his enemies.  How do we know they are His enemies?  Jesus describes them as evil and wicked.  I think we can surmise that they have rejected Jesus in either word or deed at some point to earn enemy status.

So this isn't something that Jesus just unilaterally imposed on them.  They brought in on themselves.  It was their free will choice.  So where does the love come in?
 

I think it comes in by way of the fact that Jesus leaves the door open to them up to the very end for them to confess their sins, ask for Jesus' forgiveness, and invite Him into their lives as their personal Lord and Savior.  I think it demonstrates a tremendous amount of love to be willing to forgive and wipe the slate clean and not hold any of it against them.

If they choose not to take advantage of that love, well then they have earned all the "cruelty" that Jesus is about to lay on them!