Week 13: Chapter 12 — His Ways Are Not Our Ways

1.Isaiah 55:8–9 famously declares that God's ways and thoughts are as high above ours as the heavens are above the earth. Ortlund applies this specifically to God's mercy — God does not extend mercy the way we do (grudgingly, with conditions, up to a point). Why is it significant that the transcendence of God is applied here to his mercy rather than his power or holiness?

2.The chapter draws on Hosea 11, where God watches Israel walk away from him and cries, "How can I give you up, O Ephraim?" In verse 9, God says, "I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath." What does God being "not a man" mean in this context? What specifically is God saying he will NOT do that a man would do?

3.Ortlund argues that when we are sinned against repeatedly, our capacity for mercy decreases — but with God, his capacity for mercy does not work that way. The very holiness that makes sin so serious also makes God's mercy so inexhaustible. How do holiness and mercy reinforce each other in God's character?