God’s holiness, then, which initially seems so forbidding and judgmental, is the means of our salvation. God draws us to his presence, making us his friends. Those drawn into God’s circle are holy, in contrast to the profane world. So in Hosea 11:9, God’s holiness is the basis for his mercy: I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man— the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath.19 Speaking in Psalm 22:1–5, the Messiah invokes God’s
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