While God is free to judge His people in any way and at any time He pleases, the majority of what appears to be God’s judgment is simply the consequence of our actions. The sad consequence of our sins and their accompanying misery grieves the Lord.
In the book of Judges, the Israelites had abandoned the Lord yet again to worship false gods. When the Israelites came to their senses, admitted their sin, and put away their false gods, they confessed to the Lord, “’ We have sinned. Punish us as you see fit, only rescue us today from our enemies.’ Then the Israelites put aside their foreign gods and served the Lord” (Judges 10:15-16). After Israel’s repentance, the verse concludes with this phrase, “And he was grieved by their misery” (vs. 16).
The word “grieve” defines the end of one’s patience. It is also used to describe a time of harvest and reaping. This is not to say that God is impatient as we are impatient. It means that in His mercy He will allow the consequence of our sins to take place so that in our misery of that experience He can redeem us before our sins destroy us.
The Lord never takes delight in the misery of His people no matter how grievous our sin might appear. He is the Lord of mercy. The misery of the consequence of our sins grieves Him deeply. Arriving at the point when we begin to understand what happens in God’s heart when we disobey Him is where real transformation begins to take place.
I wonder if when we’re repenting of our sins we’re actually fellowshiping in the sufferings of Christ and experiencing godly sorrow because we’ve come into agreement (confess-homologia-same word) with Him about our rebellious hearts.