Justice also will I make the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
All Commentaries on Isaiah 28:17 Go To Isaiah 28
Basil the Great
AD 379
The Judge wishes to have mercy on you and to share his own compassion, but on condition that he finds you humble after sin, contrite, lamenting much for your evil deeds, announcing publicly without shame sins committed secretly, begging the brothers to labor with you in reparation. In short, if he sees that you are worthy of pity, he provides his mercy for you ungrudgingly. But if he sees your heart unrepentant, your mind proud, your disbelief of the future life and your fearlessness of the judgment, then he desires the judgment for you. [This is like] a reasonable and kind doctor [who] tries at first with hot applications and soft poultices to reduce a tumor. But, when he sees that the mass is rigidly and obstinately resisting, casting away the olive oil and the gentle method of treatment, he prefers henceforth the use of the knife. Therefore [God] loves mercy in the case of those repenting, but he also loves judgment in the case of the unyielding. Isaiah says some such thing, too, to God: “Your mercy in measure.” For he compares the mercy with the judgment of him who gives compensation by scale and number and weight according to the deserts of each.
