HOW CAN A LOVING GOD DO THIS?

Isaiah 30:26 “The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.”

I have no clue about the meaning of the first part of this verse but it is the second part that leaves me with more questions. How many times have you heard, “God doesn’t hurt you, harm you, or cause affliction, etc…he ALLOWS it to happen to you.” Well this verse blows a hole in that theory. It plainly states the wounds HE inflicted; not the wounds he ALLOWED TO BE inflicted.

So this is really messing me up. It sounds like what we call in today’s world as an “abusive relationship”. I instantly visualize children that are physically abuse or battered wives and how, after they are beaten or “wounded”, the abuser is apologetic and attempts to ‘cover up’ the ‘wounds inflicted’.  I know I shouldn't think of God as an ‘abuser' but that’s how my mind works. My heart tells me I should see him as a loving God who corrects His children with pain, love and affection- (just as we do our children)- but my mind won’t let me go there. If I had to ‘cover up the bruises’ and take steps to aid in the ‘healing process of wounds’ I inflicted on my child, in today’s world, that is considered abuse.

Look at the definitions of ‘wounds’ & ‘inflicted’:

Wounds: injuries, especially one in which the skin or another external surface is torn, pierced, cut or broken as the result of violence or surgical incision rather than disease

Inflicted:  impose (something unwelcome), to cause to suffer, give as a punishment, force onto another, deliver, deal out

Not only do those words not sound very pleasant to me, but they make it very difficult to respond to the question many non-believers ask: ‘How can a loving God do this?’. And that is a good and valid question. One, I have no answer to.