In my last article, I mentioned that I had asked an AI to identify how Isaiah portrays the nature of God, and that in this current article, I would reveal what it had to say – here it is:

Perplexity’s understanding of God’s nature and character

“The prophet Isaiah reveals God’s character and nature through deeply personal and relational qualities that showcase His heart toward humanity. Rather than merely describing divine functions, Isaiah presents God as possessing profound emotional and relational characteristics that define His very essence.

God’s Tender-Heartedness and Compassion

“Isaiah presents God as fundamentally tender-hearted and compassionate, particularly evident in the second half of the book. The opening of chapter 40, “Comfort, comfort my people,” establishes God’s tender nature as He speaks gently to Jerusalem. This tenderness is beautifully illustrated in Isaiah 40:11, where God is portrayed as a shepherd who “gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those who have young“. This image reveals God’s complete harmony with those He carries, like a parent whose heartbeat calms a restless child.

Fatherly Love and Devotion

“Isaiah reveals God’s character as a devoted Father who maintains unwavering love despite His children’s rebellion. In Isaiah 63:16, the people cry out “But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; you, Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name” This passage demonstrates that even when earthly patriarchs might abandon their descendants due to sin, God’s fatherly love remains constant.

Loving Correction and Discipline

“Isaiah presents God’s character as including loving correction that flows from His fatherly heart. In the opening chapters, God calls heaven and earth as witnesses, saying “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me“. This reveals the pain of a loving parent whose children have turned away despite His nurturing care.

Faithful Remembrance and Loyalty

“God’s character is marked by faithful remembrance of His people. Even when they forget Him, He declares through Isaiah 49:15-16: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the child of her womb? Even if these forget, yet I will not forget you. Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands“. This reveals a God whose memory of His people is more reliable than the strongest human bonds.

Gentle Guidance and Provision

“Isaiah reveals God’s character as marked by gentle guidance. He “gently leads those who have young,” showing special consideration for the vulnerable and those carrying a burden. His guidance is not harsh or demanding but accommodating to the weakest members of His flock.

The Antithesis: Divine Grief and Righteous Anger

“Isaiah also reveals the painful emotions God experiences when His character is rejected. He experiences genuine grief when His children rebel against Him. This is not the anger of a tyrant but the heartbreak of a loving Father whose children have chosen destructive paths.

The Integration of Justice and Mercy

“Isaiah’s genius lies in showing how God’s tender mercy and unwavering justice are not contradictory but complementary aspects of His character. His justice flows from His love – He cannot allow His children to destroy themselves through sin. His mercy provides the way back through redemption and forgiveness.

The prophet reveals that God’s character encompasses both the pain of necessary discipline and the joy of restoration. He is simultaneously the God who must address sin and the God who provides comfort and healing. This integration is perfectly demonstrated in the suffering servant passages, where God’s justice and mercy meet in sacrificial love.

Some observations

The way AI, in its current stage of development, works is that it searches its vast database and the Internet, and then logically deduces its answer from all that information. Its response consists mainly of a filtered summation of the consensus of its available data. That is very useful, but a major caution is that the AI shapes its response, to an extent, by the wording of the questions posed.

In my case, I qualified my enquiry with; “Instead of describing divine functions like ‘judge’ or attributes, like ‘holiness’ rather identify and expand on God’s character and nature in terms of qualities like tender-heartedness, loving, truthfulness, fatherly correction etc. and any antitheses of these you may identify”. So, if I had primed Perplexity with negative characteristics such as wrathful, vengeful, petty, disingenuous, devious, etc. then would I have got back something very different?

Well, guess what, I did just that, and here is what came back:

‘Isaiah’s portrait of God reveals a complex, emotionally rich character rather than a distant or abstract deity. In chapters 1–39, God is depicted as wrathful and passionate, expressing intense anger against injustice and covenant betrayal. His vengeance is not petty or vindictive but is driven by a desire to restore justice and protect His people. God’s jealousy is protective, and His patience is evident—He is slow to anger but decisive when action is needed. Importantly, Isaiah never portrays God as petty, capricious, or disingenuous; His actions are always purposeful and rooted in justice.

In chapters 40–66, Isaiah shifts to reveal God’s tenderness and compassion. God is shown as deeply comforting, nurturing, and merciful, offering forgiveness and restoration to His people. He is faithful to His promises, reliable, and gentle, even likened to a nurturing mother. God’s mercy is profound, as seen in the figure of the suffering servant who bears the sins of others.

Throughout both sections, Isaiah emphasises that God is neither indifferent nor devious. He is emotionally invested in humanity, combining fierce commitment to justice with genuine compassion. God’s qualities—righteous anger, steadfast love, and unwavering honesty—are integrated, not contradictory. Isaiah’s God is not small-minded or cruel but is intensely committed to both justice and redemption, offering a vision of divine character marked by both holy passion and boundless mercy.

My understanding of God’s nature and character, as portrayed by Isaiah the prophet, is very similar to what Perplexity produced in response to both my original query and its later qualification. God is:

• Tender-hearted and compassionate
• Devoted to his children
• Loving in correction and discipline
• Faithful and loyal
• Gentle in guidance
• Generous in provision
• Experiences and expresses grief and righteous anger when he is rejected and rebelled against
• Expresses intense anger/wrath against injustice and covenant betrayal

What stands out to me is that God is manifestly good and loving towards his children, and that this devotion moves him to anger and just correction towards the people or things that are not in the best interest of his children.

These are the qualities and characteristics that make God GOOD. We get confused when we separate divine anger, wrath, correction, retribution, and so on, from his overwhelmingly displayed love and kindness. Even when he punishes, God provides for forgiveness and restoration.

Now, where do we see the nature and character of the Holy Trinity on full display? Yes, of course, in the Lord Jesus Christ!

Last Word

I have written on this and similar subjects, and you can find them in on truthistheword.com. Here is one that amplifies this current post: https://truthistheword.com/god-is-good-all-the-time/

I have also taken a little more of your time than I usually do, because I think that the matter of God’s nature and character is probably the most profoundly important subjects imaginable. If God is not good then the bible lies in its declarations when it states that he is love and light. If his character is flawed then he is not God at all, but just an illusionary god of religion and human folly. If God is not good then salvation is a myth and there is nothing more to life than this life here and now. If God is not good then we have no basis for hope and true happiness. So, please settle this matter in your own minds and spirits once and for all… God is good all the time and in every way!