Hosea 11:9
I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.
Though angered by Ephraim's sin, God restrains the fierceness of His anger and will not return to destroy Ephraim, refusing to give wayward Israel up. This restraint comes from who He is — God and not man — and from His presence as the Holy One in the midst of His people. Unlike a human ruler, He does not carry out the full force of His anger against them, and He does not enter the city against them in wrath but approaches them with tender mercy.
For Israel this meant He gave many opportunities to repent. The same compassion applies to the unfruitful sinner who has not yet been cut down. God does not turn away from such a person or leave him to destruction, but gives further opportunity for care and change, with Christ continuing to plead for time for change.
Toward the fruitless, careless professed believer who cumbers the ground in the Lord's vineyard, this means God has not cut him down. He does not look coldly upon him, turn away in indifference, or leave him to destruction, but cries over him as over Ephraim and Israel, refusing to execute the fierceness of His anger or return to destroy. Because He is God and not man He spares the barren tree this year also, granting added probation with unwearied love, digging about it and dressing it with increased care and labor to win fruit before the word is spoken to cut it down.
The declaration that God is God and not man means He will work to prove it against human self-exaltation. When a man in great responsibility shows a sense of superiority and a masterly spirit, exalting himself and disparaging his brethren, the Lord acts to show His own Godhead over man. That course deprives that man of the wisdom God gave him and leaves him to his own wisdom with the Spirit of the Lord departing. Therefore such a man must walk humbly with God, bear in humility all the honor God gives, hide himself in God, and remain true to God and to his brethren.