We find the answer in this verse: he is God and not man, holy in their midst. The word holy
refers to the reality that God is different. This is the divine, fearsome thing about God, in which he endlessly surpasses us. We often associate being holy
with God’s wrath and rightly so. But he is also holy in his love. And through this love God can respond differently from what we expect: not punishing but saving. At the cross of Jesus Christ the lines of wrath and love come together. God loves us so much that he made his wrath come down on his own Son instead of on us! Therefore he could bring his people back from captivity (Hosea 11:10–11).
9 Je n'agirai pas selon mon ardente colère, Je renonce à détruire Ephraïm; Car je suis Dieu, et non pas un homme, Je suis le Saint au milieu de toi; Je ne viendrai pas avec colère.