“Finally, they cried out to the Lord for help, saying, “We have sinned against you because we have abandoned you as our God and have served the images of Baal.” The Lord replied, “Did I not rescue you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites? When they oppressed you, you cried out to me for help, and I rescued you. Yet you have abandoned me and served other gods. So I will not rescue you anymore. Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen! Let them rescue you in your hour of distress!” But the Israelites pleaded with the Lord and said, “We have sinned. Punish us as you see fit, only rescue us today from our enemies.” Then the Israelites put aside their foreign gods and served the Lord. And he was grieved by their misery.”
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Judges‬ ‭10‬:‭10‬-‭16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

God is not a machine. He cannot be mistreated with no consequence. His character shows him to be intensely personal. This can be hard for us to understand because our need to define him as holy, alongside our compromised nature has led us to believe that there is nothing that connects us with God innately. But in truth, personality is a fundamental point of connection with God. The things that make up the human experience are also the points that we connect with him. We laugh, we cry, we anguish, we hope, we desire, we create. These experiences are bestowed upon us as creatures, not because of our sin nature, but despite it. They come from God who also does these things. One of the worst rejections of him, is to assume that he does not do the same. To worship idols is this error in practice. It is to strip God of his personality in favor of a concept of God that we feel we can manipulate and control. God hates this. He punishes it. But as he is infinitely just, he is also infinitely loving. When we hurt, he hurts. He longs for our redemption. He wants reconciliation with us because he loves us. This has always been hard for men to understand because we are one dimensional thinkers. When we remember God, he remembers us.

God’s Nature: God is intensely personal and experiences emotions like humans do. Because our emotions are derivative of his.

Human Connection with God: Human experiences, such as emotions and creativity, are points of connection with God.

God’s Love and Redemption: God loves humanity and desires reconciliation, despite human sin and rejection.