Limited Time of His Unlimited Grace and Mercy

Gen 15:13-16 “Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

As we read through the Bible, we often realise that God wants us to wait for Him, a lot! Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac, the promised son was born. Even as we see in Gen 15:13-16, God basically told Abraham, “Hey, I’m going to give you this land, but not yet! Wait, I will give you, not yet!”

I love the Jewish people because over the span of thousands of years, they are a nation that endured so much and yet able to maintain their identity as God’s chosen people. Do you know, there were about 500 years since God promised the land of Canaan until the Israelites truly occupied it? Imagine 500 years, how many generations would have gone by? Take Malaysia for example, since the independence of Tanah Melayu, Malaysia may have possibly witnessed about 4 to 5 generations. From Abraham to Moses, there are about 7 generations, assuming the age of people at that time, which normally live to see 3 to 4 more generations after them, there could probably be about 10 to 11 generations before they could enter the Promised Land.

Whao, 11 generations before they get what they were promised. Days ago we were still talking about changing the government. We were all so eager and we all got disappointed when what we have prayed hard for didn’t happen.

But well, we’ll leave that discussion for later but there’s something more important that I would like to highlight. Why did God made them wait for 500 over years? Why? If we read v6 “And they shall come back here in the fourth generation,” which probably was referring to Moses’ generation “for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” In simpler words, God was saying, “I have some people still living in the land, the time has not yet come for them, I’m going to give them time until they become very, very sinful.”

What? Why? Why do we have to wait? What can’t You just clean them off now and give us this prosperous land? The Amorites are evil and sinful people. They deserve to die, maybe they are just not “evil enough”, but if You want, You can just cut them off.

Well, if one would ask such a question, surely you know well that God, who is so powerful and mighty, is fully capable of doing so, but what you may not understand is His heart and His love for humanity.

Let’s read 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”. You can see the reason God would want to wait. The truth is, God, who is loving and merciful, does not wish to see ANYONE perish, but that ALL should reach repentance. He is NOT SLOW to fulfill His promises, but rather He’s being patient to the wicked and those who refuse to repent. He is so loving and merciful, He gave the Amorites 500 years to repent. 500 years! Would you allow a murderer 500 years to repent before executing them? Well, God did.

I want to give you this picture of God as a God of Mercy and Love. Many skeptics have asked, why would a loving God allow Joshua to wage war and kill its inhabitants, all of it? Of course if you read the book of Joshua as it is, I would agree that God is not loving too. But many have overlook the fact that God gave them 500 years, or maybe even more to repent. And judging from what He did for Israelites after that, I’m very sure He had done all that is necessary before He is sure that the Amorites are too stiff-necked to repent.

I want us to understand this, that God does not delight in destructions, even of the wicked. In Ezekiel 18:23, the Lord says: “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” God desperately love us like any good father would do. Do you think, as a father yourself, would love to see your children suffer your wrath? No loving father would want that. But a loving father would want their children to be away from harm and evil. He would want his children to repent from their mistakes, regardless of the methods, including strict disciplinary actions, scolding and very often in our culture, caning.

I also want to give you this picture of God as a God of Justice. In Ezekiel 18 that we saw just now, He continued in v24 to say:” But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.” No matter how righteous, how holy, how religious we are, none of the good works and holiness we practiced shall be remembered when we sin, and we, who sin deserves DEATH! However, at the same time I also what to remind you not to exclude an even earlier statement at v21 “But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.” Take note in v22 “None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live.”

This is why one’s good work cannot save a person, no matter how hard or how much one does. In the eye’s of the Lord, when we sin, “we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities; like the wind, take us away.” Isaiah 64:6. But the same principle applies to those who confess their sins because 1 John 1:9 says: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and JUST to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

So why are there so many evils in this world yet God doesn’t seems to do anything? Why is the government corrupted and unjust but God is has yet to bring change and justice to our nation? The answer is as we saw just now, it’s simple – God is being lovingly patient with us, even to the wicked people, if we insist to call them that. He wants to give us time to repent.

However, is there a limit? I don’t want you to be uninformed, the answer is yes. The Amorites had 500 years, and God ordered a complete annihilation of the people. You can be sure that when God do that, He had good enough reason. When God wanted to flood the whole Earth, He gave Noah the time to build the ark, and it was big enough to attract attention, so that Noah has a chance and time to preach repentance, but well, they didn’t. Abraham pleaded and negotiated with God so that God may change His mind about destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. Eventually, Abraham gave up negotiating because he came to realise that God in fact had gave them time and none of its people is righteous. Even 2 Peter 3:9 is followed by v10 saying “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.” The day will come where time for repentance will be up. There is a limit where God’s patience will end, and when God pours out His wrath at the end of times “The heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolve, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.” God’s judgment will come, it may not be now but it will come. And when He does, He is going to expose not only the works of the wicked people, but ALL OF US. And when that day comes, we will all realise that we are no different from the wicked people we called. In James 2:10 reminds us “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point is accountable for all of it.”

But there is hope, because remember God said He will not remember our sins at all when we repent. The people living by the Old Covenant had to offer animal sacrifices to pay for their sins, but as for us, Jesus Christ, the Son of God has stood in our place and paid that price for us. John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Therefore, we stand in confidence that Jesus Christ paid for our sin once and for all, and we have salvation in Him and Him alone.

What about our nation? Well for that I have 2 things to say personally. It’s only my opinion, I think God is being patient with our current government, giving them time to repent, because I believe a repentant government can do huge impact on the future of our nation. In Luke 19:8, when Jesus came to the house of Zacchaeus the tax collector, Zacchaeus said in repentance:” Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it four fold.” Imagine if our current government would repent, how much our nation would be blessed? Let’s keep that hope.

I think God is also training the upcoming government before they are ready to be our government that God intends. Before David was enthroned as King of Israel, the greatest king of Israel, he went through 15 years of training and testing ever since he was anointed king. So, things just doesn’t happen overnight, but keep in mind that God is still in control of everything and He has His own timing for everything.

But as a church, our focus is people, both in building up the body of Christ, which is you and the salvation of the unbelievers. Therefore let us take time to reflect the ways that we have sinned against God and do not hesitate to confess them before it is too late for us. This salvation of repentance in Jesus Christ is offered freely for us, because He who died on the cross had paid it all.

And as the time draws nearer to the end, 2 Peter 3:11-13 reminds us “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” A new heaven and a new earth will be waiting for us, so let us live lives of holiness and godliness and with hope that the Kingdom of God will forever take our pain away.