Category: God’s longsuffering

Iniquity Not Yet Full #4

Thursday, May 15, 2014

“But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:16 KJV).

Today’s Scripture expressly declares why the God of the Bible “takes His time” when dealing with sinful mankind.

Imagine your “pet peeves,” every thing that annoys you. Now, visualize the other seven billion people in the world carrying them out, right in front of you! Billions upon billions of people doing exactly what you hate, for you to see and hear, essentially “rubbing your nose in it!” How long could you handle it? A few seconds, at the most? (Unlike God, who has seen and heard more offensive words and deeds than you will ever see or hear in your earthly life, you could not handle 6,000 years of it!)

The God of Scripture is often slanderously decried as being a cruel, bloodthirsty, tyrannical sadist (Someone who enjoys bullying humanity and takes pleasure when they suffer). All the people whining in this regard have never bothered to consider exactly what horrendous occurrences He witnessed before He inflicted such punishments as described in the Old Testament. These Bible critics never pause to ponder the days, decades, centuries (!), and millennia (!), that His wrath was held in abeyance. They never bother to realize that His mercy and grace was free to anyone who wanted it.

Previously, we saw six instances of God’s longsuffering in the Old Testament. Today’s Scripture demonstrates how He gave the Amorites 400 years to reform (today’s Scripture). By the way, God says He evicted them and installed Israel in their land because the Amorites never improved (Exodus 23:23-25)! Those who complain about a “cruel” Old Testament God need to hush and read the Bible, lest they continue to “speak evil of those things which they know not” (Jude 10).

After 4,000 years of dealing with sinful man, JEHOVAH God came in human flesh, Jesus Christ. He preached to Israel for three years, but they mostly mocked and ignored Him (He knew they would ultimately crucify Him). Israel did not want anything to do with Him. Again, He could have wiped them all out with one quick spoken word, but, again, His grace and mercy delayed His wrath….

Iniquity Not Yet Full #3

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

“But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:16 KJV).

Today’s Scripture expressly declares why the God of the Bible “takes His time” when dealing with sinful mankind.

  • Through the Prophet Jonah, JEHOVAH warned wicked Assyrian capital city Nineveh that His judgment was coming in 40 days; Nineveh quickly repented, changed their behavior, and God postponed His wrath (Jonah 3:4-10). (Historically, during the next few centuries, Nineveh returned to its wickedness. It took a long time, but God’s wrath came—the Babylonians and others invaded and overthrew it!)
  • For 200 years, JEHOVAH tolerated the sins of the kings of Israel (the northern kingdom). Jeroboam, the northern kingdom’s first king, introduced false idols (pagan religion) into Israel’s land. From 1 Kings 12:26 to 2 Kings 17:18, some 16 of the 20 kings of the northern kingdom led “God’s people” to worship heathen idols! As per the Mosaic Covenant (Leviticus 26:27-39), this progressively worse behavior of Israel caused JEHOVAH to allow the Assyrians to defeat, capture, and deport the northern kingdom to Assyria circa 722 B.C. (2 Kings 17:6-23).
  • JEHOVAH, for 300 years, tolerated the sins of the kings of Judah (the southern kingdom). Unlike the northern kingdom, Judah had JEHOVAH’S Temple (in Jerusalem), so there was less apostasy there; however, pagan idolatry gradually infiltrated the southern kingdom. God was bound by His Word to chastise them just as He had judged their northern counterpart (Leviticus 26:27-39). From 606 to 586 B.C., JEHOVAH permitted the Babylonians to defeat, capture, and deport the southern kingdom to Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:5-21; Jeremiah 52:1-34).

When godly kings arose, or when wicked kings reformed, God delayed the Jews’ punishment for their sakes (1 Kings 21:25-29; 2 Kings 8:17-19; 2 Kings 22:15-20). Finally, however, there came a time when JEHOVAH instructed the Prophet Jeremiah not to pray for Israel, for He would not listen to intercessory prayer for Israel (7:16). A closing verse of 2 Chronicles summarizes, “But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy” (36:16).

God had finally had enough….

Iniquity Not Yet Full #2

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

“But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:16 KJV).

Today’s Scripture expressly declares why the God of the Bible “takes His time” when dealing with sinful mankind.

The God of the Bible is very orderly; He is organized and does not act on haphazard whims. On one hand, His justice demands that sin be punished in full, and His wrath inflicts a punishment to satisfy His offended righteousness (ultimately, everlasting hellfire, banished from His presence forever). On the other hand, His mercy, love, and grace provide a means so that the sinner can escape that wrath via substitutionary atonement (ultimately, the sinner can come by faith alone in Jesus Christ’s finished crosswork, where Christ suffered God’s wrath on our behalf, and be accepted of God). Whether operating in wrath or in grace, the God of the Bible is completely fair and wise in every deed.

Certain limits must be breached before God’s wrath falls on the sinner, and while only God Himself knows those parameters, the entire Bible’s canon demonstrates that this is how He deals with wicked humanity. For example, consider three major events of sin in the book of Genesis:

  • God could have destroyed Adam and Eve immediately after they sinned; however, He responded to them in mercy and grace, seeking them while they hid from Him, and then killing animals to cover them physically with those skins, as well as clothe them spiritually with animals’ blood (a type of Jesus’ blood which was shed millennia later) (Genesis 3:21).
  • Before the Great Flood of Noah’s Day, some 1,700 years after creation, God gave sinful mankind 120 years to straighten up (Genesis 6:3), and then His judgment came and swept them all away (excluding Noah and his family on the ark)!
  • It was not until Sodom and Gomorrah had reached their limit of sin that God finally sent two angels to destroy those two wicked cities (Genesis 18:20,21; Genesis 19:13).

Let us continue skimming the Scriptures for other instances of the longsuffering, yea, the patience, of God…

Iniquity Not Yet Full #1

Monday, May 12, 2014

“But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:16 KJV).

Today’s Scripture expressly declares why the God of the Bible “takes His time” when dealing with sinful mankind.

“Where is the promise of Jesus Christ’s coming?” From believers still asking in faith (cf. Matthew 24:3) to scoffers still asking in ridicule (cf. 2 Peter 3:3,4), it has been queried ad nauseam. How sad a commentary—it is one of many questions to which the Bible already gave answers many, many centuries ago!

In the context of today’s Scripture, Abram—whom God will rename “Abraham” in chapter 17—is nomadic, travelling and camping throughout the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, much of today’s Middle East. Here, JEHOVAH God personally and formally deeded that real estate to Abraham and his descendants, the nation Israel, as an everlasting possession (Genesis 15:1-21; cf. Genesis 17:8).

Moreover, God informs Abram of the future: “And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (verses 13-16, today’s Scripture within its immediate context).

God tells Abram that his seed, the nation that will come from his bowels, cannot inherit and dwell in the Promised Land yet. Israel must spend 400 years down in Egypt, most of that time in slavery. Entering Egypt as a tribe of less than 100 people, Israel will return to Canaan (the Promised Land) as a nation of some two million! Why this four-century delay? God’s Word could not be plainer—the original inhabitants of Canaan had not sinned enough yet for Him to displace them and install the Jews (today’s Scripture).

How patient is our God….

A Heart Transplant for Israel #12

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26 KJV).

The Great Physician must perform this surgery if His beloved patient is to live forever!

Read today’s Scripture within its context: “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God” (verses 24-28).

After our dispensation closes with the rapture, and after the seven-year Tribulation, Jesus Christ will return to earth to fulfill today’s Scripture. He will regather Israel’s believing remnant scattered worldwide (Matthew 24:29-31). He will spiritually and nationally circumcise them (separate them from the Gentile nations and Adam/sin). With His shed blood (the New Covenant’s inauguration), He will pay the sin debt they accumulated under the Old Covenant (Mosaic Law) and He will save them (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Romans 11:25-29; Hebrews 8:8-13; Hebrews 10:15-17).

The Great Physician, wielding the Sword of the Spirit, God’s Word, will extract Israel’s “stony heart [of sin unto eternal death]” and replace it with “an heart of flesh” (today’s Scripture). In her kingdom, redeemed Israel will have a heart God can mold, a heart of faith in and obedience to His Word. She will truly be JEHOVAH’S nation, alive with eternal life! Throughout the countless ages to come, she will reach the nations with the salvation He first gave her. Rest assured, saints, in God’s own timing, Israel shall live again! 🙂

Bible Study 102 #10

Saturday, March 15, 2014

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV).

The only verse that tells you to study the Bible also tells you how to understand the Bible!

Dispensational Bible study enables us to learn who we are—the Church the Body of Christ—lest we think we are someone we are not—the nation Israel (Romans 11:25). Lest we think we are Israel, lest we follow Israel’s doctrine, lest we claim Israel’s promises, lest we act like Israel, and lest we believe we have any relationship to Israel’s prophetic program, the Holy Spirit through Paul penned Romans chapters 9-11. Without these three chapters, we cannot understand Israel’s temporary fall and why God has momentarily set His special nation aside. Save for these three chapters written by Paul, we would not know that Israel still has a glorious future awaiting her, despite her program having been suspended these last 2,000 years so that our mystery program could operate.

Therefore, the Apostle Peter exhorted his Jewish audience to study Paul’s epistles—specifically Romans chapters 9-11—and learn how Jesus Christ will return for Israel, pour out His wrath on the unbelievers, and deliver Israel’s believing remnant into her earthly kingdom. Peter told them that, until then, as Paul’s epistles teach, Gentile salvation in our Dispensation of Grace must first be fulfilled (Romans 11:25-29). Even the Apostle Peter—led by the Holy Ghost—wrote that he recognized Paul’s special ministry.

“And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:15,16).

By writing Romans chapters 9-11, God the Holy Ghost demonstrated that, in our Christian life, we should not behave like Israel nor claim her passages, for we are not Israel….

God’s Grace on Parade

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

“…But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5:20 KJV).

Today, especially here in southern Louisiana, the Catholic festival of Mardi Gras takes advantage of God’s grace. God’s grace abounds even when drunkenness, lasciviousness, and gluttony are committed overtly on our streets for religion. Because we live in the Dispensation of the Grace of God, they can flaunt their sin without being consumed by fire from heaven!

“Mardi Gras,” French for “Fat Tuesday,” is a day when religious people—professing “Christians”—lose self-control (excess alcohol, food, and partying). The following day, Ash Wednesday, they promise to live “holy” for the next 40 days (Lent). A priest will then place ashes on their foreheads proving that God forgave them for that riotous living. Blasphemy!

Regardless of all its biblical allusions (illusions!), Mardi Gras is still evil and anti-God. It was never Christian, originating from pagan Roman festivals, Saturnalia and Lupercalia (interestingly known for riots, drunkenness, gluttony, and fornication, and subsequent repentance).

The Holy Spirit, speaking through the Apostles Peter and Paul, was clearly against Mardi Gras reveling and drunkenness (Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 5:18; 1 Peter 4:3). So why do professing Christians engage in the very activities that God the Holy Spirit condemned?! As Christians, we should “deny” the activities of Mardi Gras (Romans 6:11-15; Titus 2:11-15).

If I appear offended, I am. Mardi Gras, despite its godly façade, is offensive to the great God and my Saviour Jesus Christ! God’s grace continues to tolerate such foolishness from mankind. Man parades his sin, and God parades His grace, holding back wrath.

Are you a Mardi Gras reveler? I declare unto you the wonderful Gospel of the Grace of God. God did for you at Calvary what you could never do: “Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and He was raised again the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Jesus Christ shed His sinless blood and died to put away all of your sins, Mardi Gras revelry included.

If you rest in Christ Jesus alone as your Saviour, God will save you forever, make a trophy of His grace, and then YOUR life will be God’s grace on parade!

*Adapted from a larger Bible study with the same name. The Bible study can be read here or watched here.

A Holy Nation #2

Tuesday, January 21, 2013

“For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45 KJV).

Today’s Scripture summarizes a book most burdensome to many.

Atheists, Bible skeptics, and agnostics frequently ridicule the Bible because of the “cruel” God of its Old Testament, His strict laws and merciless chastisements. (Evidently, they seem to miss Old Testament passages such as Exodus 34:6,7: “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin….”)

Once JEHOVAH delivered Israel from Egypt, He immediately gave the Jews a series of three tests. The Bible says, “He proved [tested, evaluated] them” (Exodus 15:25)—the bitter water He made potable for them. Again, “…That I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no” (Exodus 16:4)—the manna He gave them to eat. In chapter 17, He miraculously gave them water to drink. Still, they complained constantly, and Moses became increasingly irritated with them. Within those three chapters, the Bible makes reference to ungrateful Israel’s “murmuring” some ten times. And God heard every complaint those two million Jews made… and provided for them anyway!

Sinful Israel demonstrated that she could not follow God’s directions. The Jews doubted God’s provisions (they said they preferred returning to Egyptian bondage, according to Exodus 16:3!), and when He did provide for them, they disobeyed His instructions when collecting the manna (Exodus 16:16-20, but especially 25-28). They “tempted” (or, irreverently challenged) Him to see what He would do when they lacked potable water in Exodus 17:1-4.

After all this, about two or three months after deliverance from Egypt, in Exodus 19:5,6, God instructed Moses to tell Israel, “If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” God is now offering to make Israel’s blessings contingent upon her performance.

Let us see what Israel will decide….

The Misunderstood Messiah #5

Monday, December 30, 2013

“Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God” (John 8:41 KJV).

Did you ever notice the magnitude of the insult put forth toward Jesus Christ in today’s Scripture?

Once Christ replied with sound doctrine (verses 42-47), Israel’s religious leaders simply resorted to name-calling again (verse 48): “Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?” A Samaritan was half-Jew/half-Gentile, and “the Jews [had] no dealings with the Samaritans” (John 4:9). Notice Jesus was insulted twice more—they called Him a “Samaritan” and “devil possessed.” Throughout the rest of John chapter 8, Israel’s religious leaders continue arguing with Jesus and nearly stone Him to death (verse 59)!

Why did Jesus not simply “zap” these religionists and instantly throw them into hellfire? They belittled and blasphemed Him several times in this one account, and then attempted to murder Him, but rather than Jesus killing them with His spoken word (which would have been justified), He only conversed with them. Why?

Remember, when the Apostles James and John saw how the Samaritans refused to accommodate Jesus, they asked Him if He wanted them to call down fire from heaven and consume those sinners, He replied, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (Luke 9:55,56). This First Coming of Christ was His “meek and lowly” coming: He did not come to judge man’s sins, but to die for them!

Even today, God is still not pouring out His wrath on wicked mankind (2 Corinthians 5:19), creatures who still snicker at Jesus Christ, deceive others in His name, persecute His saints, ignore His Word, and “rub His nose” in their sins. Lost mankind is wasting God’s grace and mercy that He is offering so freely. When His grace is finally exhausted, the undiluted wrath that has accumulated will finally be poured out (His Second Coming). May we trust Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour now so we have our sins forgiven now, lest we face that angry, righteous God in judgment (2 Thessalonians 1:6-9)!

As We Tarry Here and Long for There #4

Friday, November 15, 2013

“For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you” (Philippians 1:23,24 KJV).

Before we go on to the next world, we must tarry in this one….

Paul demonstrated Jesus Christ’s selflessness (after all, Jesus Christ was operating in and through Paul). He knew firsthand that to be with his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was “far better” than sitting in a Roman prison awaiting execution. Nevertheless, Paul knew that it was in the best interest of his audience—the Gentile Christians in Philippi—that he remain in this evil world.

Beloved, we must learn as Paul did, that there is more to the Christian life than seeking our best interest. Paul could have died, gone to heaven to be with Christ, and been freed from the torture and capital punishment of the evil Roman government that had arrested him. Yet, Paul, or technically the Holy Ghost through Paul, knew that there was a more important matter than his physical comfort. Paul needed to stay on earth, so he could minister to the Philippian saints—a spiritual matter of eternal value.

Paul, imprisoned in Rome, could not physically go to Philippi over 600 miles (965 kilometers) to the east. Yet, he could write them an epistle, which he sent by one, Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:28,29)—Paul told them he hoped to come later (verse 24). We can benefit from that epistle today!

We must learn from Philippians that it is more needful for other Christians and the lost world that we remain here. Lost souls still need to be saved; Christian souls still need to be edified. For their sakes, our Dispensation of Grace must continue operating. We must tarry for the Lord as He tarries for lost people to trust Him alone for their soul salvation (2 Peter 3:9).

In the Lord’s own time, we will no longer tarry here and He will no longer tarry there. When His time has come, He will be here and we will be there, as we will be reunited to meet Him in the air! 🙂