It is wonderful news that the Creator will forgive sins and give all who repent a clean slate. “Again, when I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right, if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right; he shall surely live.” Ezekiel 33: 14-16 (NKJV). How long, however, will God’s grace and mercy last? To answer this question, we need only take a long, hard look at sacred history. Mercy didn’t last forever in Noah’s day. “And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” Genesis 6: 3-4 (NKJV).
Forgiveness and compassion were extended to humanity for one hundred and twenty years. But after that time expired, God’s mercy ended. Noah and his family were the only people who ensured their lives were fully harmonious with The Creator’s revealed Will. Accordingly, they were spared the judgment that came upon the antediluvian world. Everyone else was lost in the deluge sent upon the civilization of that era.
The Bible reveals God’s true nature and tells us what we need to know about Him to remain within the boundaries of His love. In response to Moses’ prayer to see the face of the divine One, the omnipotent king declined, in mercy, to expose his face to a sinful mortal, promising instead to let His goodness pass before His servant.
“Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 34: 5-7 (NKJV).
We behold Him on the mountain: God of love, compassion, truth, and Justice. These eternal principles were clearly displayed in Christ’s life and ministry and in His substitutionary death upon Calvary’s tree. One overriding principle becomes abundantly clear: The Lord Almighty descends to meet sinful, erring mortals where they are, but He never changes.
“For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. Yet from the days of your fathers You have gone away from My ordinances And have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” Says the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 3:6 (NKJV).
“Therefore you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.” Deuteronomy 5: 32-33
God’s unchangeable character shines through at every juncture in the history of the human race. Mercy and grace were extended to Adam and his descendants. But it all ended in Noah’s day. At that time, human wickedness had progressed to the stage that the divine government considered intolerable. Hatred of sin appears to be the divine motto. That fact was again revealed while Lot and his family were citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah. There was no extensive preaching of the gospel in Sodom. Nor were there any repeated calls for repentance and reformation of life. Nevertheless, all the inhabitants of those two cities were held responsible for the moral perversions in which they indulged, tolerated, or to which they were indifferent.
“Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—take them out of this place! For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.” Genesis 19: 12-14 (NKJV).
Although not directly involved in Sodom’s immorality, the patriarch’s extended family had apparently accepted it as normal. Now, they had become irretrievably tarnished by the City’s moral pollution. Since they saw nothing wrong with the citizens they lived with, they subsequently became doomed with them. How could any sane person hope to raise children securely in such an environment?
These ancient cities stand out in time as monuments from ages past. Historical road signs, relics, and warnings from antiquity. They all came up for review before the supreme Lord of the universe. Unfortunately, like the emperor Belshazzar of Babylon, “They were weighed in the balances and found wanting.” We must consider them carefully and contemplate their rise and fall. Some of them never passed through the experience of hearing the gospel preached to them, but they were all subjected to God’s judgment because of their wickedness.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
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