Thoughts for another day

Feb. 29, 2008

Today's verse: Nu. 14:34. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. (KJV)
(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

Before the advent of Christ on earth, God’s retribution was stringent. God hated sin and those who indulged in it paid in a rather visible and sure manner. Our verse today, serves as a good example of how God’s anger on man’s sin made His hand heavy on them, particularly the words, ‘…and ye shall know my breach of promise.’

After the death and resurrection of our beloved Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, we live in the dispensation of Grace and mercy, whereby all we know is the tenderness of our God and our lives are awash with His love. So, how then do we understand the above verse and how to come to terms with it, saying how good our God is? It isn’t as simple as rubbishing arguments that favor the instant retribution of God as seen in the Old Testament and saying that our God is not like that. That’s because His Word talks about His fiery nature and vengeance on those who chose to go against His will and we know His Word holds no lies. Rather, it, the verse, must coax us to delve deep into scripture and decipher what His plan was for human kind.

All along even before the foundation of the world, God in His Omniscience knew what we would do. But yet, He created us. In the early days after creation and Adam’s sin, God led us like a loving Father and corrected us when we went astray. In this process to show His glory and might, He needed to show us His retribution. The reason was to make us understand how utterly disdainful sin is to Him. He did send many warnings and only when we neglected them as well as scorned the people through whom He sent the warnings, did His hand grow heavy upon us. But then all along, God was leading us from a certain level of understanding Him to another completely different and higher level wherein He wanted to show us first of all, how much He loved us and to what extent He’d go for us.

My friend in Jesus’ coming we’ve come to know the manner of love God has for us. If retribution wasn’t the first step, then where would the need be for Jesus to come and if He had not come, how would we understand His awesome love. Take heart today that we are in this dispensation. Yet, don’t forget that like those who have gone before us and who experienced the hard hand of God, we too will be given an experience but it won’t be suffering for us, rather a vivid picture of the pain our precious Savior bore because of our sins. That’s more than enough, to cut us to the heart. That’s in every way more potent, to make us God’s children and partake of His eternal bliss.