“Had I known” has always come too late! Achan!

1)            “Oh yes! It’s perfectly clear to me that you’re such an unforgiving soul!” A wife vented her anger on her husband’s allusion to a past event. “You call yourself a Christian,” she resumed, “but won’t allow my brother the luxury of a teeny-weeny taste of forgiveness for what he did decades ago! Shame on you!” As far as the wife was concerned, “You are a deviation from your Father in heaven.” After moments of what she deemed a ratiocinative venture I heard her whisper, “Well, this God can be so unforgiving sometimes.”

Only eight souls survived the great Deluge

            He should have forgiven the pristine parents of Eden and used that occasion to shame the Devil. Should He not have manifestly appear in Person to warn the Antedeluvian Age of the impending annihilation? If He had shown that magnanimity He would not need come down to meet the Nimrod ruled world to remind them of what their grandparents told them about the deluge and its destruction. So many questions make man think he is or could be smarter than God. Why, ergo, would God choose the path of unforgiveness? Come to the scriptural voyage with me.

            In the book of Exodus 23:20-21 we read of His warning to Israel. 20)“Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. 21) Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.” This cannot be a created angel. No angel of creationism is vested with pardoning of transgressions in Scripture. This is Christ in His preincarnational walk with the work of His creation. He proved His absolvent equality with the Father in Luke 5:24, “But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.” We understand from Scripture that “the Father is in me (Jesus), and I in him (Eternal Father)“ [John 10:38]; and these following verses are in agreement: John 10:30; John 14:11; John 14:20; John 17:11; John 17:21.

                Is Jehovah’s name in Christ? Yes! “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am” [John 8:58]. ‘I AM’ is God’s title and here in the Book of John it is the Greek Ego Eime, the same as “I AM THAT I AM” of Exodus 3:14. All the names of God are telescoped into the name of Jesus. Remember “…All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” of Matthew 28:18? When the same God proclaimed Himself He made it crystal clear in Exodus 34:6-7, “And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7) Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”

                This words cannot be that of Joshua as some believe, or from the praying lips of Moses as the Jerusalem Targum scripts and also as Vulgate Latin version puts it. The allusive prayer of Moses in Numbers 14:17-18, “And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying ……” is quite evident the proclamation is from Jehovah. He is merciful and forgiving but He will never condone any act of disobedience. The love of God is, of course, longsuffering but never eternal suffering. Disobedience is an affront to His persona. A classic example is the situation in Israeli camp.

            It is recorded in the Book of Numbers chapter 25 from verse 6 to the 15th. 6) “And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” This looks like a record breaking egregious affront!

The LORD, the LORD…forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin

            Verse 7 reads,“And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand; 8) And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. 9) And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.” Phinehas did what the LORD God would have done to the audacity of his affront.

          Wash yourself clean from the original sin that takes one to hell for eternity. Get born again by saying this simple prayer:

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”      

(…to be continued…)

Click here to read part II

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