In Genesis 15:13-16, God told Abram (Abraham, Genesis 17:5), his innumerable descendants would be servants in a strange country four hundred years, until the sins of the Canaanitic inhabitants had reached full growth; then He would punish the nation that made them slaves and would give his descendants the land of the Canaanitic people.
We see this promise carried out in Exodus 1:1-11, where Joseph and his family die, a new king comes to the throne, enslaves the Israelites, and forces them to build his shrines and storage places; and then in Exodus 12:40-41, after Israel had been in Egypt 30-years under Joseph’s peaceful rule, and 400-years as slaves; God through Moses, brought Israel out of Egypt in the very same day God promised Abraham (Abram) He would bring them out. God keeps His word!
This exact same relationship to God and His “eternally settled word” (Psalm 119:89), is found in James 2:12-27, where people are first tempted to do wrong by their strong desires; they then yield to their desired temptation, which then becomes sin, and they continue in their desired sin, until their sin is “full grown” or until their sin “has full possession of them”, and then comes physical death, for they are already spiritually dead, and enemies of God, since they are lovers of the world (1 John 2:15-17; James 4:4), and are possessed by the lustful desires of the world.
God promises in Psalm 75, when the “arrogant, boastful, wickedness” of one He “exalts”, so their “arrogant, boastful, wickedness” can become full grown, He takes that one (or those) down, and sets another in their place, for God uses the “prideful wicked” to bring “suffering” people to Him, and God uses “humble, caring” people to arouse the “lustful, prideful, wicked” people, so He can place them in “their lustfully desired positions”, and judge them for their willful sins.
For God says in Psalm 75:6, “For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is fully mixed, and He pours it out; surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth drain and drink down”, and then in Matthew 26:39, “He (Jesus) went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will’ ”; therefore, those whose lustful desires estrange them from Christ Jesus, refuse His “drinking the wrath of the cup”, promised in Psalm 75:6, but the righteous receive it.
Athaliah (2 Kings 8-11), daughter of Amri, king of Israel, was so heartlessly wicked, when her son Ahaziah, king of Judah died, she thought she killed all her son’s heirs to the throne, and then became queen, but her sister, Jehosheba, hid Joash, Athaliah’s grandson, in the Lord’s house for 6 years, until Priest Jehoiada placed guards around him, anointed him king, and when Athaliah saw it, she began shouting, “Treason, Treason”, so they put her to death by the sword, for her “murderous treason” of killing all but one of her grandsons, so she could “seize” her son’s throne, as queen. God always allows what is in our heart to come to the surface, so we either repent, come to Him through Christ Jesus, or die in our sins and forever burn in the lake of fire.
All who have the honored privilege of being members of Christ’s body, and have a close, intimate, relationship with Him, can relax under this suffering (1 Peter 5:10-11), turn it all over to Christ Jesus, our Head, and trust every detail of life to Him and His time of knowing when to “take down and lift up” (Psalm 75:6-8); the word of God “never” fails, for Isaiah 55:11 promises, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void (empty), but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it”.
God’s word is truth and always comes to pass at God’s perfect timing—we can count on it! Therefore, we will face Jesus Christ and the consequences of our choices to stop sinning, repent, and receive Him as Lord and Master, or continue sinning and face His eternal judgment.
Jim Nabors
