God will always forgive the repentant sinner. But there are consequences to sin that we sometimes cannot wheedle ourselves out of, or make up for. Similarly, at times our disobedience and lack of faith will cause us to miss a God-thing and no amount of crying, pleading, begging God will move Him to give us a 'second chance'. We've essentially missed the time of our visitation, or missed an appointed time. A Bible example of this is evident in the account of the Israelite nation after they were led out of Egypt and being prepared to enter their Promised Land.
In Numbers 13 we are told how a representative group of twelve chief men were sent to spy out the land they were to enter and possess, and were charged with bringing back a report of the territory, including details of the agricultural produce and the people occupying the land. Ten of the men returned and because they lacked faith in God, shared a discouraging report with the thousands of Israelites - from their skewed perspective. Their unbelieving report struck terror into their hearts of the people who then denounced Moses and the God who had led them out of Egypt with unprecedented signs and wonders. They refused to enter Canaan and to do battle with the people living there although God promised to give it to them. They set their hearts to choose another leader and make their way back to Egypt where they had been slaves. But God interrupted their uprising.
After Moses interceded for them, God quickly decided to pardon them. Nevertheless, there would be severe consequences. Pronouncing judgment upon them based on the words of their own mouth, God informed Moses that none of those people twenty years and older, who had rebelled against God would ever see the Promised Land. They would wander for forty years, each year representative of each day that the unbelieving Israelite spies had been viewing Canaan. The whole group would occupy the wilderness till the time of the death of the rebels, and finally, those who were then children would be allowed to enter the Land promised.
After Moses shared the judgment determined for Israel the group was terrified and remorseful. They finally decided they would believe and obey God. By that time, it was too little and too late.
Then Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly. And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned! And Moses said, Now why do you transgress the command of the Lord? For this will not succeed. Do not go up, lest you be defeated by your enemies, for the Lord is not among you. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you. But they presumed to go up to the mountaintop. Nevertheless, neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp.Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that mountain came down and attacked them, and drove them back as far as Hormah (Numbers 14:39-45).Notice the line that says 'they presumed...' - even after being warned by Moses that they would not be successful. In the same way, we can't presume to continually, deliberately, do our own thing and then just pick up where we left off in obeying God when we feel like it, or when we see the avalanche of consequences coming our way. There may be a high price to our waywardness. Sometimes, we are forgiven and able to continue without life-altering repercussions; sometimes (though forgiven) we are not. And we can really never tell which it is going to be.
The sin of the rebellious Israelites was clearly diagnosed in Hebrews 3:12 as an "evil heart of unbelief" that led to their departure from God. God is merciful, but let's be reminded from this account that both disbelief, and subsequently disobedience, are sins against God. Mercy keeps us standing in grace, but mercy does not necessarily trump the negative consequences, delays, and detours caused by unbelief along the narrow path we are traveling. Instead, let's make use of the grace of God which will enable us to lead obedient lives, and conduct us safely into His promises to us.
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