Genesis 15:16
After four generations they will return here to this land; for the wickedness of the Amorite nations living here now will not be ready for punishment until then.
I'm sure many of us believers have had to fend off questions about why God doesn't act to right the wrongs going on in the world.
In fact, personally, I have to come before Jesus and ask "Why" on many occasions.
I can't say I've ever had definitive answers.
It's true that evil thrives because good people do nothing.
Perhaps secular folk have more passion for their cause than Christians do for theirs?
Has our passivity muffled the voice of God in the land?
In the verse above, there's a strange mystery of when the Lord will act against evil. It seems that wickedness fills up in a vessel before God until it's ready to be dealt with.
We know that God is slow to anger and plenteous in mercy [Psalm 103:8]
He's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. [2 Peter 3:9]
But, be assured that God sees EVERYTHING. He doesn't look the other way when wrongs are committed.
When God sent Jonah to Nineveh to tell the people to repent. Jonah didn't want to go. He didn't want the people to repent because he knew God would be merciful.
The Assyrians had been particularly cruel to Israel, taking some into captivity, with some agonising torture for those who rebelled against them.
Perhaps, it was similar story for the chaplains that were assigned to the Nazis during the Nuremburg trials after WW2.
We all know the story of Jonah - he was the reluctant prophet - who was most upset when the Ninevens repented.
However, later on, we read in the book of Nahum, that the time came when God dealt with their cruelty - as they obviously returned to their wickedness.
Nahum 3:5-7
“Behold, I am against you,” says the Lord of hosts;
“I will lift your skirts over your face,
I will show the nations your nakedness,
And the kingdoms your shame.
I will cast abominable filth upon you,
Make you vile,
And make you a spectacle.
It shall come to pass that all who look upon you
Will flee from you, and say,
‘Nineveh is laid waste!
Who will bemoan her?’
Where shall I seek comforters for you?”
Let's remember the depth of God's mercy, but be aware of the extent of God's anger against injustice and cruelty.
August 10, 612 BC: Nineveh, the largest city in the world, fell [modern day Mosul].
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