A closer look at these chapters in Exodus reveal a facet of God in His judgement which are seldom seen and highlighted or brought out. In judgement He often shows mercy. There is a difference between grace and mercy. Grace is getting what I don't deserve. Mercy is not getting what I do deserve.
After God had judged Jerusalem in 586 BC, following Jeremiah's pleading with the nation to repent and it rejecting that message he brought, Jeremiah lamented. He wrote down his lament and it is recorded in Lamentations. Tradition says Jeremiah was looking over the city, just under Golgotha, and wrote his lament as we are told the smoke was still rising from its ashes.
Lamentations 3.22-23 (19-26)
"Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness."
God had continued to press the same point over and over again to Pharaoh- v.13 "Let My people go so that they may worship Me."
1.The LORD Always Warns Before He Judges. vs.13-15
He was telling Pharaoh that things were going to get worse. They were already bad. God knew Pharaoh would not listen and yet He warned him.
If the LORD has been warning you today, listen! And obey. Draw near to Him.
America has been, and continues to be, warned in various ways that God will judge it unless there is national repentance. In our Constitution's Preamble are the words that all men have been endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Yet in our education system the idea of a Creator has been rejected for decades now. In our laws there is more protection for animals than babies in the womb. The breaking of the Ten Commandments has been glorified in entertainment and life. God continues to warn. We pray that the nation will listen.
However understand that
2. The LORD Does Not Take Pleasure in the Death of the Wicked. Ezekiel 18.23
"Do I take pleasure in the death of the wicked?" declares the Sovereign LORD, "Rather am I not pleased when they turn from their wicked ways and live?"
He always offers man a way to escape His judgement.
v.19 God is giving shelter from the stormy blast to men who listen and their animals.
He cares: Noah and the Ark; Jonah and Ninevah Jonah 4.10
v.20 There were officials who feared the Word of the LORD
They hurried = to take flight, escape, flee, drive harshly, to disappear
The fear of the LORD shows up in what people do.
3.God Keeps His People When He Is Judging -v.26
God's people are kept by Him during Judgement, if not physically, then definitely spiritually. We need to be careful here. Hebrews 11.37 speaks of those who were stoned, sawed in two, put to death by the sword (and brought to heaven).
Some people we pray for to be healed are healed and sometimes sickness leads to death or a life long illness or condition. We need to remember the suffering persecuted church today In Cuba and Sudan and Nepal. People serving the LORD suffer. We give thanks for those the LORD delivers and leave the questions of those He does not with Him.
v.27-28 Some people, many people, who turn to God in times of difficulty, do not truly repent and follow the LORD. They are looking for relief from their sufferings.
There are seeds of the Word of God which fall on rocky places. Mark 4.5-6, 16-17
4. The LORD Still Answers That Prayer of Habakkuk Habakkuk 3.2b
in wrath remember mercy
The LORD did not totally destroy their food supply v.31-32
10.2 tell your children and your grandchildren pass on His mighty acts to the children
The LORD had told Pharaoh that He could have wiped Egypt off the earth by this point. In God's wrath He remembers mercy. We may need to pray this soon for our nation.
We are still in a time of grace and mercy. Let's share the love of Christ. Let's look to heaven. Let's pray for those who are not walking with the LORD today, let's pray now.
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