To the Lord our God belong mercies
and forgiveness, though we have
rebelled against him.
Daniel 9:9
Two of the main themes that travel throughout the Bible are God's love for his creation, and his abundant forgiveness…
and forgiveness, though we have
rebelled against him.
Daniel 9:9
Two of the main themes that travel throughout the Bible are God's love for his creation, and his abundant forgiveness…
In essence, this is what the Scriptures are all about. God loves humanity. He longs to forgive us for our sins and thereby bring us into fellowship with Him.
This is why Jesus, God's Son, left his throne in heaven and came to Earth. He willingly took on a human body by coming into the world as an infant. He then went on to experience all the temptations we do, and all the hurts and challenges of living in a broken world. He did this in order to fully understand what it is to be human, and to have the same weaknesses as us, yet he was without sin.
So when Jesus went to the cross in order to pay our sin debt, it was done out of love. This was God's plan. Forgiveness can now be offered to everyone, no matter who they are, or what they have done. As the Bible makes clear, no one is without sin. "For everyone has sinned" (Romans 3:23 NLT).
Which again brings me to the subject that I wrote about in my previous entry, "Will God forgive someone who deliberately takes another's life?" And as an example, I spoke about a man who was once known as "Saul," who went on to become the Apostle Paul. Before Saul’s conversion, he was a multiple murderer who slew people just because he was offended by their belief that Jesus was the Messiah. God transformed this murderous religious zealot into a minister, and into a man who walked in love.
But now I want to write about another individual who also committed the crime of murder. His name was Moses. In the Bible, Moses, who was an Israelite, happened to be walking outdoors when he observed an Egyptian citizen physically assaulting a fellow Israelite.
Filled with anger, Moses looked all around to see if anyone was watching him. When he thought no one was, he quietly crept up behind the Egyptian and killed him in cold blood. He then tried to hide the victim's body by burying it in the sand. Moses then walked away and went about his business as if nothing happened.
But something did happen. The following day, Moses was out walking again when he observed two of his fellow Hebrews fighting each other. When he tried to get them to stop, one of them turned to Moses and said, "What gives you the right to tell me to stop fighting when you killed that Egyptian?"
Realizing he was exposed and would eventually be arrested, Moses took off. He went on the run. There was no time to gather his belongings. Moses was now a fugitive from justice and a wanted man.
But after forty years of evading the law, a strange thing happened. An "angel of the Lord" suddenly appeared to Moses from a burning bush. Curious, Moses looked on. But then from the flames came a voice calling his name. It was the voice of the Lord.
Moses was to return to Egypt to rescue his fellow Hebrews. It was time for the Israelites to be released from slavery and tyranny. So off he went to do all God called him to do. A fugitive hiding from the law was to go back to the country where, for all he knew, there was a warrant awaiting his arrest.
This alone took a lot of faith. But God was with Moses. He returned to the scene of the crime, where he would later confront the then ruling Pharaoh, who himself finally relented to Moses' demands to let the Hebrews go. For them, this ended more than four hundred years of captivity.
Yet the man God chose for such a Herculean task was a murderer. Out of all the men God could have picked, it was a wanted fugitive. Go figure. But would he do this today? Would the Lord choose someone with a criminal past like Moses to become the leader of a nation? I believe He would. He can do whatever He wants.
D.B.
This is why Jesus, God's Son, left his throne in heaven and came to Earth. He willingly took on a human body by coming into the world as an infant. He then went on to experience all the temptations we do, and all the hurts and challenges of living in a broken world. He did this in order to fully understand what it is to be human, and to have the same weaknesses as us, yet he was without sin.
So when Jesus went to the cross in order to pay our sin debt, it was done out of love. This was God's plan. Forgiveness can now be offered to everyone, no matter who they are, or what they have done. As the Bible makes clear, no one is without sin. "For everyone has sinned" (Romans 3:23 NLT).
Which again brings me to the subject that I wrote about in my previous entry, "Will God forgive someone who deliberately takes another's life?" And as an example, I spoke about a man who was once known as "Saul," who went on to become the Apostle Paul. Before Saul’s conversion, he was a multiple murderer who slew people just because he was offended by their belief that Jesus was the Messiah. God transformed this murderous religious zealot into a minister, and into a man who walked in love.
But now I want to write about another individual who also committed the crime of murder. His name was Moses. In the Bible, Moses, who was an Israelite, happened to be walking outdoors when he observed an Egyptian citizen physically assaulting a fellow Israelite.
Filled with anger, Moses looked all around to see if anyone was watching him. When he thought no one was, he quietly crept up behind the Egyptian and killed him in cold blood. He then tried to hide the victim's body by burying it in the sand. Moses then walked away and went about his business as if nothing happened.
But something did happen. The following day, Moses was out walking again when he observed two of his fellow Hebrews fighting each other. When he tried to get them to stop, one of them turned to Moses and said, "What gives you the right to tell me to stop fighting when you killed that Egyptian?"
Realizing he was exposed and would eventually be arrested, Moses took off. He went on the run. There was no time to gather his belongings. Moses was now a fugitive from justice and a wanted man.
But after forty years of evading the law, a strange thing happened. An "angel of the Lord" suddenly appeared to Moses from a burning bush. Curious, Moses looked on. But then from the flames came a voice calling his name. It was the voice of the Lord.
Moses was to return to Egypt to rescue his fellow Hebrews. It was time for the Israelites to be released from slavery and tyranny. So off he went to do all God called him to do. A fugitive hiding from the law was to go back to the country where, for all he knew, there was a warrant awaiting his arrest.
This alone took a lot of faith. But God was with Moses. He returned to the scene of the crime, where he would later confront the then ruling Pharaoh, who himself finally relented to Moses' demands to let the Hebrews go. For them, this ended more than four hundred years of captivity.
Yet the man God chose for such a Herculean task was a murderer. Out of all the men God could have picked, it was a wanted fugitive. Go figure. But would he do this today? Would the Lord choose someone with a criminal past like Moses to become the leader of a nation? I believe He would. He can do whatever He wants.
D.B.
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