The people of Israel had
been enslaved to Egypt 400 years. The unbearable cruelty they
suffered at the hand of Egypt and the continuing pressure to subdue
the ever increasing Israelites under the mighty hand of Egypt was
coming to a turning point as God was preparing a redeemer sent by God
Himself. The question often is – why did God allow Israel to be
enslaved to Egypt for 400 years? Much could be said about the finer
details of this, but bear with me as I give the simplest answer that
we find in the scriptures.
As God was establishing
His covenant with Abram, God prophesied to Abram in Genesis
15:13-14...then He said to
Abram; know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a
land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict
them four hundred years (14) and also the nation whom they serve I
will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possession.
(NKJV). This of course is the
reference of Israels enslavement to the nation of Egypt.
But why,
would God permit Abrams descendants to be enslaved to Egypt for four
hundred years before bringing them out with great possessions? The
answer is given to us in Gen 15:16...but in the fourth
generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites
is not yet complete. The reason
Israel would be enslaved to Egypt four hundred years was due to the
fact that the sin of the Amorites was not yet complete. In other
words, the Amorites (who lived in Canaan) were a wicked people
living in a wicked nation, but their sin was not yet so great that
God would pour out his wrath upon them to wipe them from the face of
the earth.
So here now another
question jumps to the forefront of our minds...how bad would things
have to be before God would pour out his wrath upon a nation to wipe
them off the face of the earth? For this let us look at some the
instructions God set before Israel as commands that they were not to
break which the inhabitants of the land of Canaan openly practiced.
Lev 18:20-25...thou shalt
not lie carnally with thy neighbors wife.
...you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire of
Molech
...nor shall you profane the name of your God
...you shall not lie with a man as with a woman, it is
an abomination
...nor shall you mate with any animal to defile
yourself with it
...nor shall a woman stand before an animal to mate
with it, it is perversion
as God
gives the commands to Israel he gives to them a window through which
can be seen the sins the Amorites of Canaan were committing. The result of these devastating sins is
laid out for us in the next two verses
Leviticus
18:24-25...do not defile yourselves with any of these things for by
all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you
(25) for the land is defiled, therefore I visit the punishment of its
iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants.
This leads me to my next
question, how does this differ from what we are seeing in North
America today?
Adultery seems to almost
be common place today regardless of religion or race. We may not
offer our children to the God of Molech through fire, but we abort
babies at an astounding rate, likely more then the Amorites ever did.
The name of God is being blatantly profaned in our countries,
homosexuality is embraced and endorsed even among many religious
organizations. And we don't even want to imagine the degradation of
the other sins mentioned.
If God destroyed the
Amorites and all those who lived in Canaan for these sins, why hasn't
God destroyed North America seeing that the sins of our countries
mirror those or the Amorites?
Let me give a short 4
point answer to this question.
1 – Ultimately God can
do as He chooses...
The reality is
that because all have sinned and have gone their own way, God would
by justified if he cast all of humanity under eternal damnation but
we are told in Rom 9:15...for He says to Moses, I will have mercy
on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion upon
whomever I will have compassion.
2 – God is long-suffering...
there are those
in this land who are not yet saved who will be saved and the Lord is long-suffering waiting to the elect to come to salvation. 2 Peter
3:9...the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count
slackness, but is long suffering towards us, not willing that any
should perish but that ll should come to repentance...
3 – We are living in a
dispensation of grace...
Rom 11:25...for
I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this
mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness
in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles
has come in.
4 – there are more than
5 righteous in the land...
when Abraham
talked with the Lord about the utter destruction that was about to
come upon Sodom and Gamorrah Abraham asked the Lord how many
righteous he would have to find in order for him not to pour out the
wrath of upon them Gen 18:32...then he said, Let not the Lord be
angry, and I will speak but once more, suppose ten (righteous
people) should be found there? And He said, I will not destroy it
for the sake of ten.