Listen Here: “God’s Plan“
Ezekiel 17:22-24; 2 Corinthians 5:6-17
This prophecy was given to the Jewish people who had been defeated because they had been unfaithful. It was a perennial promise to restore God’s people, to make of them what God had designed them to be: strong, healthy, fruitful, and a blessing to the other critters of the world.
- No one fears mercy, but justice is another matter. People fear God’s justice because they know that they don’t want what they deserve.
- People want mercy, not justice. But God doesn’t give one or the other. God necessarily gives them both.
- The people of Nineveh provide the biblical model. They were wicked and unfaithful so Jonah preached fire and brimstone to them. And they repented. They changed.
- They deserved God’s justice because they were corrupt.
- But when they changed, they deserved God’s mercy—not because they were sorry, but because they actually changed their ways.
- That’s the way God works.
- Sunday morning messages are available on the website (www.stpaulsmarietta.org/audio). Tell your friends.