When Jesus told Peter that he should be willing to forgive people 490 times, the apostle was probably flabbergasted.
Moments before, Peter thought he’d be acting super-faithful if he gave somebody seven strikes before calling him or her out.
But Jesus’ teaching showed that even the most gracious of human standards for forgiveness were sadly lacking in God’s sight.
Perhaps when Jesus cited the “seventy times seven” standard, He had in mind the countless thousands of times that God had to have forgiven His children’s defiant rebellion against Him.
Yes, the Bible is a book about God’s holiness and expectations for mankind. But it is primarily a testament to the loving grace of God.
Simply stated, if not for God’s desire to rescue the sinful souls of mankind, there would not be a Bible.
A key verse is one that just about everybody has heard:
“And God demonstrates His love for us in this: while we yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
I was reminded of God’s core passion of grace as I read from today’s segment in the One-Year Bible. Before and after Isaiah 4, the prophet tells his readers of the sins committed by Israel in the years before its destruction that would later come in two phases — first by the Assyrians and subsequently by the Babylonians.
Terribly selfish and sinful, the vast majority of Hebrew adults had clearly demonstrated that living for pleasure was job #1. God had warned and warned through prophet after prophet. But those voices from God were either ignored, or killed or both.
So God sent Isaiah to announce another round of warnings and promised consequences.
In the midst of the ominous indictments and warnings, though, Isaiah tells the people that God will restore the land by means of a leader who inspires the faithful remnant still left in Jerusalem.
“But in that day, the branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious; the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of all who survive in Israel. All who remain in Zion will be a holy people — those who survive the destruction of Jerusalem and are recorded among the living.
“The Lord will wash the filth from beautiful Zion and cleanse Jerusalem of its bloodstains with the hot breath of fiery judgment.
“Then the Lord will provide shade for Mount Zion and all who assemble there. He will provide a canopy of cloud during the day and smoke and flaming fire at night, covering the glorious land. It will be a shelter from daytime heat and a hiding place from storms and rain.” (Isaiah 4:2-6).
Clearly, the desire of God’s heart is for faithful people to fill His city. He wanted fellowship with people who would love Him and serve Him and persisted in His grace through man’s recurring failures. The people just had to come to Him, to His mountain, to His canopy, to His shelter and hiding place.
The same persistent grace that God showed Israel is the persistent grace that we are to show others.
As in forgiving 490 times — and that’s just the beginning.
Dear friend, if there is somebody in your life whom you still haven’t forgiven for causing you pain or loss or offense, you know what you need to do.
You know what God did for Israel even when she deserved NO mercy.
And you know what God has done for you when you’ve deserved NO mercy.
Hmmmm….. do you want God’s forgiveness toward you to stop when you reach 490 sins?
I certainly don’t. If that limit were applied to me, I’d have been burnt toast a LONG time ago.
As always, I love you
Martin
