Mercy Has An Expiration Date.

Four hundred years in captivity had taken its toll on the Israelites. They knew their history, from generation to generation, the tales were passed down in a special way that they no longer are today. When owning books (scrolls) was reserved for only the elite, you got by on the tales told and set to memory. I don't have such tales in my family. I can pass on things about my own experiences and a very few that were owned by my mother and father passed to me of their parents. I have no stories in my recall of my great grandparents told to me by them, in fact my memory only holds a single great grandparent living. I do have a few tales told to me by my parents, more specifically my mother about her parents, and grandparents but no memories from my father about his grandparents. I have pictures of them, but no real memories at all in any form. The tale of my ancestors making their way to America was not given to me, but I do know my blood contains at least a bit of native American so part of me actually comes from here and wasn't brought from overseas. At most a few memories from the early 1900's belong to me now and I've passed them on to my children but do they remember them enough to carry them onwards? 100 years ago, 120 years ago… not even 400 years ago.

When Joseph brought his family to Egypt it was a good thing, a life-saving thing. But as time passed and those who knew Joseph died off and the memory of his life saving, dream interpreting, famine predicting all faded into the past- known by tale and history but not personally felt, it became easy for things to change. The Egyptian rulers worried that the Hebrews would take over their country and ruin their way of life so they began to alter the relationship to one of subservience and slavery.

Time passed until that's all the Israelites knew- slavery- except through the stories told of their history.

Among them was the body of Joseph, mummified and kept against the day they would leave Egypt for their own land promised to them by God. Joseph knew that their stay in Egypt was temporary, just as we know today that our stay here on earth is temporary. Whether it's four hundred years or four thousand years…it is still temporary.

Released from captivity a new chapter in their history began and the Israelites began to write down and record all that had befallen them, the stories passed down from generation to generation, and more importantly, the Holy Spirit led and inspired, guided and touched the lives of the scribes giving them the words that the Author needed them to write down. The history of the Israelites tells of their stopping on their journey from Egypt to their own land, at a mountain, Mount Sinai. There they were spoken to by God, Himself. They held that mountain in reverence because of God's walking upon it and talking to them from that mountain. Yet even with that great importance attributed to that mountain it still was NOT as important as the Son of God walking among them, living among them, taking on the flesh they had.

Yet many refused to move away from their history, wanting their story to end there until it could unfold in such a way as they expected- with great fanfare and freedom from their captivity to the Romans.

Today they still wait for the great fanfare of redemption, even though as a people they are free from the captivity of all. There are no rulers over the Israelites right now. They have their own government, in their own country, the land given to them by God. Yet, they still refuse to believe in the Son of God.

Paul, inspired of God, guided by the Holy Spirit wrote to the Israelites telling them that their history had expanded, yet the people as a whole race refused to believe, clinging to their past tightly.

Jesus came preaching the kingdom of heaven, not the kingdom upon the earth. Jesus came and revealed the future which involved the sacred temple the Israelites worshiped in being destroyed. Jesus told those who would listen that their kingdom wasn't here upon the earth but in heaven. Jesus told them to put their treasures- the things they cherished most- in heaven, not here upon the earth. Jesus pointed heavenward to a place ruled by God, not Satan. Jesus explained the meaning of all their sacrificial rituals culminating in the greatest sacrifice of all- the sacrifice of a God for them, yet they preferred over that sacrifice their own offerings, not His.

God spoke to their ancestors and they feared and knew they were to keep the sayings that God spoke to them. God spoke to them revealing Himself more fully beyond all the tradition clouded beliefs they'd taken on, and extended mercy.

The mercy was temporary though, it had an expiration date upon it. This is truth. Some like to believe mercy will go on forever and ever and ever, but that's not true.

Jesus foretold of a time when He would leave the world and then later return to the world. When He returned to the world it would be for those who belong to Him, those who choose Him, and those who died having chosen Him, but it would NOT be for everyone.  The timer will have gone off, the final bell rung, the show will be over, the race ended, go on- insert your own metaphor here. When that timer stops- mercy stops and all those that will have chosen to receive the mercy will have been sealed as belonging to Jesus. Then soon after that, Jesus will return for His chosen people and the rest, all of those who refused to avail themselves of the mercy of God when it was offered to them, will be found wanting. They might want mercy now, but there will be no mercy left. And when they realize their mistake it will be too late.

Our God is the same God that spoke from the mountain, our God is the same God that consumed with fire the many who rebelled against Him after they promised they would not. Our God will return. Our God's promises are truth. We must serve Him with the reverence due to Him, with Godly fear- comprehending that He is an exacting God, not a God of endless mercy, but a God who is a consuming fire!

Do not forget this!

Heb 12:18  For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, 

Heb 12:19  And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: 

Heb 12:20  (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: 

Heb 12:21  And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) 

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 

Heb 12:23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 

Heb 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. 

Heb 12:25  See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: 

Heb 12:26  Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 

Heb 12:27  And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 

Heb 12:28  Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: 

Heb 12:29  For our God is a consuming fire