WHEN GRACE EXPIRES …

1.  The Weakness of God

Sometimes, sadly, the merciful patience of God is counted as weakness.  Solomon addressed the same concern when he said, “Because God does not punish sinners instantly, people feel it is safe to do wrong” (1 Eccl 8:11-12, The Living Bible). In his opening prophecies and denunciations of sinful nations, Prophet Amos metaphorically focused on the same subject when he said, “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will NOT TURN AWAY the punishment thereof …” (Amos 1:3).  The same was said of Gaza, Tyrus, Ammon, about a climax of “transgressions” after which “punishment” becomes imperative and “will not turn away,” no matter who tries then and how to turn it back.  That refrain on the likely expiration of grace and the consequent inevitability of divine judgment occurs eight times in the first two chapters of his book.

Does God count sins, up to “four,” then grace expires?  How many sins might one commit before God can take no more?  Will someone always know when their hourglass of mercy is emptying out, when grace is expiring?

22 In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls … 23 He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy … (Romans 9:22-23, New Living Translation).

2.  The Case of the Amorites

Speaking to Abram about the Amorites, God said that those sinners had not yet exhausted their long rope of clemency; that they hadn’t filled up their cup of judgment.  There remained some measure of mercies, for which He could not exact judgment upon them, even though He was Almighty.  He said, “for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:16).  Wow, “not yet full”?  Was there a basket or bowl or cup of iniquity that God was observing, waiting until it was “full,” and began to overflow into judgment?  Was there a clock He was watching in relation to the Amorites?  Did the Amorites know, while judgment lingered, that it was not because they were smart or God was weak, but because it was “not yet” time?  Could we have known this about the sinning Amorites if God had not thus confided in Abram?  I recall Goliath, whom God endured for forty days until his cup was ‘full.’  Meanwhile, Goliath did not know that he had just exhausted divine ultimatum (1 Samuel 17:16).  He lost his head to a boy, and his nation fell in a day.

It appears that every nation, every people, every individual has a vessel in which their sins are measured, before judgment might inevitably fall.  How large one’s cup or basket is, or how much time remains on the clock, we may not always know.  That factor of mercy’s restraint is sometimes the reason why divine judgment is delayed, even when, by our calendar, it might seem as if judgment had since been overdue.

3.  How Much More Blood?

God is surprisingly “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands … not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (Exodus 34:6-7; 2 Peter 3:9).  When the fifth seal was opened in heaven, the souls of martyred saints called “loudly” for judgment upon those who had killed them while they lived on the earth.  Surprisingly, God told them to “rest a little longer until their other brothers, fellow servants of Jesus, had been martyred on the earth and joined them” (Revelation 6:9-10, The Living Bible).  In other words, God was going to sit back and allow the loss of more lives?  The Almighty God who rescued Daniel from the lions’ den, the Consuming Fire, would sit to watch the unfortunate killing of more of His saints?  Wouldn’t His enemies take that as weakness on His part?  How much more blood before God has had enough, or the cup of the killers was full?  This sounds very unlike the God I have learned in some Sunday school lessons.

It will appear that not even everyone in heaven knows the calendar of God in every respect, or fully understands the mind of God, else those wailers in heaven would not have been calling forth judgment when it was not yet the time of God.  They were persuaded that the cup of their killers was full and their time for judgment up, but God saw otherwise (Revelation 5:4-5; Matthew 24:36).  God is a mystery.

Alas, how strong those killers would have thought of themselves! How invincible their deluded minds would have said that they were, while mercy lingered!  And how disappointed some of the brethren might have felt, who hoped to be delivered from the swords that eventually swallowed them!  How distressed the intercessors would have been who prayed for their escape, only to get the sad news later, that their prayers were ‘unanswered,’ and that their brethren had been dispatched to the altar in heaven, despite all the prayers to avert it!  Did anyone have to go through such trauma merely for some more brethren to complete Heaven’s statistics of blood for judgment to become very deserving upon the wicked, very merciless upon those who had wasted divine ultimatum?  Alas, some of the pain we might have been spared if only we saw God’s measuring bowls of transgressions, God’s times and seasons on His calendar of mercies!

4.  The Case of Nineveh

As God watched His calendar and knew that a certain people were soon due for judgment, His heart of mercy could not stand what woes justice might soon compel Him to inflict upon them.  Hurriedly, He sent a prophet to Nineveh, to warn them that they had a specific number of days more, before they would cross the red line of mercy, and judgment could become imperative.  That prophet was unprepared for such a message to such undeserving folks, so he fled, eating into the remaining days of the divine ultimatum.  By the time he finally arrived Nineveh, through a series of divine interventions, some of the days had been used up, remaining only forty, and he announced, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:13). Anything could have happened at the expiration of those days.

Does God count days?  Does He have a calendar?  Does He mark dates in relation to specific events and people? On the calendar of God, a day had been marked for the overthrow of the great city of Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian empire.  Prophet Jonah’s mission to Nineveh was to unveil to them a determination by the Government of Heaven; to reveal to them a decision reached with a specific date decided for the implementation of judgment upon their land; it was Heaven’s headline being announced on Earth, about a date of coming judgment, when Heaven would impact Earth in terrible ways.  Luckily, then, Nineveh had a careful king who responded penitently and saved his land.

Had Jonah never gone, had he stayed silent, Nineveh and we would never have known, even though God had wanted them to know and be warned appropriately.  Had Nineveh had a different king at that time, a very ‘intellectual’ or agnostic king who dismissed the prophet’s warning, the city would have been overthrown as determined by the Government of Heaven and announced by Jonah.  Sadly, that was the fate that befell Nineveh a hundred years later, which Prophet Nahum laments (Nahum 3:1-7).  Today, Nineveh is a heap of ancient ruins along the Tigris River in Iraq.  The city may still have survived, like Lebanon, Damascus, and other ancient cities.  Sodom fell on the grounds where Nineveh stood (Genesis 18:20-21; Ezekiel 22:30).  The judgment lamented in the book of Nahum might have happened a hundred years earlier in the book of Jonah, and God would not have been to blame, because He sent a warning that was either not delivered by a sentimental Jonah, or was delivered but ignored by a psychedelic or bigoted Nineveh.

5.  The Case of Jezebel

God extends His mercy not only to nations but also to individuals.  He issues ultimatums not only to people outside the church but also to those in the church system.  Jezebel was one.  With the alluring title of “Prophetess,” and under the spiritual guise of ‘ministry,’ she infiltrated the church and corrupted many.  God was wrath, but even with her, there was a cup of mercy that He was checking, against a calendar.  Until then, judgment waited.  While some deeply disturbed remnants prayed earnestly for her extermination, and others endured her doctrines and pollutions, God said, “I gave her space to repent” (Revelation 2:21).  How many days or months or years was that “space,” we do not know, but she wasted it.  Great teacher that she was, she ignored the warning, and multiple judgments became imperative (v.22).

While judgment lingered, Jezebel might have considered herself a lucky sinner, or thought that God had become a more ‘civilised,’ more ‘inclusive’ and accommodating Old Man, condoning her vile ways.  The longsuffering of God towards her may have confused others too, mistaking it for His approval of her wrong ways.  Thus persuaded, they may have carelessly joined her errors, becoming her endangered blind followers.

6.  The case of Jerusalem

Sometimes, people waste their days of grace, like Jezebel.  Sometimes, cities and nations do too, like Jerusalem, about which Jesus lamented on the day that their ultimatum was sadly expiring: “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in THIS thy day.”  As a consequence of missing their appointed “day,” other “days” would come upon them; days when trouble would surround them on every side, “because thou knewest not THE TIME of THY visitation” (Luke 19:42-44).  It is costly to waste grace.

7.  Your case …

For your city, your nation, your church, your family, your spouse, your child, or even you, I wish we could say how many more days before grace shall have expired.  Like Nineveh, forty days?  Like Jezebel, an undisclosed “space” of time?  Like Herod, no more time, such that the angel of God should smite “immediately” (Acts 12:32)?

How can one tell when their cup is full?  We may never know, especially when we would hear no word from holy Jonahs, merely because they come from a different clime or a different denomination.  That God did not judge transgressions yesterday does not mean that He never will.  He might just be checking His calendar, and watching a cup fearfully about to overflow.

Grace can be long, but grace expires.   Sometimes someone may be speeding on an empty tank, unmindful of the divine dashboard, until their cruise is sadly and suddenly terminated in a midway disaster.  Isaiah cried, “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found,” because there comes a day when, even with the best microscopes and telescopes, He can no longer be found.  The prophet adds, “call ye upon him while he is near,” because He will not always be near.  There comes a day when, even with the loudest loudspeakers, He would have gone too far away to hear calls anymore, no matter how loud or how earnest (Isaiah 55:6).

Ecclesiastes 8:11: Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

2 Peter 3:9:  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

 Ezekiel 33:11: Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

As Amos would say, divine mercy might have overlooked “three transgressions,” but if that should embolden anyone into the fourth, then “for four, I will NOT TURN AWAY the punishment thereof …” (Amos 1:3).  Samson was lucky with three lies on Delilah’s laps.  At the fourth, he lost his eyes and cut short his days.  His last prayer, “Let me die with the Philistines” (Judges 16:30).  Alas …. when grace expires …

From The Preacher’s diary,

August 17, 2025.