By Lou Yeboah
Listen… If you think the “Corona-virus” is something—I tell you, but, Nay, except you REPENT… ALL of you will likewise perish… That’s right… I’M FED UP… I’m sick of your sin and disobedience. I’m sick of your rejection, your injustice, and your complaining. Think you can flaunt your sin in My face and nothing happens. Think you can continually take My Grace for granted and nothing happens… I tell you what….Yield yourselves to Me, and serve Me, ONLY THEN, will I let you live and not bring on you any of the diseases which I put on the Egyptians. Because from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have rebelled against Me, so much so, that I am ready to destroy you. I tell you, IF YOU DO NOT REPENT, All of you will likewise perish! I have for along time held my peace; I have been still, and restrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once… No more will I relent if you do not repent! You have been warned, says the Lord.”
I want you to know that both the Old and New Testaments display a God who doesn’t tolerate sin, he punished it. A few stories from the Old Testament: The Garden: God didn’t tolerate Adam and Eve’s sin. He didn’t accept their lifestyle choice to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He banished them from Eden and left an angel with flaming swords to guard the entrance so they couldn’t return. Noah and the Flood: His anger was provoked against the sin of Noah’s day and He brought on the flood that changed the face of the world. Uzzah: One of the most uncomfortable accounts of divine intolerance found in [2 Samuel 6]. This story recounts Uzzah’s attempt to steady the ark of the Lord after an oxen stumbled on the journey back to Israel. When he reached out and touched the ark, Uzzah’s instinctive response was met with God’s intense anger, and Uzzah was immediately struck down. I could go on and on throughout the Old Testament, considering Achan, Korah, Aaron’s sons, the Canaanites, and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, just to name a few. All perished by the very hand of God. He did not tolerate their sin; he punished it.
I tell you, God is very patient and loving with us. He gives us many chances to repent and turn from our wickedness. One day, however, His toleration of sin will cease. That is the lesson of the Old Testament, that God waits, longing for people to repent. However, He will not delay punishment forever and when it does arrive, it will be without recourse. The lesson to humanity today is to repent while there is time.
“The people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them… The king made proclamation… “Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands.” [Jonah 3:5, 7-9]
“I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. So choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, 20and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him…” [Deuteronomy 30:19].
Scripture Reference:
Luke 13:2-5
Isaiah 65:2
2 Chronicles 30:7-8
Exodus 15:26
Numbers 11: 1-34
Romans 1:18
Isaiah 42: 23-25