To steal is to wrongfully and selfishly take something that belongs to someone else and place it amongst one’s own possessions.
Most people assume the Lord’s actions are motivated almost solely because of His love for man. Yet, God works for His own glory and for His own name’s sake.
Sin can never be flippantly disregarded. If the Lord is just, and He is, He must mete out consequences for rebellion. The biblical descriptions of the Lord’s reaction to rebellion varies from “he will be wroth” (Joshua 22:18) to “then shall the hand of the LORD be against you” (1 Samuel 12:15) to “ye shall be devoured with the sword” (Isaiah 1:20) to “I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee” (Exodus 33:5) to “I will purge out from among you the rebels” (Ezekiel 20:38) to “I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings” (Malachi 2:2). Though there are variations in the response, the constant truth remains that the Lord hates rebellion and responds to the rebellion with judgment.
Most people are familiar with the phrase forgive and forget, yet likely not that familiar that its origin is the Bible. Jeremiah 31:34 refers to a condition yet to be enjoyed by the Jewish people in the kingdom established on this earth following the second coming. Some of these benefits are already enjoyed by the born-again child of God. In this verse, the Lord says that He “will forgive their iniquity, and . . . will remember their sin no more.” Notice that God said He will not only forgive but also forget. What a day that will be! True forgiveness also forgets the transgression. To claim that someone is forgiven and still remains accountable for a wrongdoing suggests that he was never actually forgiven. It is important to note that God’s forgiveness and forgetfulness is not based upon what a person deserves, but an act of God’s mercy (Hebrews 8:11-12).
