" "When the wicked man turneth
away from his wickedness, he shall live." "Have I any pleasure at
all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God, and not that he
should return from his ways, and live?"
This, then, is the good news, that God is love; love when He
punishes, and love when He forgives; very pitiful, and full of long-
suffering and tender mercy and repenting Him, never of the good, but
only of the evil which He threatens.
Both Jeremiah, therefore, and Ezekiel, give us the same lesson. God
does not change, and therefore He never changes His mercy and His
justice: for He is merciful because He is just. If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. That is His
everlasting law, and has been from the beginning: Punishment, sure
and certain, for those who do not repent; and free forgiveness, sure
and certain also, for those who do repent.
So He spoke to Jeremiah in the time of Jehoiakim: "It may be that
the house of Judah will hear all the evil that I purpose to do to
them; that I may forgive them their iniquity and their sin." The
Lord, you see, wishes to forgive--longs to forgive. His heart yearns
over sinful men as a father's over his rebellious child. But if they
will still rebel, if they will still turn their wicked wills away
from Him, He must punish.
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