Exodus, and not till the 400 years were nearly fulfilled do we read "And God heard their

groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob"

(Exod. 2: 24).

The people of Israel who had been given the land of Canaan for an everlasting

possession, could only return to it after 215 years of bondage and misery in Egypt, by

way of the typical redeeming blood of the passover lamb! However, the above quotation

is partial and the reason given by God to Abraham for this strange and protracted

interlude is:

The Amorites were Satan's counterfeit seed, represented later in the parable of the

tares to which we have already alluded. In this parable there is not immediate divine

judgment on these "tares". They are not to be rooted up straight away, but left till the

harvest. Then they will be gathered out by God's agents, the angels, blotted out by being

burnt up and destroyed. We say `destroyed' advisedly, because the universalist somehow

must bring them back into being if his creed is true. Any gardener understands the

illustration used here. He uproots the weeds and burns them up in a bonfire, not to

preserve them, but to destroy them, and this would be a most unsuitable picture of the

purpose of God if His final plan is to save them for eternity. Just as the tares are left till

the harvest before they are destroyed, so the Amorites' destruction is not immediate, for

not until a certain quantity of evil is `filled up' does God judge them and blot them out.

In this we have a principle throughout Scripture that God often waits before judging for

sin. In His righteousness He does not punish until sin has reached a certain level that

deserves this, and then He acts. This must be remembered because we may sometimes

fail to understand and remove them from hindering His great purposes. His righteousness

and His infinite grace and longsuffering have to be reckoned with here.

It is understandable that we should think that if God be God almighty, He could not

take second place in His dealings with man, yet the whole record of His purpose for

heaven and earth seems to point to `the second time'. Without being irreverent, we may

liken the conflict of the ages to a great game of chess where the opposing players are God

and Satan with the powers of darkness under his control. In this conflict God, since

creation, sometimes seems to allow Satan to make the first move. But however many

moves there are and however protracted the game may be, we know for certain that it will

finally be `check-mate' with God as the Victor and Satan and his hosts defeated and

annihilated. God will finally be `all in all' and at last the wondrous plan, conceived by

Him in past eternity, can go on unhindered to a glorious completion.

This principle of "the second time" can be seen in Stephen's address recorded in

Acts 7: He points out that Joseph was made known to his brethren "the second time"

and Moses was accepted by Israel, but only after his primary rejection (Acts 7: 13, 35).

Again in Heb. 9: 28, even though `once at the consummation of the ages' (end of the

world A.V.), Christ had already `appeared', it will not be until He appears "the second