Though the corrupted culture of Canaan had reached its rubicon, it would take centuries before their ultimate destruction. This statement from Genesis 15 speaks to both the depravity of man and the sovereignty of God. History has proven that God will allow nations that reject Him to go their own way. Perhaps the most devastating effect of sin is its deadening effect on human conscience. Caught in the downward spiral of sin’s deceptive power men begin to think in a reprobate fashion calling evil good and good evil. It’s incredibly sad when people lose the capacity to perceive their own sinfulness; to the point of reckoning themselves upright and decent. “There is a generation pure in their own eyes and yet not washed from their filth.” Proverbs 30.12 Like a child coming in for dinner covered with dirt and grime and sits down grabbing food in dirty little fingers oblivious to his squalor.
The Amorites’ iniquity would eventually ripen, rot, and fall off the tree; their godless culture would turn inward to feed upon itself with voracious self destruction; their demise inevitable. And all the while God’s sovereign grace was at work for His chosen people, keeping them safe in a far away land for hundreds of years. How patient is the love and mercy of the Lord! He will allow the Amorites to continue their slide while Israel grows and prospers. And then, in His infinite wisdom, He will allow His own to suffer under a new pharoah who knew not Joseph. Though in Egypt they were not to love Egypt. God would bring them home and they would return to the land He had promised Abraham. History would unfold revealing God’s wonderful redemptive purpose. How great is our God!
