Seasons of Mercy
Some of us endure the winter months while impatiently waiting for summer to arrive. As we bundle up and put on our boots, we wish for the day when the morning frost will give way to dew and the howling winds to the summer breeze. Others love to see the fresh snowfall and can't wait for the summer heat to relent. Others still can't wait for the leaves to change and for everything to turn to pumpkin spice.
Each season change brings different thoughts and feelings to us all, but have you ever considered the changing seasons as evidence of God's covenant promises? In Genesis 8, we read:
"Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”" (Genesis 8:20-22)
After the Lord executed his righteous judgment upon a world that was wholly given over to violence and rebellion, he made a covenant with Noah. This was a unilateral covenant in which the Lord promised to be merciful to man, recognizing that he is a sinner by nature. As long as the earth remains, the Lord says, "cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease." In other words, the natural cycles of the earth would continue without fear of another catastrophic global judgment.
In this way, the changing seasons are an ever-present reminder that the Lord's mercy continues and that, in his longsuffering patience, he has held his judgment toward sinners at bay.
For thousands of years after Noah, every time fall changed to winter, winter to spring, and spring to summer, it was a reminder that the Lord was merciful, awaiting a day when he would provide a full and final salvation for man, the sinner.
But what of God's holiness? Was his patience with sin an approval of sin? Not at all. Seasons came and seasons went, and when God's appointed time arrived, he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to fully and finally atone for the sins of all who would believe in him. The Lord's covenant with Noah paved the way for the New Covenant.
Today, as you and I witness the changing seasons, whether we look forward to the warmth or the cold, we should all be reminded of the merciful patience of the Lord. Not only has he withheld his judgment against us who are sinners, but in his ultimate act of mercy, he offered his own Son to atone for our sin. Jesus is the saviour for every season, and each new cycle is a reminder that the Lord continues to extend his mercy, "not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9)."
