God Gives Grace to the Humble - Ezekiel 31-36

 Ezekiel 33:17-20 (ESV)

“Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just,’ when it is their own way that is not just. When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it. And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he shall live by this. Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.”

God’s character is to give grace to the humble.   Those who do not repent, do not get God’s grace.  Those who hear His Word and repent in humility, will receive God’s grace and salvation.  There are a number of really good examples of this in Scripture:

1. Abraham’s prayer and interaction with God over Lot being in Sodom.   Note Abraham’s prayer for Lot and God’s response:

Genesis 18:22-26 (ESV) So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD. Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” And the LORD said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

2. The story of the king of Nineveh after Jonah’s message of doom:

Jonah 3:9-10 (ESV)

Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

3. The story of the prodigal son in Luke 15.  Jesus told the story about the lost son (along with the sheep and the lost coin) to tell us about God’s grace to pursue us and to honor those who hear and turn in faith in humility.  

God give grace to the humble.