Is It Really Better Late Than Never?

I have heard it so many times: "Well, better late than never!" It was generally said about someone who is perpetually late. The fact that this person showed up at all was considered a fete.

I wondered if this thought has been transfered to our obedience to God. It seems that I am urging people to come home to God every week. I tell the story of the Prodigal Son's Father. I tell them they can come home. The next week I am offering them the same deal. They have heard it so many times that it no longer has any impact. They hear the story of the Prodigal wanting to eat the pig food and know things really aren't that bad yet. The figure they can wait until things get that bad before coming home. So, just like the Prodigal, they stay away until everything's going down the toilet.

Is that really the way God is? Does He keep giving you a chance to come home forever? Does He allow you to wait until you are ready to be obedient to Him? Does He say, "Better late than never?"

That doesn't seem to be the story of God's people when they refused to go into the Promised Land. The next day they decided to be faithful but God was no longer with them. They were horribly beaten. They didn't even know that God wasn't with them.

What if this next Sunday is the last time God is going to ask you to be obedient? What if you don't ever get another chance? Why should you believe that God will continue to give you another chance?

No, it's not better late than never. It's better to be obedient the first time. My suggestion is that you do what God says when He tells you to do it.

Numbers 14:40-42 (ESV)
And they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, "Here we are. We will go up to the place that the LORD has promised, for we have sinned." But Moses said, "Why are you transgressing the command of the LORD, when that will not succeed? Do not go up for the LORD is not with you, lest you be struck down before your enemies.