We foolishly think that we have God all figured out, don’t we? We think that we know how He deals with sinners, what He’s like, how He thinks. What is God like? Well, He’s mostly like us, except totally huge, and He knows everything. And He told us what is right and wrong, so if we choose to do wrong, He’ll be rightly outraged at us - because He told us not to do it, and we should’ve known better.

But, thankfully, He has made a way for us to be forgiven, and if we’re willing to clean up our act, make things right, He’s willing to consider taking us back. But He’ll keep His eye on us, and if we blow it again…, well, we might want to read the fine print in our contract.

We may not lay out our understanding of God so explicitly, but we often feel that this is what God is like, right? He’s very huge and powerful, and his heart isn’t as small as that of the Grinch who stole Christmas - whose heart was two sizes too small - but surely it’s not THAT big - after all, there’s gotta be some limit to forgiveness and grace.

In thinking about God in this way, we have managed to become complete idolaters; we have made God in our own image. What is He like? What’s His forgiveness like? Probably like ours.
Scripture, however, turns this idolatry on its head, giving us a true glimpse into the ways of God with His people. We will discover what these texts tell us about the forgiveness of God by asking and answering three questions.

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