Too Late

by Chris Simmons

When told by God to take possession of the Promised Land in Numbers chapter 13, the people rebelled and indicated that they’d rather return to captivity in Egypt than fight for the land that God had promised them (Numbers 14:3-4). God’s wrath is communicated in His promise that everyone twenty years and older would die in the wilderness (14:29) and would not enter into the land. When Moses shared God’s words with the people, it says that they “mourned greatly” and admitted that they had “indeed sinned” and changed their minds deciding that they would now “go up to the place which the Lord has promised” (14:39-40). Moses response to their change of heart was basically, “it’s too late” and told them that if they now tried to go into the land of promise that they would be utterly defeated because God would not be with them. Today, we scratch our heads and wonder; how could they have missed such an opportunity?

But how often have we had opportunities in life come our way and found ourselves to be too late to take advantage of them? Fear, doubt, laziness, or selfishness can cause us, like the Israelites, to miss out on the blessings that God has promised us; most importantly the spiritual blessings that are found “in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). Opportunities are a valuable commodity that we are exhorted to take advantage of as Paul writes in Colossians 4:5-6, “Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.” When opportunities come, we can’t afford to presume that such opportunities will always be there. We have opportunities before us now, but those doors will someday close and we might find that tomorrow it will too late. There are plenty of biblical examples of those who were too late:

There were those in the days of Noah who had the opportunity to be saved through the water but chose not to. We read in 2 Peter 2:5, that Noah was described as “a preacher of righteousness” and thus we know that he warned of the judgment to come and offered the opportunity to be saved, but yet only eight entered the ark. We read in Genesis 7:16 that God closed the door and then “the flood came upon the earth;” thus ending the opportunity for salvation. Were there some desperate knocks on that door of the ark that God closed, as the water started to rise, of those who spurned the invitation pleading for another opportunity? We don’t know, but at some point in time as the flood waters prevailed upon the land, every person who heard the “preacher of righteousness” undoubtedly must have had the thought, “I was wrong, I wish I had heeded and now it’s too late.”

Then there is Esau, who as Isaac’s first born was entitled to the privileges and blessings of the birthright but chose to exchange it with his brother Jacob, for a single meal to satisfy his fleshly desires (Genesis 25:27-34). After his hunger was satisfied, Esau then realized what he had done and the horrible trade he had made and he sought to get the blessing back … but it was too late. We read in Hebrews 12:17, “For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.”

We also read of the rich man of Luke 16:19ff who daily had the opportunity to do good (for Lazarus who “laid at his gate”) and seek God’s mercy, who then died and found he was too late to seek God’s mercy (vs. 24), too late to change his eternal destiny (vs. 26), and too late to warn his family and loved ones (vs. 27-31). He could only forever wonder “what if?” as he realized in his eternal agony that he was too late.

We can also read of the man named Achan who gave in to the lusts of the eyes and coveted, took, and concealed the “spoil” of the inhabitants of those in Jericho which God had forbid. Achan confessed his sin in Joshua 7:20-21 saying “I have sinned” but only after God identified him as the cause of the curse upon the Israelites. He confessed but it was too late.

In the gospels we read of the foolish virgins in the parable found in Matthew 25:1-13, who evidently desired to meet the bridegroom and evidently had time to get ready (because others did) but waited too late. For we read in verses 10-13 when they finally went to make their preparations, that the bridegroom came and those who were ready went in to the wedding feast “and the door was shut” as they stood outside pleading for the door to be opened and they be given another chance. They also were too late and Jesus exhorts us to “be on the alert then” so that we might not miss our opportunity.

The sad fact is that Jesus said that it will be “many” who will wait too late and let the door be shut and then “stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’” (Luke 13:24-28). Will I be one of the “many” to stand and knock too late?

The good news is that God is patient and doesn’t wish “for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). The point of 2 Peter chapter 3 is that no one knows how long God will continue to exercise that patience towards us and that we need to “regard the patience” already extended to us “to be salvation” (2 Peter 3:15). But we don’t know how many more opportunities we will be given – in fact all we know of is right now. So now is the time to take advantage of the opportunity to be forgiven and to be saved from our sins. Now is the time to humble ourselves in obedience to His will. Now is the time to make things right with God. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “now is ‘the acceptable time,’ behold, now is ‘the day of salvation’.” Because one day, it will be too late.