The Everlasting Covenant

Time Given the Amorites for Repentance

But we learn something more. In the fourth generation, or after the lapse of four hundred years, his seed was to come out of bondage, into the promised land. Why could they not possess the land at once?—Because the iniquity of the Amorites was not then full. That shows that God would give the Amorites time to repent, or, failing that, to fill up the measure of their iniquity, and thus demonstrate their unfitness to possess the land. Then, as now, the long-suffering of our God was salvation. EVCO 72.4

And that teaches us further that the land which God promised to Abraham and his seed could be possessed only by righteous people. God would not cast out of the land those of whom there was any seeming prospect that they might become righteous. But the fact that the people who were to be destroyed from before the children of Abraham were to be cast out because of their wickedness, shows that the possessors of the land were expected to be righteous. And thus we learn that the seed of Abraham, to whom the land was promised, were to be righteous people. This has already been shown by the fact that the seed was promised to Abraham only through the righteousness of faith. “Thy people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands that I may be glorified.” ¹ EVCO 73.1