The Iniquity of the Amorites
The iniquity of the Amorites had to be fulfilled before God would let the Israelites enter the Promised Land.
Genesis 15: 13-16
And he (God) said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance,
And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
seed (zera – pronounced zeh-rah)
child, fruitful, seed-time, sowing-time
stranger (ger, geyr – pronounced gare)
a guest, by implication a foreigner, alien, sojourner
serve (abad – pronounced aw-bad)
keep in bondage, to work, be bondmen, bond-service, keep, labor, become a servant
afflict (anah – pronounced aw-naw)
the idea of looking down or browbeating; to depress literally or figuratively, abase, deal hardly with, defile, force, hurt, ravish
judge (diyn, dum – pronounced deen, doon)
to rule; to judge as umpire; to strive as at law; contend, execute judgment, minister judgmenet, plead the cause
substance (rekush – pronounced rek-oosh)
goods, riches, property (as gathered)
iniquity (avon – pronounced aw-vone)
perversity, that is, evil: fault, mischief, punishment (of iniquity), sin
full (shalem – pronounced shaw-lame)
complete (literally or figuratively); just, made ready, peaceable, perfected, quiet, whole
Hundreds of years before it happened, God told Abram in exact detail what the Israelites could expect, though they were not even a people yet. Isaac was still several years from being born, muchless Abram being the father of a great nation of millions of people.
God wanted to set him apart from the heathen nations that were around him and in which he now lived. The only way to do that was for him to leave the place he was now living and go to a place that God had chosen for him. That way God could start to work in Abram’s life and in the lives of the people he took with him to change their hearts and make them a people who loved and worshiped Him and Him alone.
Let’s dwell on verse 16 in this passage, though. The Amorites would be spared until their perversity had come to a place where God finally said enough-is-enough. He already knew what their moral character would be and they would have to fulfill it completely before God would act on the part of the Israelites to redeem them.
Many times it looks like evil people get away with things indefinitely, but God always has a timetable for everything. When the right time has come, the evil will be judged and God’s justice will prevail.
