One of God’s great attributes towards humanity is His mercy. This is one of the most mysterious and awe-inspiring aspects of our Heavenly Father, and should cause us much joy, gratitude, and peace. Mercy is something angels do not experience. The ones that rebelled are eternally condemned to everlasting destruction.
Mercy is something seemingly reserved for us alone.
The word mercy is defined as “compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.” Mercy is when God does not give us what we deserve and restrains Himself from punishing us as we warrant.
God is holy, righteous, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent, yet He is also gracious and merciful.
The word mercy is found in scripture over 265 times along with the words merciful, and mercies, which are mentioned over seventy-five times. Even under the Law of Moses God revealed Himself as being merciful to a thousand generations.
"Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments….” Deuteronomy 7:9
God commanded Moses to build a tabernacle in the wilderness where He would meet with him and the people. One piece of furniture in the tabernacle was the ark of the Covenant. It was covered with pure gold, contained the Testimony or Covenant God made with Israel. Above it the golden cherubim overlooking the ‘mercy seat’ where God said He would meet with Moses.
21) You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. 22) And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel. Exodus 25:21-22
The prophet Jeremiah, during his lamentation over Israel made this observation and declaration:
22) Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23) They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23
No one can say they are above God’s mercy. No one has walked perfectly before Him or earned righteousness on their own. It is of the Lord’s mercies we are His children.
When Israel sinned in the wilderness, they provoked God’s wrath, but Moses fell on his face and interceded for the people. The Lord instructed him to put a bronze serpent on a pole and then lift it up, so anyone looking at the serpent would be healed.
5) And the people spoke against God and against Moses: "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread." 6) So the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.
7) Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD that He take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people.
8) Then the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live."
9) So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. Numbers 21:5-9
Although the people had provoked the Lord with their complaining and ingratitude for all His miracles and goodness to bring them out of Egypt, He still made a way for them to repent and receive His mercy.
This prophetic picture represented the coming Messiah Who would hang upon a tree as a curse for the sins of the entire world.
14) And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15) that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
16) For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17) For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. John 3:14-17
God is just, and must judge sin, but loves His creation and longs to be merciful and show compassion. You and I are saved because of His mercy and grace.
4) But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5) even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6) and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7) that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-7
This is one of my favorite passages in scripture because it not only speaks of God’s rich mercy towards us now but speaks of His ongoing loving kindness towards us in Christ in the ages to come.
Instead of punishment, we have His mercy. Instead of hopelessness, we have an eternally bright future because of His unfailing mercy and unfathomable grace. Amazing!
We’ll continue our study on the mercy of God next time. Until then, may God our Heavenly Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ bless and keep you.
James Brown
CST 10/07/2024