GOD OFFERS MERCY

WHAT IS MERCY?

Mercy is undeserved kindness and compassion; God therefore offers His Children underserved kindness and compassion that we do not deserve. Mercy is that characteristic, supremely exhibited by God that makes one want to help any needy, hurting person and the like; it is similar to compassion which we will as well see down below.  God showed mercy to the nation of Israel in the Exodus, in the return from Babylon, and above all in remaining faithful to His promise of forgiveness and restoration. God is still merciful in that He frees us from the guilt and power of sin through Christ and accepts us as His own special people; He does not treat us as our sins deserve, for mercy wins out over anger and judgment, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassion fail not” (Lam. 3:22). God wants us likewise to share His heart of mercy in our relationships with others; “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hos. 6:6), that is, we must show compassion to the needy, the hurting, and the oppressed people and treat them with gentleness and kindness as He is to us, “for the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them” (Exo. 4:31).

GOD'S COMPASSION

The God of the Bible is a compassion God, who feels with us in our hurts and need and takes appropriate steps to help us. Evident already in His message of hope to Adam and Eve when they sinned, God’s expression of compassion is first mentioned explicitly in His attitude to the oppressed Israelites in Egypt, whom He delivered through Exodus. And the Lord said, “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmaster, for I know their sorrows” (Exo. 3:7). God similarly showed compassion during the exile. God’s compassion especially went out to the aliens, the needy and the oppressed, “The Old Testament shows that God has a special place in His heart for aliens (non-Israelites living within Israel),”And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all His male be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it: and he shall be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person shall eat it. One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you” (Exo. 12:48-49), especially since the Israelites themselves had been oppressed aliens in Egypt and in Babylon, “Then He said to Abraham; “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years” (Gen 15:13”, Israel was not to mistreat aliens but to give them equal protection under God’s law, “You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exo. 22:21) and also see “You shall not pervert justice due the strangers or the fatherless, nor take a widow’s garment as a pledge” (Det. 24:17). But aliens also had equal responsibility to obey the same laws as the native-born. On the other hands, God’s people in Canaan were not to feel so much at home that they forgot they were aliens whose true country was elsewhere. So we too are aliens in this world, involved in it but not too attached to it. Christians are aliens and nomads in the world. Our real citizenship and homeland is in heaven. On this basis God urges us not to love the world or to become too attached to the things in this world my beloved brethren. In the church, however no one should feel like a foreigner, for we are all brothers and sisters of one another, members of the same family. In those moments when we do experience alienation, whether in our relationship to God or to others, we need to be reminded that only God can replace sense of alienation with the peace of being “at home.” Christ was a compassionate high priest, who showed a deep concern to the hurting and the needy people. Our Lord responds to our suffering with a hurt bursting with deep love, with a compassion that moves Him to step into our lives, “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” (Matt. 9:36).  In imitation of Him, we are to respond to the needy people around us with a compassion that cares enough to become involved in the lives of others. God’s compassionate concern to the poor was, “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your harvest, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them to the poor and the stranger; I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:9-10).Let us see the compassionate acts of Job, “When the ear heard, then it blessed me, and when the eyes saw, then it approved me; because I delivered the poor who cried out, the fatherless and the one who had no helper. The blessing of a perishing man came upon me, and I caused the window’s heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind, and I was feet to the lame, I was a father to the poor, and I searched out the case that I did not know. I broke the fangs of the wicked, and plucked the victim from his teeth” (Job 29: 11-17).

GIVING FOR THE POOR

 The Bible reveals that God cares for the poor in a special way, “And if one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help Him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you. You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God. And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave. As a hired servant and a sojourner he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the year of Jubilee. And then he shall depart from you- he and his children with him- and shall return to his own family. He shall return to the possession of his fathers. For they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. You shall not rule over him with rigor, but you shall fear your God” (Lev. 25:35:43). He demanded justice for the poor and recognition of the rights of the poor. Therefore He set up various laws in the Old Testament to see to it that they were cared for and protected, most important of which were the Sabbath year (the canceling of debts at the end of every seven years) and the year of the Jubilee (the canceling of debts, the liberation of slaves and the return of land to its original owners during the fiftieth year).  That same concern for the needy is underscored in the New Testament; it is both assumed and commanded, especially of the rich. A spontaneous response of the sharing of the goods with those in need characterized the early church. The apostle Paul sponsored a major offering for the poor in Jerusalem. Giving should be free and spontaneous, cheerful, generous and motivated by our gratitude for God’s indescribable gift to us of the Lord Jesus, who shows us the way of self-sacrifice. We can give freely and generously because we know that the generous will themselves be treated generously. On the other hand, those who neglect the poor will be judged. 

HOW DOES GOD OFFERS MERCY THEN?

Even godless and idol-worshiping nations can receive the blessing of God if they disavow their faith in false gods and instead swear by the only true God, Israel’s Jehovah, worshiping Him and learn the ways of His people, “Then it shall be, after I have plucked them out, that I will return and have compassion on them and bring them back, everyone to his heritage and everyone to his land. And it shall be, if they will learn carefully the ways of My people to swear by My name, ‘As the Lord lives,’ as they taught My people to swear by Baal, then they shall be established in the midst of My people” (Jer. 12:15-16). God will bless those who swear their homage and worship to Him and who learn from Him, “And you shall swear, “The Lord lives,” in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; the nations shall bless themselves in Him, and in Him they shall glory” (Jer. 4:2). He will built them up and prosper them. Even more, as they led others away from Him, so he will lead them to Himself, “And the Lord passed through him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exo. 34:6-7a, b). Only the everlasting love of God provides an answer to what God will do in a life that turns from an oath to a false god to an oath to serve Jehovah. What unfathomable blessings can be ours from a God like this when we pledge our allegiance to Him! He asks our allegiance, and He asked us to truly learn the ways He has established for His people. Apart of His nature God is merciful, “Nevertheless in Your great mercy You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them; for You are God, gracious and merciful” (Neh. 9:31). And again, “Therefore be merciful just as your Father also is merciful” (Luke 6:36). Beloved, God our Father, excises mercy freely, “Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” (Exo. 33:19).And to Moses He said, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then it is not on him, who wills, nor on him who runs, but on God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show my power in you, and My name may be declared in all the earth.’ Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens” (Rom. 9:15-18). And mercy triumphs over judgment, “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment” (Jas. 2:13).

Abba Father, I thank You for Thy mercy that You freely offers us and may it prevail over us O Lord. Beloved, let us therefore come boldly to His throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in times of need (Heb. 4:16). To our God who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us (Eph. 2:4)

“Grace to you and Favor from our God and Father and the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen and Amen and Amen.”