GOD’S MERCY
BIBLE TOPICS
One of the virtues of God that Christians often remember and remind themselves of, as well as witness to those who do not know God, is the mercy of Jehovah. This is something that the Bible also mentions frequently, as recorded in the Psalms of King David:
1 CHRONICLES 16: 34 – Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; for His mercy endures forever.
In the history of the Bible, God showed His mercy to Abraham (Genesis 24:27), to Lot (Genesis 19:16), to the Israelites, calling His name the Merciful One when passing before Moses (Exodus 34:6). When He came into the world, He had mercy on the sick, the blind, and the disabled (Matthew 14:14).
Therefore, we Christians should consider ourselves the most fortunate people because we have been chosen by God to become children of the Merciful One. But there are two important problems that we often make the mistake of thinking that receiving God’s mercy is something Christians naturally receive and rarely thinking about how each of us can deserve God’s mercy.
In the first problem, Christians take it for granted that they will receive God’s mercy no matter how weak or how many times they sin. Because of this thinking, some people give an example that human life is like a pencil and God’s love through Christ is like an eraser. When the pencil writes wrongly, the eraser will erase it without leaving any trace. They also think that in the physical world, the eraser can be worn out and one day it will be gone; but in the spiritual world, the eraser of Christ’s love will never wear out, never end, so people just continue to sin and God will continue to forgive them through the love of Christ.
It is true that God’s love is immense, limitless, and never ends, as the Lord’s words in the Bible verse just quoted above, in 1Kings 16:34, but that does not mean that people should continue to sin, never try to correct their mistakes, or refuse to change to live better.
Let us examine the Word of God recorded in the Bible to see what it teaches on this matter. It is clear that God chose Abraham’s descendants to be His chosen people and that He loved them. God showed His mercy when the Israelites suffered under the yoke of slavery in Egypt. God performed miracles to bring them to freedom. But when the Israelites continued to be stubborn and refused to obey God, He asked them:
EXODUS 16: 28 – Then the Lord said to Moses: How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions?
This question was not asked to Moses alone, but through Moses God asked the entire Israelite people about their continued disobedience to His command. If God’s mercy was something that the Israelites received unconditionally because they were God’s chosen people, then why did He ask them with the above verse? It would have been enough if He had continued to show them mercy!
If God’s mercy and compassion were a given for His people regardless of how they live their lives, He would not need to rebuke them through the following verse:
NUMBERS 14: 11 – The Lord said to Moses: How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?
And in…
NUMBERS 14: 27 – How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.
When God said that the Israelites despised Him, it meant that in their view, since God is loving and merciful, it was His responsibility to be merciful, and they did not need to try to please Him. By thinking like that, they indirectly placed themselves above God (because they did not need to obey God, and He had the responsibility to do what people wanted, to give them His mercy). With such a view, who is the master, who is the Lord? We must know the answer. That is why God said that the Israelites despised Him.
If God’s mercy were unconditional, something that God’s people naturally received regardless of how sinful or weak their lives were, then God would not have punished the Israelites as recorded in the Bible:
NUMBERS 14: 33 – Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.
It is wrong to say so, because God is the One who never changes, so no matter what period, His ways towards the Israelites and Christians are the same.
In addition, we must consider other Scriptures recorded in the gospels, that is, during the time of grace, when Jesus spoke out against those of little faith and unbelief, including both His disciples and the Pharisees, as recorded in…
MATTHEW 17: 17 – You unbelieving and perverse generation, Jesus replied, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.
(to be continued)