-But God... That about sums it up. The blessed but. Life and circumstances are contrary. Tragedy and death and evil are rearing their ugly head. But God... Man plans a thing, life seems to be headed in a certain direction - over and over again we see that God is in control and He has a plan (which overrides all else) as well as the power which allows Him to exercise complete control. Where we see it most is when God intervenes on behalf of His people. They are in dire straits, something bad is about to happen to them, their outlook is bleak... But God [does something] (Genesis 8.1, 50.20; 1Samuel 23.14; Psalm 73.26; 2Corinthians 7.6). God did something in this case as well - the biggest but of them all. And there were two driving forces behind it - His mercy, and His love.
-Yes, God is rich in mercy, present tense, always and abundantly so. Mercy is leniency, clemency, showing compassion or forgiveness towards someone when you have the power and authority to punish or do them harm. Mercy lets me off the hook, and God is literally full of it. He lets us off the hook A LOT. His mercy is truly great (2Samuel 24.14, Psalm 119.156), infinite and inexhaustible, and it pervades all that He does (Psalm 145.9, Romans 9.15 --> cf Exodus 33.19). He values mercy so much that He commands it of His people (Luke 6.36, 10.37), and gets seriously angry when people fail to show mercy to their fellow man (cf Jeremiah 50.42; Matthew 18.33, 23.23; James 2.13). The manifold mercies of God turn out to be our great and ultimate motivator for serving Him (Romans 12.1). The ark of the covenant, the symbol of God’s presence with His people, was actually covered with what was called the seat of mercy, which was to be sprinkled with the blood of the sin offering (Leviticus 16.15), and it was from above this seat of mercy that God would speak to Moses (Numbers 7.89). God so prefers mercy, and has always gone to great lengths to reinforce this truth. From the very beginning, He has over and over again shown that He would much rather show mercy to people (cf 2Peter 3.9) than to do them harm. Adam and Eve? Mercy. They didn’t die right away. Yes, their spirit died and God had to drive them out of paradise, but He did that so that they would not be able to eat from the tree of life and live forever separated from Him. Driving them out was divine mercy, and before doing so He killed two of his creatures in order to make clothes for them (Genesis 3.21-24)(which perhaps is more an example of grace than mercy but the two are often intertwined with God). To be sure, His holiness and justice must be satisfied, but do you see now how God’s infinite mercy then becomes the driving force behind sending His beloved Son to die in our place, to pay the just penalty for our transgressions thus paving the way for total forgiveness? "Be full of mercy", Jesus said, "just as your heavenly Father is full of mercy". Having received mercy, we are perhaps most like Him when we likewise show mercy to our fellow man. To our kids. To my spouse. To the unfortunate soul who is holding up the line. To the clever chap who just cut me off. Mercy says it’s ok and lets it go. Turn the other cheek. Go the extra mile. Not mere platitudes, these - this is God showing up in and thru my life and doing what He do. These are the deeds of mercy. Loving and blessing and praying for and doing good to my enemies and to those who hurt or offend or perhaps merely annoy me begins with mercy. Letting it go. Not exacting revenge or payback. Mercy stays my hand and silences my tongue when my instincts drive me to want to exact justice and teach them a lesson. Perhaps that lesson should be for them a glimpse of mercy...
-Far easier it is to show mercy to someone for whom you actually care. The more you care about someone, the more willing and likely you are to let them off the hook. God’s rich mercy combines with His great love in this case, His giving, no-strings-attached love being the driving force and motivation behind this mission of mercy. For God so loved the world... Here we get a glimpse of how deep, how wide, how great the Father’s love is for us, so vast beyond all measure. He showed how much He loved us when He gave up His Son to be killed by those who were in fact His enemies. But He has always loved us, even as enemies, from before we were born, before the beginning, endless, enduring, everlasting love which knows no bounds. To truly comprehend and know what is the extent of this love - that is precisely the apex of paul’s aspiration and prayer for these believers in the next chapter (Eph 3.17-19). So yes, I can verbally regurgitate the fact of God’s love, but have I soaked up and been saturated with a deep understanding of how truly and unfathomably great is His love for me, for my neighbor, for the world? Does it both deepen the peace in my soul and disturb my sleep? In this area as in so many others I have a long, long way to go...
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