Yahweh’s Mercy

Reading:
Exodus - Chapter 34: verses 1-8

English: Mercy = Refraining from inflicting punishment or pain on an offender.
Hebrew: Chesed = loving kindness, chanan = graciously inclined, racham = to love and pity.
Greek: Eleeo = to be kind, beneficent.

1. Our Merciful Father

When men describe themselves or their fellows they are inclined to tell of appearance, possessions, intelligence, skill, wealth, power or position. But when the Almighty describes Himself He speaks of His qualities - foremost amongst which He rates His quality of mercy.

Exodus 34:	5: “And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6: And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7: Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. 8: And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.”
Jeremiah 3:	12: “Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.”
Isaiah 54:	5: “For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. 6: For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. 7: For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. 8: In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.”
Deuteronomy 4:	30: “When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; 31: (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.”
Psalm 103:	8: “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. 9: He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.”
James 5:	11: “Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”

2. Mercy for the Repentant

Even though the Most High is an extremely merciful Being, His mercy is only extended to those who repent of their sins and sincerely request His mercy. It is not indiscriminately poured upon blatant sinners who have no intention of giving up sin.

Exodus 33:	19: And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.”
Exodus 34:	7: “Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”
Psalm 59:	5: “Thou therefore O Lord God of Hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressor. Selah!”
Jeremiah 3:	13: “Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.”

3. Mercy for the Ignorant

There are of course times when people do not repent, simply because they do not realize that they are doing wrong. Yahweh is usually merciful in these instances (Acts 17: 30), though He does warn and even punish sins of ignorance in an effort to bring the sinner to his senses. In other words, mercy is available, but only to repentant believers who request forgiveness. The enlightened but unrepentant transgressor, however, will not obtain mercy from God.

Hebrews 10:

26: “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
27: But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
28: He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
29: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
30: For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
31: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

4. Everlasting Mercy

There are many verses in the Bible which say that Yahweh's mercy is everlasting. Of course when sin ceases to exist, the need for repentance and mercy will vanish. But mercy itself, that tender-hearted loving-kindness and grace that springs from Yahweh's heart, will endure for all time.

Psalm 100:	5: “For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”
Psalm 103:	17: “But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; 18: To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.”

Psalm 136:
Read this psalm through and note how almost every action of the Most High in His treatment of Israel was prompted by His love and mercy. Contrast Yahweh's terrifying punishment of the heathen with His tender mercies for His repentant people. Pause and consider the mercy of the Most High. It is abundant, free and everlasting to those who request it in the right spirit. But it is withheld from the blatant sinner who knowingly opposes Yahweh’s will.

Here is Psalm 136 written in full.

Psalm 136: 1: “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
2: O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever.
3: O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever.
4: To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy endureth for ever.
5: To him that by wisdom made the heavens: for his mercy endureth for ever.
6: To him that stretched out the earth above the waters: for his mercy endureth for ever.
7: To him that made great lights: for his mercy endureth for ever:
8: The sun to rule by day: for his mercy endureth for ever:
9: The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth for ever.
10: To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy endureth for ever:
11: And brought out Israel from among them: for his mercy endureth for ever:
12: With a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm: for his mercy endureth for ever.
13: To him which divided the Red sea into parts: for his mercy endureth for ever:
14: And made Israel to pass through the midst of it: for his mercy endureth for ever:
15: But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea: for his mercy endureth for ever.
16: To him which led his people through the wilderness: for his mercy endureth for ever.
17: To him which smote great kings: for his mercy endureth for ever:
18: And slew famous kings: for his mercy endureth for ever:
19: Sihon king of the Amorites: for his mercy endureth for ever:
20: And Og the king of Bashan: for his mercy endureth for ever:
21: And gave their land for an heritage: for his mercy endureth for ever:
22: Even an heritage unto Israel his servant: for his mercy endureth for ever.
23: Who remembered us in our low estate: for his mercy endureth for ever:
24: And hath redeemed us from our enemies: for his mercy endureth for ever.
25: Who giveth food to all flesh: for his mercy endureth for ever.
26: O give thanks unto the God of heaven: for his mercy endureth for ever.”
Exodus 33: 19: “And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.”

5. The Merciful receive Mercy

No one is better placed to receive mercy than the merciful.

Be merciful:

2 Samuel 22: 26: “With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, and with the upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright.
27: With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself unsavoury.”
Matthew 5: 7: “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.”
James 2: 13: “For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.”
Matthew 6: 12: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

Repentance:

Luke 17: 3: “Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
4: And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.”

Ignorance:

Luke 23: 34: “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”
Acts 17: 30: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:”

6. A Call to be Merciful

We live in an extremely brutal world; a world in which mental and physical cruelty are commonplace. Mercy is vanishing from the earth and people are becoming callous, pitiless and cruel. Even in the Christian church. It is at a time like this that kindness and mercy are desperately needed. And what better channel could the Most High find to express His mercy to the world than the true believer him/herself. Consider Yahweh's appeal to His followers to be merciful.

Matthew 24:

9: “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
10: And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11: And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12: And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13: But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”

It is at a time like this that kindness and mercy are desperately needed. And what better channel could the Most High find to express His mercy to the world than the true believer him/herself. Consider Yahweh's appeal to His followers to be merciful.

Micah 6: 8: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
Zechariah 7: 9: “Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:”
Matthew 23: 23: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”

7. He hath shewed thee, O Man

From the above we can see that showing mercy comes second to ‘doing justly.’ Mercy is a weightier matter. But it is not extended to unrepentant sinners unless they are totally ignorant of what they are doing. It is only when we look at Yahweh's mercy in this light that we can appreciate its worth and its place in the Judgment. Yahweh's mercy rejoices over judgment - whenever repentance is present - and every noble mind is gladdened when it does. But when repentance is contemptuously and continuously ignored, then His mercy gives way to judgment and punishment follows. These are eternal, spiritual facts we do well to keep in mind.

AMEN!

In the Son’s Name - For the Father’s glory.

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2 Samuel 22:	26: “With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, and with the upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright. 27: With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself unsavoury.”
Matthew 5:	7: “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.”
James 2:	13: “For he shall have judgment without mercy,* that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.”*
Matthew 6:	12: “And forgive* us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”*

Luke 23:	34: “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.* And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”*
Acts 17:	30: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:”

Micah 6:	8: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
Zechariah 7:	9: “Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:”
Matthew 23:	23: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”