Reading: Exodus 34:1-8
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
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.
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Exodus 34:5-7 |
"And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him (Moses) there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord God, merciful, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin ...'" |
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Jeremiah 3:12 |
"Go and proclaim these words towards the north (where the ten tribes have been taken captive) and say, Return, faithless Israel, says the Lord, and I will not cause my countenance to fall or look in anger upon you, for I am merciful, says the Lord; I will not keep anger forever." |
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Isaiah 54:5-7 |
"... For a small moment I have forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee." |
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Deuteronomy 4:30-31 |
"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 shall be obedient unto His voice; For the Lord thy God is a merciful God; He will not forsake nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which He sware unto them." |
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Psalm 103:8 |
"The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy." |
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James 5:11 |
"... The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy." |
Even though the Most High is an extremely merciful Being, His mercy is only extended to those who sincerely request it. It is not indiscriminately poured upon blatant sinners who have no intention of giving up their sins.
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Exodus 33:19 |
"... And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy." |
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Exodus 34:7 |
"Keeping mercy for thousands ... and that will by no means clear the guilty." |
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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!" |
There are of course times when people do not repent, simply because they do not realise 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.
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Hebrews 10:26-31 |
"For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 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? 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. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." |
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.
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Psalm 100:5 |
"For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations." |
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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." |
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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 to the blatant sinner who knowingly opposes Yahweh's will. |
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Exodus 33:19 |
"I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy." |
No one is better placed to receive mercy than the merciful.
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2 Samuel 22:26-27 |
"With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, and with the upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright. With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward (wilful) thou wilt shew thyself wilful." |
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Matthew 5:7 |
"Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy." |
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James 2:13 |
"For to him who has shown no mercy the judgement will be merciless; but mercy (full of glad confidence) exults victorious over judgement." |
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Matthew 6:12 |
"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." |
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Luke 17:3 |
"Take heed to yourselves: if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. 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." |
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Luke 23:34 |
"Father forgive them for they know not what they do." |
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. 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 himself. Consider Yahweh's appeal to His followers to be merciful.
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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?" |
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Zechariah 7:9 |
"Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts, saying, Execute true judgement, and shew mercy and compassion every man to his brother." |
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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, judgement, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." |
From the above we can see that showing mercy comes second to 'doing justly.' Mercy is a weightier matter than tithing. 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 application of judgement. Yahweh's mercy rejoices over judgement - whenever repentance is present - and every noble mind is gladdened when it does. But when repentance is contemptuously and continuously ignored then mercy gives way to judgement and punishment follows.
July 1999
MatanYah Learning Centre, Duiwelskloof, South Africa
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