What to know about the MERCY of God

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God’s mercy is His loving, compassionate and gracious disposition towards humanity, demonstrating His willingness to forgive, deliver, and bless, despite human sin and unworthiness. The mercy of God is tenderhearted, loving and compassionate. God’s mercy is his steadfast love and kindness towards humanity. In the Bible the mercy of God is used in reference to forgiveness, showing compassion or some sort of favor and withholding from punishment or exempting from judgment.

Indeed God is “the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.” (2 Corin 1:3)
Mercy by definition is a voluntary act of God and God alone because the scriptures say, “it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.” (Romans 9:16)
Mercy by definition cannot be demanded nor obligated. We can only beg and plead for it. What we all rightly deserve is the justice of God. God revealed to Moses that, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.” (Exodus 33:19)

We first learn of God’s mercy in the story of Adam and Eve. In Genesis Chapter 3, Adam and Eve rebelled against God through their disobedience. They ate of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil when the devil deceived them by cunningly asking, “hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden”. The deceit of the devil led them to doubt and sin against God believing in the devil. This single act of disobedience led to rebellion against God and His holy command. They began to be ashamed when they saw their nakedness and hid from God. They incurred the wrath of God and His judgement when they sinned. They became “children of disobedience incurring and deserving God’s wrath” (colossians 3:6) they lose fellowship with the father and were banished from the Garden.
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love…” (Ephesians 2:4) covered their shame with the skins of a sacrificed animal(Genesis 3:21). In God’s mercy He did not totally crash them but punished them. He did not cast them out perpetually from His presence but He casted them out of the garden. In God’s justice He punished them be expelling them from the garden but in the riches of His mercy, He clothed them with the skin of an animal to cover their nakedness and give them a glimpse of hope of redemption through His unblemished, “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”(Rev 13:8).
What’s more God did not expel them forever from His presence. Could you fathom the riches of His mercy? His punishment was less than what they actually deserve. Such is the mercy of God. In this we see God’s goodness towards Adam and Eve who are in misery and distress.

In Exodus the children of Israel sinned against God by worshipping a golden calf. The Lord told Moses; “They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.”(Exodus 32:8)
The Bible calls the children of Israel a stiff-necked and obstinate people. They regularly provoke God with their
idolatry. This time around they made Aaron create a golden calf for them to worship and they ascribed God’s glory and honor to the idol, they said; “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 32:4)
God in His anger said to Moses; “I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.” (Exodus 32:9-10)
God showed the Israelites mercy and did not destroy all of them when Moses pleaded and interceded on their behalf. He plagued them and about three thousand of them died save the Children of Levi. Moses seeing their wickedness angrily casted the tablets of stone which contained the Ten Commandments on the ground and smashed them at the foot of the mountain, but this “tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.” (Exodus 32:16)
God in His abounding mercy gave Moses and the children of Israel a second chance. He told Moses to “Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.” (Exodus 34:1)
Moses did as God instructed him. He hewed the stones and took them to Mount Sinai and stood before the Lord Most High. Little did Moses know he is about to hear one of the most intriguing and beautiful self-revelation of God.
As He stood there gazing, “the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.”
In the Scriptures name is akin to the personality or character of a person. A person and his name are compatible and inseparable. The Bible says God proclaimed His name before Moses meaning He revealed Himself-His intrinsic character and attribute. Peter tells us that, “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (1 Peter 1:21) Of course Moses wrote the book of Exodus but this revelation of God is not what Moses thought about God but what God Himself proclaimed about His unchanging nature.
This is what the Lord proclaimed or preached about Himself;
“The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth”. (Exodus 34:6)
The Amplified Version rendered it, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and truth (faithfulness)”
God declared His name twice before continuing. In Scriptures repetitions are for emphasis. A double mention of the name “The LORD” should teach us that we must give utmost attention to what is to be said. The word that proceeded first is “Merciful”. Merciful means God is compassionate.His mercy is always directed towards those who are in misery and distress. What else defines the human condition than misery and depravity? Sin depraved us and made us miserable in need of God’s mercy and kindness. David said unto Prophet Gad, “I am in a great distress: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great.” (2 Samuel 24:14) The other attributes follows suit as a compliment to God’s mercifulness. Gracious means kind and generous giving us what we don’t deserve or more than we deserve. In relation to mercy God is also longsuffering meaning patiently enduring lasting offense which also means He is slow to anger. And as if that was not enough God Almighty added that He also abounds in goodness and truth. He is the true definition and standard of goodness. God as a good God does not conform to a standard-He is the standard. He is plentiful in lovingkindness and faithfulness. He is steadfast in love and true to all His promises.
In the faithfulness and eternality of God’s promise, He continued, “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. (Exodus 34:7)
For His mercy, He keeps it for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. We receive forgiveness and pardon from God simply because He is merciful. The mercy of God forgives us and exempts us from His fierce judgment. The attributes of God are always complimentary to one another. No two are in contradiction. They’re all in perfect harmony. God who is merciful is also just as He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished but will visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children by calling them to account for it and repent. Imagine a merciful God who isn’t just, aren’t people going to take His mercies for granted?

This revelation of God wrought a holy reverence and adoration in Moses towards God as he, “made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.”(Exodus 34:8)
How do we respond to the mercy of God?
We must respond with worship, awe-reverence and gratitude as Moses did.
The mercy of God must also lead to repentance and faith in the Lord.(1John 1:9)
The mercy of God must lead us to obedience and service to the Lord Most High. Prophet Micah said, “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?” (Micah 6:8)
God gave Moses and the Israelites another chance in His great mercy and kindness by dictating to Moses the laws as he writes them on a tablet with an even greater glory and revelation surpassing the later despising their sin and rebellion.
“And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.”
(Exodus 34:28-29)

We again learn of the mercy of God in the Old Testament where God would meet the priest on Israel’s behalf and propitiate them of their sins. In Exodus 25, God told Moses to construct the mercy seat and put two cherubim made of gold on the two ends of the mercy seat. The cherubim with their outstretched wings as they cover the mercy seat face each other. The Mercy seat is to be placed upon the ark of the covenant.
The Greek word for mercy seat translated from the Old Testament is “hilasterion”-usually translated propitiation. We see this word in Romans 3:25.
The mercy seat also known as the atonement cover is propitiatory and it symbolizes;
1. God’s divine presence, forgiveness and mercy in relation to the Israelites (Exodus 25:17-22)
2. It also represents God’s atonement and sacrifice as the priest applies the blood to cover the sins of the Israelites (Leviticus 16:4)

3. finally it foreshadows Christ the spotless lamb of God who became the once-and-for-all propitiatory or wrath satisfying sacrifice on our behalf. John wrote; “he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1John 2:2)
The greatest display of God’s unparalleled mercy in history is what happened on the cross. On the cross divine wrath was propitiated and human sin was expiated. Christ is to the Christian what the mercy seat is to the Israelites! The mercy seat and the blood sprinkled upon it foreshadowed Christ. He is the spotless “Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)
The blind and needy always petition Jesus based on His compassion and mercy because He is full of Grace. Jesus is the true embodiment of God’s mercy and Grace. The two blind men followed Jesus, “crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.” (Matthew 9:27)


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