The God of Mercy

"Then the Angel of the LORD answered and said, "O LORD of hosts, how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which You were angry these seventy years?" ¹³ And the LORD answered the angel who talked to me, with good and comforting words."

Zechariah 1:12-13

The LORD is merciful, gracious and compassionate regardless of the circumstances of life we face.  Faith in God according to His word sustains us to endure the most troubling situations.  The children of Israel struggled during 70 years of captivity in Babylon, and even angels wondered how long judgment would be poured out on the people and Jerusalem and Judah for their sins.  The good and comforting answer of God spoke volumes, for He remained merciful even in judgment.

The prophet mused from the belly of the great fish in Jonah 2:8, "Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy."  And they had.  The children of Israel filled their cities with the blood of the innocent whose cries reached to heaven.  Century after century the required Sabbath rest was denied from the land and servants were not released at the allotted time.  God was merciful in His judgment of Israel and continued to regard them as His beloved people, those with whom He had made an everlasting covenant.  Before, during and after the long season in Babylon God remained faithful, and His mercies did not fail.

Jeremiah proclaimed in Lamentations 3:22-24:  "Through the LORD'S mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. ²³ They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ²⁴ "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I hope in Him!"  God is faithful to keep His word because He is ever faithful--even to the faithless.  We aren't told exactly the words God used to answer the angel, but they were good and comforting just like He always is.  The people consumed with idolatry were spared destruction because God is compassionate and faithful.  He is worthy to be praised and hoped in.  Blessed is the one whose hope is in the LORD, whose portion is the infinite God Who does everything with mercy.

Clinging to Jesus by Faith

I was blessed to consider the Man who wrestled with Jacob until the breaking of the day.  This Man who met Jacob was the aggressor, seeking to make Jacob submit and tap out.  On and on they wrestled as Jacob tried in vain to escape the Man's grasp.  The prophet spoke of the irony of Jacob who grabbed the heel of his brother in the womb was suddenly grabbed by the Angel of the LORD in Hosea 12:3-5:  "He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and in his strength he struggled with God. ⁴ Yes, he struggled with the Angel and prevailed; he wept, and sought favour from Him. He found Him in Bethel, and there He spoke to us--⁵ that is, the LORD God of hosts. The LORD is His memorable name."

Jacob had been met by God in a vision at the house of God, and then Elohim wrestled with Jacob in God's camp.  When day began to break the Man touched Jacob's thigh and dislocated his hip.  Jacob's tactics changed at that moment, for instead of trying to escape he refused to let go until he was blessed.  He realised when he looked into the face of the Man when dawn began to break, he was looking into the eyes of the God of his fathers, eyes that are able to perceive all things.  It was apparent the Man Jacob clung to could not be held unless He wanted to be, and God blessed Jacob there and gave him the new name of Israel.  God desires to be grasped so He can bless and make His strength perfect in our weakness.

After Jesus rose from the dead John 20:17 reads, "Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.'"  In great physical pain Jacob clung to the LORD for a blessing, and since Jesus has gone to the Father those who trust Him are thus enabled to cling to Him in faith.  Jesus told His disciples it was for their advantage He would leave them because the Holy Spirit would be sent to comfort, teach and help them.  The Holy Spirit Who regenerates us empowers us to serve God faithfully as witnesses of Jesus.  It is through surrender to Jesus we are made more than conquerors through Him who loves us and purchased us with His own blood.

Abide in Christ, believer, and cling to Him in faith even in your greatest pain.  Without doubt you will discover blessing in Jesus not found or obtained elsewhere, not by our efforts, but according to the riches of His grace.

Never a Dull Moment With Jesus

I was recently blessed to be the speaker at a fruitful and enjoyable youth camp where the Gospel was proclaimed through many passages of the Bible.  Whilst there was positive feedback from leaders and campers, at least one camper found the talks dull.  I was greatly amused when a leader asked this boy what was his impression of the talks (with intent to encourage me) his response went something like, "I liked that you were enthusiastic but they were boring, so boring."  He smirked at me as he slow-clapped.  "Yeah, they were really boring."  The cabin leader wasn't quite sure what to say, so I thanked him for his honesty.

After our brief conversation, I was reminded of the passage that God has chosen the foolishness of the message preached to convey eternal truth.  Like God chooses to put His glory inside the earthen vessels of our flesh so the glory is all his, so He uses the teaching and exposition of His word to reveal divine truths that transform hungry and needy listeners from within.  Rather than making admission to the kingdom of God dependent on worthiness earned by good works and human achievement, God did all the work to provide the way of salvation through faith in the Gospel.  1 Corinthians 1:20-21 says, "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? ²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe."

In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus explained the good seed is the word of God sown into hearts of various conditions.  Some hearts are like the hardened footpath where birds come and eat up the seed so it cannot grow.  The LORD said through the prophet in Isaiah 55:11:  "So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."  Even if the good seed is stolen away by hungry birds, they can be the means of spreading viable seed when their waste is eliminated.  Who knows how many times the scripture has fallen on a hard heart and deaf ear and He miraculously has caused His marvelous Gospel of grace to spread further than we could ever scatter.  People who do not believe in Jesus Christ as Saviour have been instrumental in leading others to Him, and all glory goes to God.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. ⁷ So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase."  It is wonderful God chooses to use us to accomplish His will to bring people to salvation by faith in Jesus, and He also works in spite of us.  We may fumble over our words, mix up names and muddle doctrine in our ignorance yet God's word remains pure and spiritually viable.  He is able to break through hearts harder than flint with a word when all our effort is proved futile.  How great is God to open the eyes of the blind, bring those in darkness into His marvelous light and remain faithful to people whose faith fails.  Even when we are boring, He is working to seek and save. :)

The LORD God in Our Midst

"The LORD your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."

Zephaniah 3:17

After chapters describing fierce judgment, God brought light to people in darkness with His presence and promise.  Though they had forsaken God, He had not forsaken them or forgotten the covenant.  They had heaped many gods unto themselves, yet the Most High God in their midst would save them.  Saving is not just what God does but Who He is because He is a Saviour.

God's character is absolutely consistent with what He does.  Men do and say things people say are "out of character," and this is debatable.  What we say and what we do are actually good indicators of our character:  who we really are, not who we aspire to be.  Because God is love He loves completely; since the fruit of the Spirit is joy He rejoices over His people with gladness.  He comforts because He is a Comforter, and He delivers because He is a Deliverer.

How awesome it is that the God who dwelt in the midst of His people has sent the Holy Spirit to fill Christians with the light of His knowledge as it is written in 2 Corinthians 4:6-7:  "For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. ⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us."  What a treasure we have in God who treasures us to such a degree, to fill us earthen vessels with His power for His glory.

Knowing the LORD our God is in our hearts and in the midst of His people who gather in His name provides great consolation and comfort, for He saves, rejoices over us with gladness and quiets us with His love.  There is no reason for a follower of Jesus Christ to remain in fear, bitterness or trouble when our God is so present and powerful, but we are not always reasonable creatures.  We can be forgetful, swept up in emotions, our perspective distorted by our own limitations and past failures, walking by sight rather than faith in God.  For all those who are in Christ we have God as our heritage, the one who rejoices over us with singing.

The prophet saw afar off what God would accomplish through the Gospel in Micah 7:18-20:  "Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. ¹⁹ He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. ²⁰ You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which You have sworn to our fathers from days of old."  In light of God pardoning our sins, having compassion on us and His truth, we can have a song in our hearts and lips perpetually, for His mercies fail not.