The world seems to be witnessing increasing violence, hatred, and fear that challenge us every day. There are ongoing debates from both sides of the political aisle or dining room table about how to include immigrants and refugees in the United States. News headlines remind us about endless wars around the globe, or even the horrors of oppressive governments.
Because of that, talk about mercy probably seems more like wishful thinking. But, I think, it is mercy that matters—now more than ever.
God’s mercy seems to me to be one of the most precious truths in the scriptures but one of the most misunderstood truths about God. If you want to know who God is, look for his mercy. The truth of who God is isn’t found in the displays of his just wrath and cosmic power, as some might suggest, instead, set your sights on his mercy (without minimizing the fullness of his might), and take in the life-changing panorama.
Some of the words in the Hebrew language express different ideas of mercy, like:
“Ahavah.” God’s enduring love for Israel, like the love between married couples.
“Rachamim” or womb. It could be understood as a “maternal connection” between God and his people.
“Chesed,” refers to God’s mercy but also “steadfast loyalty.”
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
One glimpse of God’s mercy given to Moses appears in the Book of Exodus. After Moses requested that God show him his glory, God answers him saying, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (Exodus 33:19).
God mercy is given to Moses in the book of Exodus when he tells him that his grace, goodness, and mercy that he puts on display is for whomever he chooses. Israel may not be more righteous than Pharaoh and the Egyptians, but God’s mercy on Israel is not based on Israel’s efforts and earnings. God is free to show mercy to anyone he wants—and he has chosen to be merciful to his people.
“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6–7)
Why then would it surprise us that in the fullness of time, God sent his own Son? He was sent, not simply to dispense his mercy but to embody it. Jesus is the Mercy of God made human. He did not just teach his people to echo God’s mercy in their lives, but he was, and is, the mercy of God to us. Fittingly, the most prominent request made of Jesus in the Gospels is, “Have mercy on me!” That is, of course, precisely what he did in his perfect life, sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection—extending God’s mercy not just to Israel but to all the nations by faith.
So, in our day what does it mean—in concrete terms—to be merciful to the immigrant or the refugee? What does mercy mean in South Sudan? What is a genuinely merciful response to the horrors of the Islamic State, or ISIS—a group that seems to be merciless in persecuting Christians, Yazidi, and the Shia? How might mercy shape our response to Iran or the Chinese expansion in the Spratly Islands and the South China Sea?
Perhaps more importantly, what does it mean—in concrete terms—to you?