God's Mercy Explored




The mercy of God is a wonderful and interesting topic to explore. In the Old testament the word mercy in Hebrew is checed and it means: goodness and kindness

 As a street preacher and teacher I am often accused of having NO mercy when I have to rebuke false teachers or tell people they are keeping sin. The truth tells us it is good and kind to call people out of their sin that will damn them so that is mercy (goodness/kindness) amen?

  While the bible indeed says God is merciful, does this mean he just gives it out at will without any condition at all to receive it? 
After studying this topic you will see what mercy is and how it is attained. Here are verses that show there is indeed a condition to receive the mercy of God and it involves obeying Him and repentance from sin:

 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Exodus 20:6

 The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
Numbers 14;18
And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
11 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Deut 5:10-11

Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers:
Deut 7:12

All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Psalm 25:10

  By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.
Prov 16;6

 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
Proverbs 28:13

 Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Isaiah 9:17

 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Isaiah 55:7

*Need I remind you that false teachers and rebellious children in the OT Word were stoned to death for rebellion and one false prophecy. Where is the mercy there? These verses/events should warn you if you "live in" any willful sin, you are not entitled to the mercy of God on judgment day. (Heb 10:26 says willful sin causes you to you lose the sacrifice for your sins thus you are condemned)

Clearly in the OT Word, mercy almost always comes to those who repent, seek to serve and obey God. 

 In the New Testament, we see the word mercy in Greek is eleeo and it means to..... have compassion on. 
Again it is showing compassion on men to call them out of their sin that will damn them so that is showing mercy (compassion) amen?

 If we expect mercy to over look sin, we demean God and His holiness and that is blasphemy!
Imagine standing in a judges court room and you expect to get his mercy on a sentence. Then you tell him that you do plan to keep breaking his law? He will say you are mocking his court and toss you away in jail with "no mercy given" or he is not righteous/just at all. 
Do you really think a Holy Holy Holy God will be less harsh? 

On to the NT Word....

 Jesus said this:

 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Matthew 5:7 

 Compassion is a good thing but this mercy is not to be used for allowing/over looking sin. (see Romans 6; shall we keep sinning no!) We know this also as Jesus said in Matthew 18 if a brother is in sin and wont repent, toss him out of the body! (Paul said the same thing in various places as well on body discipline)

 The NT Word also backs up mercy is for those that fear and then obey God. 

 And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.
Luke 1:50

  And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
Gal 6:16

 *Need I also remind you in Acts 5 God killed a couple over one lie. Where was this blanket mercy in their case I ask?

While God can decide have mercy on anyone he chooses; (Romans 9:18) we see that mercy is MOST often bestowed on those who humble themselves, repent, forsake sin and seek God's ways not their own. 

 Jude 21 says it well:
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

  What is the love of God? 

 1 John 5:3 says it is .... keeping His commandments. 

 Now that we understand what mercy is and how it is given out most often, lets look at a recent example I experienced how mercy was used in a very wrong way.  

 Mercy at Work in Meek Moses???

 Just today as I tried to help a brand new believer out of error and his following false teachers and he said to me; 

 I hope to see some meekness/mercy in you as we progress. Even Moses, being the meekest of all men cried out unto the Lord to spare the souls led out of egypt. 

 Note: he was upset at me as I was hard on sin and exposing his favorite famous men as false teachers. I was asking him to repent and leave them per God's Word. Romans 16:17 He was expecting me to over look the sins of his favorite false teachers saying; mercy. 

 So he believes Moses was meek and showed mercy (over looked their sin) of the Israelites that were in idolatry, really?  
We shall see...

 Here is an article on meekness and it is NOT what people think it is:
http://spiritandtruthdiscernment.blogspot.com/2018/12/meekness-exploring-it-meaning.html

Moving on to the mercy of Moses in Exodus 32 ......

 Lets look at this so we can get a proper understanding of the account he was referring to that happened in Exodus. 

 In that chapter, we read this:

10 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.
11 And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?
12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.

So Moses pleads with God for Israel to live and not be destroyed by His wrath. (keep in mind God was going to kill them all and not give mercy)

13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.
14 And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

God agrees and Moses goes on to his people.....

19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.

Here is the meekness / mercy of Moses at work in verse 20....

20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

I would not call forcing them to drink the idol gold calf they were just worshiping meek or merciful at all, would you?

21 And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?
22 And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief.

Moses sees their sinful condition.....

25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:)

Moses then calls out... who is on my side and the Lords?

26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord's side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.

Then Moses has the men go and kill all those who were not on God's side and in unrepentant sin.  Where is the mercy?

27 And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.
28 And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

So this meek and merciful Moses has 3000 men killed over sin...
(men killed their own brothers over sin) 

29 For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.

Moses then has to go to God and make atonement for them even though they had repented. (a forerunner of Christ)

30 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.

If we expect to gain the mercy of God, it will be via the sacrifice of Christ and then how we live as fruit we are of Him via His spirit. Clearly after all of these verses, we can see that meekness and mercy NEVER means ignoring or letting sin go on or unpunished, if it is not forsaken. Mercy is most often given to those who seek it and seeking it means; forsaking sin and repenting of it not living in it. 

Repent and obey the gospel! (see it below)

God is good and merciful indeed so we should praise Him for that not by "just expecting" His mercy. We should look to get mercy by repenting, knowing, studying and striving to obey; then walk in all of His ways for His glory. 

1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God be praised

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