What Does Mercy Look Like To You?

Blessed are those who give it

We cannot make it through the first few chapters of Genesis without seeing God’s mercy on full display! Mankind was given the most awesome and complete creation; they had no lack. They only had to receive it and be obedient; however the deception overpowered their will to obey, and we know the rest of the story!

When we read 3:21 “also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.” This was the first shedding of blood for sin. They had tried to cover their own sin with fig leaves, but any human attempt to cover sin will never work. The LORD God began to write His story of redemption and mercy with a blood sacrifice in the Garden of Eden….and we can trace this bloodline all the way to Calvary!

Without God’s mercy the story would have ended in Genesis, but we read throughout scripture, especially in psalms that “His mercies endure forever” Read Psalm 136 A Thanksgiving to God for His enduring mercy. Also in Lamentations 3:22 “Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”

Following the life and ministry of Jesus for His 3 1/2 short years, we see nothing but mercy and compassion. Every single thing He did was out of mercy and compassion. He not only healed and restored every life he touched and encountered, but He purposely went out of His way for these divine appointments; such as the Samaritan woman at the well. The result? Not only was her life restored, but her entire village came to know Jesus as their Messiah!

He went to the people and places that the religious leaders would not go. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, an the elders were constantly refuting Him; quoting the law of the prophets, calling Him out for being seen with untouchables, sinners, and harlots. The very ones that the LORD said to show mercy to, they refused to see, or touch.

That is exactly what religion will do to you! They were so caught up in traditions of men, and a law that was written on stone, that they had allowed their hearts to become stone. The law without mercy will always kill! Who told us better than the Apostle Paul in Galatians and Romans. Out of all the 12 Apostles, Paul knew the law best. He was raised at the feet of Gamaliel to be a Pharisee; and he followed the letter of the law all the way to persecuting and consenting to the deaths of the disciples of Jesus….until his divine encounter on the Damascus Road!

There are too many religious believers today. We may not be stoning and condemning others to death; but when we self-righteously judge others, we are no different than the Pharisees. When we take it upon ourselves to render another either unworthy, unjust, unstable, etc, we are withholding mercy. There is not one place in scripture where Jesus asked a sick person, a tax collector, a harlot, etc., to say a sinners prayer before He healed them, or before He sat down to eat with them. Remember how He called Zaccheaus out of the tree and invited Himself to dinner at his house?

James warns us of this prideful spirit in chapter 2 of his epistle. It was a warning to the people showing partiality between the rich and the poor; those dressed well, and those who had no means to dress well. There was a consistent message throughout the Bible to care for those in need, especially the widows and orphans… “to visit the fatherless and the widow.”

Scripture defines mercy as showing compassion to those in serious need with a focus on acts of kindness, tender love, devotion. When He describes it in Lamentations, it means-an unfailing loyal love, covenant relationship. It is the covenant that God began in the garden when He mercifully shed the blood of an innocent animal to create coverings for Adam and Eve….and it continued on to that old rugged cross at Golgotha; God’s ultimate hand of mercy.

We will only obtain mercy by being merciful to those around us. Help us Father to see others as You see them. There was a time You saw each one of us lost and in need of Your mercy.