Nehemiah 9:31 “And yet, because your mercy is great, you did not forsake or destroy them. You are a gracious and merciful God!” This episode is about God's mercy and how we can be examples of that mercy to others. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
God Is Merciful
Nehemiah 9:31 “And yet, because your mercy is great, you did not forsake or destroy them. You are a gracious and merciful God!”
God is Merciful. The other day I mentioned that if you wanted proof of God’s faithfulness you could go to just about any book in the Bible and you would see how faithful God was to His people. I would say the same thing for God’s mercy. God’s mercy is definitely on display throughout the whole Bible. I decided to read the whole chapter so I could see where this verse came from. I wondered if there was a specific thing that they were praising God for. It turns out that the people that were speaking here, were confessing their sins to the Lord.
If you want to read a good chapter on God’s mercy, Nehemiah 9 is a great place to start. The people of Israel we recounting all the things that God did for their ancestors. They talk about how God lead them out of Egypt, did signs and wonders, gave them rules, gave them food from heaven, promised them land, etc. Then in Nehemiah 9:16-17 it says, “But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.” Then it goes on to say, “But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.”
The rest of the chapter goes back and forth between talking about how great God was to the people of Israel and how badly those same people treated Him. Even when the people of Israel, God’s people, were disobeying Him, sinning against Him, committing awful deeds, such as sacrificing their children, He did not forsake them or destroy them. This is not to say that God didn’t do anything. God is gracious and merciful and He is also just. God did allow them to be taken away by their enemies. However, even through all of that, He protected them so that they were not destroyed completely.
God did not just watch His people go astray and do nothing. He sent them prophets to talk to them. The prophets told the people to repent. Sometimes they did and sometimes they didn’t. Every time they did, God was merciful. Remember, that is why Jonah ran away from what God was asking him to do. God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach repentance. However, Jonah knew how merciful God was and he knew that if Nineveh repented God would save them. Jonah could not bear for Nineveh to be saved as they were a wicked people. He would rather run away from God then to try and help God save a wicked people.
I think we can all be like Jonah sometimes. We may think that someone is mean or wicked and we don’t want God to show them mercy. Why should God forgive them when they don’t deserve it? We may think to ourselves, “I may not be perfect, but I’m not as bad as they are.” Who are we to judge? Can we know what is in their heart? Do we know all they have been through and what has made them the way that they are? Have you ever done something that was really mean? Maybe you were really angry, or you were getting back at them for something they did. For whatever reason, you did something unkind to someone else? Does that make you a bad person? Does that mean that you don’t deserve forgiveness or mercy? God is the only one that judges.
God loves us. He loves all of his people. When we have a hard time understanding why God would be merciful to someone that did wicked things, it might help for us to remember that we are His children. If you have children, or if you have parents you can imagine what God feels for His children. Wouldn’t you do anything for your children? Wouldn’t your parents do anything to keep you safe? If God sees His children veering off course, He will do whatever He needs to do to get them back on track. However, if they repent and get back on track, He will show them mercy. Wouldn’t you do the same for your children?
The difference is that God is all powerful and all knowing, so when He does something to help His kids get back on track, He is doing it because it is the right thing to do. We, as humans, mess up sometimes. Often times we want to protect our children and we go about it in the wrong way. We yell at them and we are hard on them because we are trying to teach them a lesson and we are also trying to protect them. We want them to learn the lesson when they are younger and the stakes aren’t as high. Sometimes we don’t show mercy because we think of mercy as a sign of weakness. We are not perfect. We are all just doing the best that we can. God, however, is perfect.
Today’s talk at prayer group was about Mercy. The leader said something which I think we should all hear. She said that we are all called to be examples of God’s mercy here on earth. She gave some examples of how we could do this.
Be patient with people’s quirks. There are going to be people that annoy you as you go through your day. One way of being an example of God’s mercy is to be patient with them.
Be a bridge of love to anyone that is difficult. Instead of being frustrated and angry when you are dealing with someone that is difficult, love them. We don’t know why they are being difficult. They might just be having a bad day, maybe they just lost someone close to them. You don’t know the circumstance that lead to this person being difficult. Instead of being difficult back, or being short with them, be a bridge of love.
Give second chances. Where would we be right now if God didn’t give us a second, third, hundredth chance? Mercy does not make you weak, it makes you strong. People are going to mess up, people are going to hurt you, give them a second chance. Be an example of God’s mercy to others.
Value relationships over rules. This is a big one for me. As soon as she said it I felt like it was God talking to me. I am a rule follower to the core. I don’t know why I am such a rule follower, but I have put that before relations in the past. I am not talking about going out and breaking the law in the name of love. What I am talking about is caring more about the person and the relationship than the rule. For instance, if my child comes in 10 minutes late I am going to have mercy and listen to why they are late instead of just skipping right to punishment because they broke the rule.
We need to reflect God’s love to the world. If there is one thing the world needs right now, it is God’s love. There is not enough love out there in the world these days. God is asking us to be His examples, His witnesses not only to His mercy but to His love as well.
Thank you so much Jeannine for your excellent teaching on mercy today. Jeannine said another powerful thing at the end of her talk. It was something that we all probably have heard before, but I wonder how many of us think of it everyday when we get out of bed. She said that people should know you are Christian by how you live your life. These are words to think about each morning when we get up and each night before bed. When you wake up in the morning you can ask God, “Please help your light shine through me. Please help me to live my life so that when people look at me they know I am a Christian.” Before you go to be at night you can ask yourself, “Did I live my life today in a way that others would look at me and know that I am a Christian” The way to know if you did this or not is to ask yourself if you had mercy, grace, love & forgiveness for others. How did you do today? What can you do to be better tomorrow?
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode. Lord, we ask that you have mercy on us and on our loved ones. We know we are not perfect and we ask that you forgive us for all that we have done. You are so merciful and we are so thankful. Lord, we may not always understand your ways, but we trust you know what is best. Lord help us to be examples of your mercy here on earth. Teach us what mercy is and how we can share Your mercy with others. Lord, we love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.