Mercy

Last week a man who lives in our city was on a bus east, in another province. Suddenly he pulled out a knife and brutally murdered the young man sitting next to him. There was no provocation and as far as can be determined, they did not know each other.

Of course people are horrified. Murder is terrible, even more so when the victim is innocent and did nothing to even irritate the assailant. This type of crime makes many people afraid to ride a bus, even go out in public. Cause and effect we understand. Random acts of violence make no sense.

When things like this happen, the power and wisdom of God are often questioned. Why did God allow this young man to die? Even when nothing prompts this response, the same question is often on our hearts. Why does God allow terrible things?

The question assumes that God is good. If God were a “terrible” God, then terrible things would be expected, but because our hearts know better, many people struggle with the reasons for evil. Surely God could stop evil. Surely He is good. So why does He allow such monstrous things to happen?

In a previous post I mentioned a cartoon where a man asked a question like these and God replied, “I might ask you the same thing.” It is our tendency as sinful human beings to pass the buck when something bad happens. Instead of saying we are part of a sinful world or admitting our own culpability, we blame God for evil. Passing the blame His way might be our worst sin.

Yet God puts up with this. Whenever anyone has the audacity to think that God is the author of evil, He has the power to strike that person dead on the spot. In my understanding of His holiness, it could be said that He also has the right to punish such an attitude, but remember, God is also good. In holiness He hates sin; in goodness He is merciful.

Mercy is God being good to me when I don’t deserve goodness. On a more extreme note, it is God withholding punishment from me even though I should be punished. He created me to love and serve Him. When I resist Him and as my Creator and as my holy God, He has every right to do whatever He wishes with me, but His greatest desire is that I return to my created purpose. He desires that I love and serve Him. In infinite patience, He holds back wrath to give me opportunity to repent.

Psalm 57 begins with David saying, “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me!” Even though he was a “man after God’s own heart” David knew that the favor of God is not earned. He was in trouble and no matter how good his life or how devout he had been, his only claim to God was based on God’s mercy, not his own goodness.

In verse 3, he says, “He shall send from heaven and save me; He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. God shall send forth His mercy and His truth.”

David was confident in the mercy of God, yet unlike those who think God is a kindly old man who looks the other way, David also knew that God was holy and hated sin. Otherwise, he would not have thought or considered asking for mercy!

Desiring mercy implies that the people who ask for it know that they deserve otherwise. These are people who are aware of their sin, aware of their rebellious hearts, and aware of God’s holy wrath. Assuming God will look the other way is not part of the way they think. Instead, they know that apart from His mercy, their sin puts them in line for God’s punishment.

Mercy can have an odd effect on people. When I knew that I deserved wrath and God offered mercy, I melted; I wanted to serve Him forever. But when I am not worried about what I deserve and someone is nice to me anyway, I sometimes feel like I’ve been granted license to act like a jerk.

I notice the same with others. Those whose attitude is “I deserve good treatment . . .” take mercy for granted. Only those whose hearts are broken and who think they should die or be punished in some way for what they have done that respond to mercy with changed lives.

And it is only God who can discern who stands on which side of the fence. He knows the human heart and in His infinite patience, there are no random acts of mercy.