Blessed are the merciful . . .

In some cultures, mercy is considered a weakness. Showing compassion, particularly toward those who wrong you is considered a character flaw, even though this is commanded by God because He is merciful. This is seen in the fact that He does not treat us as we deserve. The Bible is clear, “All sin and all fall short of the glory of God.” We do not live as we were created to live. We choose our own way rather than obedience to our Creator. If He were not MERCIFUL, we would not live or even draw another breath.

Christians often describe ‘mercy’ from our perspective as getting what we do not deserve. From God’s perspective, mercy is compassion, a desire to be gracious, lenient and forgiving especially towards those who have offended Him. It is the character of God that sent Jesus to die for our sin rather than punish us as we deserve.

In the OT, several verses describe how God is merciful . . .

Psalm 145:8–9. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

Exodus 34:6–7. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “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.”

Spurning His mercy is dangerous. It invites a positive response.

Deuteronomy 4:30–31. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

2 Samuel 22:26–28. “With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you deal purely, and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous. You save a humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down. Psalm 18:25

God wants me to be like Him in this quality of mercy. Jesus said in Luke 6:36, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”

And according to Hebrews 8:10–12, God’s mercy toward me makes it possible for me to be merciful toward others:

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

James 5:11 points to Job whose faith was deeply tested by with unrelenting difficulties. He survived because he knew that God was not punishing him. This man knew the mercy of God: “Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. I can be more judgmental than merciful. Like John and James, I want to call fire down from heaven when I see others reject Jesus, but God does not do this. I need to be more like David and focus on my need and rely on God’s supply of grace and mercy:

Psalm 86:15–16. “But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant, and save the (daughter) of your maidservant.”

I also need to be more like the publican who did not compare himself favorable over others but called out, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”