God's mercy

GOD HAS SPOKEN OF MERCY

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 [wrongdoing] and sin…” (Exodus 34:6-7).

God showed a part of His glory to Moses on the mountain of Sinai. While doing so, God spoke these words of love to describe Himself. According to Exodus 34:7 God then went on to speak about His just punishment for all who remained guilty. He was not denying the fact that He is angry with sin. But it is important for us to see what God, in revealing Himself, chose to speak of first. He spoke of His "love" before He spoke of His anger. Is this love only for very good people? No. This love is "forgiving" toward those who have rebelled against Him. Here is hope for all of us who have fallen into sin. The God who has spoken has spoken first of how much His mercy and compassion reach out to us even in our sin!

LOVE FROM THE BEGINNING

It was not only in words that God spoke first of love. He has done so in actions from the very beginning. The creation itself was an act of pure love! When God saw all that He had made, He knew that it was "very good" (Genesis 1:31). God’s making of the world reminds us of a man building a home in preparation for the coming of his beloved family. Instead of leaving it in darkness, He gave it light. Instead of leaving it shapeless, He formed it with strong building materials. He gave it the firmness of dry land, and the lively freshness of water. Instead of emptiness, He filled it with all kinds of living things. Instead of dullness, He gave each thing its own beauty and wonder. Instead of want and hunger, He provided all that life needed, including enjoyable food.

When all was ready, God created the people to live in this beautiful home (Genesis 1:26-28). He gave to man breath and a fleshly body, as He had given the animals. But the gift of life for man went far beyond animal life. The Creator made man in His own "image" or "likeness" (Genesis 1:26-27). Man’s heart can respond to God and to others in a far higher way than animals can. In keeping with this high position, God appointed man ruler over all the earth and its creatures (Genesis 1:26).

God was not forced to do any of this. It was because of His own loving nature that He created people and "blessed them" (Genesis 1:27-28).

LOVE'S GIFTS OF FAMILY AND FRIENDSHIP

In all the creation of the world there was only one thing said to be "not good." At first the man was alone (Genesis 2:18). Yet there was a loving reason even in letting the man know loneliness. For the man would then treasure his wife and family to come. In answer to the man’s need, God used a part from the side of the man to make a woman. She became his wife, his friend and his helper (Genesis 2:18-25). God made each as a living gift to the other!

Added to that, God gave to the couple a share in giving new life. From the joy of their unity would come the gift of children. Say a special prayer of thanks to God the next time your heart is moved by a lovely wedding. When you next hold a new born baby in your arms, remember who gave the priceless gift of life!

Adding blessing upon blessing, God gave to the human family His own personal friendship. He spoke with them. He came to their garden in the cool of the day to be with them (Genesis 3:8).

The universe and earth are much larger than these tiny creatures—these humans. Yet God chose to give His special attention to them. Like King David, we can only wonder at such love for humans.

… what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor (Psalm 8:4-5).    

ANGER COULD NOT HIDE LOVE

Some might think that God’s love ended when the man and woman sinned. It is true that sin has turned this world into a place of hardship and suffering. It is not true that these things ended God’s love. Think back to each time when God showed His just anger against sin. You will find in each case that God made sure His continuing care for people was known.

In Genesis 3, God was about to punish Adam and Eve for their sin. First, though, He gave the promise of hope. He assured them that the woman’s offspring would crush their enemy (3:15). Before the couple were driven out of their garden home, God Himself made clothes for them (3:21). Later God helped Eve to give birth to her child (4:1). When that child had grown God spoke to him to help him overcome sin (4:6).

The next great example of judgment was the flood (Genesis 6). Wickedness had almost completely taken over the earth. Only one God-fearing family was left! It actually became necessary to wash the earth clean. Yet even this was an act of love. It was a fresh start, so that good could again be known on earth. God removed that evil generation to warn future generations (2 Peter 3). Even those wicked people of that time received warning. For years God used Noah as "a preacher of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5). They refused to listen. So, in the words of Jesus Christ, "the flood came and swept them all away" (Matthew 24:39). The rainbow that God set in the clouds immediately after this reminded the world of His mercy. It assured the earth that no such flood would happen again. The seasons would remain steady (Genesis 8:22; 9:8-17). Many centuries later the apostle Paul pointed at the dependable seasons and regular crops. He said that these were God’s "testimony" proving that "He did good" (Acts 14:17).  

WHY DO WE SUFFER IN THIS WORLD?

There are, of course, times when crops do fail for a while. Jobs become hard to find. Families lack what they need. How are we to understand these in the light of God’s love? First, let us remember that the world God made was not a world of want, disease or death. He made it a place of plenty, health and life. Man’s sin, and Satan’s rule through that sin, brought into the world the suffering we see. Even for God’s own people, this is a place of "groaning" (Romans 8:22-23).

The question this world should really be asking is this: "Why should we expect anything except pain and death?" For this world is full of rebellion against its Creator.

To reject the Giver of all life should mean the loss of all life. Yet the God of great mercy keeps on letting people live on His earth. He gives them many blessings.

He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45).

He gives us time to learn and to turn to Him, before it is too late. Yet many are so thoughtless and so thankless that they use this time to continue sinning. They "show contempt for the riches of His kindness, tolerance and patience." They fail to see that

"… God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance" (Romans 2:4).

ERV: God has been kind to you. He has been very patient, waiting for you to change. But you think nothing of his kindness. Maybe you don't understand that God is kind to you so that you will decide to change your lives. 🙏 

GOD USES GOOD TIMES AND BAD TIMES

When many blessings do not turn people back to God, He may try another way. He may use even the curses and sorrows that are already at work in the earth because of sin. An example of this was given by the prophet Jeremiah. His people enjoyed seasons of plenty. Yet these good times did not turn their hearts to God (Jeremiah 5:24). Later came their times of great trouble, war and famine. God tried through these to show His people the result of their sin.

Your sins have kept you from enjoying the good things from the LORD (Jeremiah 5:25).

Still they would not listen. Finally their capital city, Jerusalem, was destroyed. Many of them were killed or made slaves.

In the book called Lamentations, Jeremiah tells of his tears as he watched his people starve and die in Jerusalem. Yet he knew how much God had tried to win them back. God had tried by means of both good times and bad times.

So, even in great sorrow, Jeremiah could still say,

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:22-23).

ERV: We are still alive because the LORD's faithful love never ends. Every morning he shows it in new ways! LORD, you are so very true and loyal!   

THE LORD DISCIPLINES THOSE HE LOVES

According to Matthew 5:22,29-30 and Luke 12:4-5, the suffering in our earthly bodies is small compared to the fire of hell. Therefore God’s feelings of mercy ("compassions") may at times move Him even to use earthly pain to try to keep us from far greater eternal pain.

God does not have to make up special pain just for us. In this world, which has left God, pain is already with us! But God can sometimes use that pain to help us. When a doctor cuts into the body to remove a diseased part, does this mean that the doctor is uncaring and unwise? Just the opposite is true. He cuts because he cares and wishes to heal. He knows that the pain of this cut is far better than the suffering and death of the spreading disease.

In the same way, God sends "judgments" even before the final judgment. Is this because He is uncaring? It is because He cares so much! As the prophet Isaiah said,

When your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants [people] of the world learn righteousness (Isaiah 26:9b).

In fact, it can be said that the more God cares, the more He corrects us.

The Lord disciplines the one he loves… [Our fathers] disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness (Hebrews 12:6,10).

Life’s trials tend to make unbelievers more bitter and hard-hearted. But believers keep trusting in the great truth that "His love endures forever" (Psalm 136). Therefore they let themselves be "trained" by the pain of correction. In this way they reap the "harvest of righteousness and peace" (Hebrews 12:11).

IS HELL PART OF GOD'S PLAN OF LOVE?

Hell is clearly described in the Bible. If we reject the teaching about hell, we must reject the teaching about heaven. For we learn of both from the same place—God’s word. However we must also believe God’s word when it reveals that hell was not actually made for man. Matthew 25:41 calls it "the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." It was made for the terrible and powerful enemies of God (Revelation 20:10). The same passages show that condemned people will go there. But they will go there against God’s wish. God has spoken very clearly on this matter:

”I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live” (Ezekiel 18:32).

God our Savior… desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:3-4).

[The Lord] is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish [die], but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

So in a sense we may answer, "No, hell is not part of God’s plan of love for man."

God’s love wants to keep people away from hell. Yes, God’s mercy has even planned for all to be able to come back to Him. The cost of that plan is greater than we can measure! But those who reject God’s plan have chosen God’s enemy. They must then go to the place God prepared for that enemy. So in another sense we may say that even hell comes from the loving God.

Love for justice, love for truth, love for His own people—this is the love which causes God finally to remove all His enemies. If these enemies continue to have their way creation will forever remain a place of disorder, suffering and death. It is the God of love who has set hell as the end to all active rebellion. Ending all rebellion will allow the return of complete order, peace and goodness for saved humans. This is what God had planned from before the creation—that people should live with Him in the joy-filled, perfect, eternal Home (Ephesians 1; Revelation 21,22).