The Relentless Mercy of God towards Miserable, Self- deceived and Puffed up Humans.

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son… Hebrews 1:1-2.

This verse has many times brought me close to tears; not tears of sorrow, not tears of pain but tears of awe and wonder. I am, most assuredly, not an advocate of baseless feelings. Therefore, the base for such emotions is the relentless mercy of God towards miserable, self- deceived and puffed up humans. Humans that find any reason to oppose him. In order to see this clearly, let us start from the beginning, shall we?

Adam was given a rule at the Garden of Eden not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of the good and evil. The rule followed with a consequence that they “shall SURELY die” (Genesis 1:17). He eventually ate the fruit that he was forbidden. After God had confronted them for their sin, He just punished them and let them live for a day, then another and another, that Adam lived for up to 800 years (Have in mind that the consequence of breaking the law is that Adam was to surely die). Did He relent from giving Adam his due penalty? Absolutely not. We see in Genesis 3:21 that God made for them tunics of skin… What does that signify? It shows that an animal was killed for them to have those skins. That is already the gospel right there! The animal was a substitute just as Christ would manifest Himself as the efficacious substitute in the later future and just as they were covered with skin so also all who are right with God are covered by Christ’s robe of righteousness. Lets go back to our investigation though…

The world continues to fill with people but the people continue in their sin to a point that God regretted ever creating man (Genesis 6:5-6). Imagine that! God declares immediately on the next verse that He will destroy everything. Then a very important word comes in, “but”. This shows a change. What Change? Well, instead of destroying the world (Genesis 6:8), he chooses a man named Noah and through him He saves the existence of the human race. My readers, in order to find this beautiful, we must understand that God doesn’t need us to live, to breath, to feed or in anything that we can think, on the other hand, He is obligated to inflict his judgment upon us because of our sins. At that moment He could have even decided to destroy all humans including Noah and create another breed of volitional creatures that will obey his will but he doesn’t. By the way, do you think Noah was perfect? I think not. The reason is because Noah himself gave a sacrifice unto God that appeased him after the land was dry and the ark settled (Genesis 8: 20-21). Noah’s imperfection is still proved by the fact that he got drunk later in the narrative (Genesis 9:21), which is against God’s will (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Therefore, this is sure evidence that Noah was saved by the grace and mercy of God, which is also our only hope today! Let us go back to our examination…

The world again fills up but they do not worship the True God but fell into idolatry. Some may argue that they didn’t know the living God but the fact that we still have Noah’s story to date is evidence that the stories of the living God in Noah's time had been brought down through oral traditions until Moses put it down on paper. Therefore, they are not exempted for their sin. Then God calls Abraham and through Abraham, He brings up a nation which is brought into captivity but, God delivers them by showing them wonders never seen on this earth. Just imagine with me the 10 plagues happening, imagine every Egyptian losing their animals while the Israelites’ animals stayed intact, imagine the rivers filled with blood, imagine locusts eating everything that belongs to the Egyptians and leaving the Israelites crops untouched. Imagine a whole generation of Egyptian first-borns dying because of the Israelites. Picture yourself being an Israelite and seeing the Red Sea literally divide and provide a path for you to escape. Surely, you would never have doubted God but they still ended up complaining in the desert to a point that they even started worshipping an idol they made with their own hands! This goes to show us the great depravity of our hearts. Those who wait for a miracle so that they can believe in God delude themselves for even if He did even more wonderful things than these we would still not truly believe. Therefore, the problem is not God but us. We have natures that are in defiance against the truth of God and we will only submit to it when we are changed from within (Born again). Moreover, just in case you may think that those were the Israelites, You might have done better, I submit to you that we are no different. If we were in there shoes we would have done maybe even worse. Let us go back…

Despite the rebellion of Israel, God lets the next generation of Israelites enter Canaan but with a vivid reminder that God abhor sinners (Psalms 5:6). Moreover, God gives them victory over victory in their battles with other nations and even proves it to them that their victories are because of Him and not the strength of their armies but, reading through the book of judges you see that they consistently followed after the idols. They would follow idols, God would later deliver them to captivity by other nations, they would later realize their sin against God and cry to Him, God would hear their cry, raise up a judge and through the judge release them from captivity then finally, in freedom, they would follow after idols again. The cycle begins again and the Lord still rescues them and even after numerous rescues they would still eventually reject the Lord as their King and demand for an earthly king despite many warnings from Him in 1 Samuel 8.

During the times of the Kings, only a few of the kings were actually righteous. Within the nations idolatry had never stopped completely at any moment. God brought prophet after prophet to continually urge them to turn away from their sins. They did not listen. On the contrary, sin continued to pile up over each other to a point that they had just become either religious or they out rightly rejected God and his commands. Moreover, they not only rejected his words through the prophets but also killed most of them if not all of them. Prophet Isaiah was sawed in half; Prophet Zechariah was killed in front of the temple! Prophet Jeremiah spent most of his time in prison etc. and despite all these abominations in the Lord’s eyes, He didn’t destroy them but culminated all things by bringing forth his beloved Son. The Son of God incarnate walked in flesh but they still rejected his word and His law, besides, they killed him in the most gruesome death yet he did not deserve it for he was innocent. Crucifixion was meant for political dissenters but they crucified Jesus despite not being a political dissenter. Imagine that! The Son of God hanging naked upon a cross. His former glory is the one in Isaiah 6 in which Seraphim are swirling His presence shouting Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts! The Son of God is the one through whom everything came to be and without Him nothing was yet he is the one hanging on the cross completely naked and seemingly helpless!

Another amazing fact about this is that if Jesus desired, he would have called out his angels and devoured everyone then taken himself off the cross and restored himself back to his glory but he didn’t. He instead stayed there so that he can suffer the penalty of the sins of all who will believe in Him and believed in him previously. On the third day, he rises from the grave and extends a hand of fellowship to all even those who crucified Him. Dear Lord, surely Your mercy endures forever! Till today He still offers His hand of fellowship to people who hate him, reject him, blaspheme him and scoff at him. He is the one who holds the breath of all men and instead of stopping them from breathing because of their sins He lets them live each day desiring that they may all come to repentance. He doesn’t take pleasure in the death of a sinner. O God have mercy on us miserable creatures! Make us new from our old self that we may obey your law! Pour your spirit upon us that we may obey, worship and adore you!              

Consider His Relentless mercy dear reader! If you have been brought to faith in Christ, consider this and worship Him. If you have not come to faith in Christ Jesus, consider this and put your faith in Him before the great and terrifying day when He will no longer show His mercy!

Blessings!!