Mercy

Many confuse this term with leniency, when the latter word is used in a somewhat negative sense.  Yahweh is merciful in that He is longsuffering, and provides every opportunity for men to find salvation. (Psa 86:15)  He paid an infinite cost in the death of Yahshua to enable humanity to find repentance and acceptance. (2Cor 5:19, Rom 5:8)  Yet the Scripture declares Him to be “longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.” (Num 14:18)

The sins of men may be forgiven, but they are never overlooked.  It is true that Yahweh will sometimes punish men “less than our iniquities deserve,” (Ezra 9:13) because it is the  “goodness of God leadeth [that] thee to repentance.” (Rom 2:4)  Yet while Yah is patient, and will not chastise us more than we can bear, He does not remove the consequences of our actions in most cases, and allows us to reap what we sow. (Gal 6:7)  Does everyone understand the distinction between forgiveness and having wrongs overlooked?

Yahweh is interested in our characters.  If, when we discover we have done wrong, we confess and repent of that action, the character is cleansed, and grows.  But if our wrongs go unacknowledged, and there are no consequences, then exactly the opposite takes place: the soul is corrupted, and growth is stunted.  The character of Christ is not developed by those who do not understand their responsibility as a child of the Most High, and they will not be able to stand before the Throne. (Isa 33:14)

Just as “love” is often confused with “sentimentality,” which consists to a large extent of positive feelings, so mercy is often relegated to an emotion rather than a principle.  If we wish to be merciful as our Father in Heaven is merciful, it does not mean we must overlook the faults of others and let not only ourselves, but others, be abused in our presence.  We must not allow those we love to abuse themselves either, by continuing unwarned in a wrong course of action… this is not true mercy. (Ezek 3:18)  Yahshua loved the Pharisees whom He rebuked; Peter and Paul loved their former brethren whom they chastised for their rejection of the Messiah.   These things were necessary for them to understand, if they had any hope of inheriting life.  In the long run, the most merciful thing we can do for the world is to do just as we are called to do – to testify of Christ, and to hold up His character before the world, saying, “This is what the Almighty requires of His people, all who will be saved from the destruction to come.”