There are many stories of God's mercy in the Bible and most of them you've probably already heard before. I'll share a one that jumped out at me that I hadn't really seen before. God's mercy is another type of God's amazing love for us in that He doesn't deal out to us what we deserve. The words pity, compassion and grace also describe God's immense love for us in that He loves us for who we are - not what we do. The ultimate picture of God's mercy was Jesus - the Son of God - dying in our place bringing us the undeserved grace of God - but today I want to go back a lot further than that. Way, way back to Genesis. In Genesis 4 the very first humans to live on this earth Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. These two sons were very different as is the case in most families - Abel was great with animals and Cain was gifted with produce and growing things. God loves diversity and gives to each of us different skills and talents so we can all exist together and help each other with our different strengths. The problem was, Cain didn't see his brothers talents as something beneficial to him and became jealous of him. Abel was also a prophet of God who heard from God and spoke openly about God's ways which Cain also didn't like.
Because we all make mistakes, God called for both brothers to bring a sacrifice for the wrong they had done. God honored Abel's sacrifice but told Cain He wasn't happy with his sacrifice and to make it right. Cain became very upset that his sacrifice was rejected and rather than change his behaviour and simply bring what God had asked, He thought he'd fix the problem another way. A far more sinister way. Instead of listening to God, Cain listened to the poisonous whisper in his ear from the devil and decided it was time to take 'golden boy' Abel out of the picture - after all then there would be no more competition for God's favour. So Cain invited his brother Abel to come look at something in his field and when no one was watching he attacked him and killed him. Problem solved. No...not really. God sees everything and nothing is hidden from His gaze. So God called out to Cain and said "Where is Abel?" knowing full well where he was and saw the whole turn of events as it happened. Cain replied "I don't know, He's not my problem...". Now here's where it gets interesting. Abel was innocent, Cain was guilty. Cain had killed an innocent man so the simple solution was that Cain should die for his crime. Life for Life seemed only fair - after all Cain deserved it, he was a nasty, horrible murderer.
But God didn't kill Cain. He in His mercy said to Cain "Because of what you've done you now need to live somewhere else. It'll be better for you and everyone else if you start over in a new place". Cain realized that once other people find out that he was a murderer they would want to exact their own justice upon him and kill him. Cain pleaded with God "Once people see me they will kill me for what I've done to Abel". Again, God could have just let this be and let the ramifications of Cain's actions catch up with him - after all, Cain deserved everything that came to him after what he'd done. But God in His amazing mercy said "No Cain, no one will kill you or even touch you. I will put a mark on you so that if anyone even tries to kill you they will bring on themselves seven times the same fate". So you see, that's God's mercy. We all make mistakes, there's not a single person on this earth that hasn't done something wrong. And if we all got what we deserved for what we did, then there wouldn't be any people left at all. The truth is humanity without God is utterly hopeless. You leave us be to our own devices for long enough and we turn on each other and kill and consume everything. It's happened throughout history over and over and over.
From ancient times where mankind conquered and killed to expand empires right up to the current World Wars and the ones that are still being fought and bled today over greed and power. So what's the answer for us all? How do you save a population that is hell bent on self destruction? You answer it with Mercy - and Jesus was that mercy embodied. He decided that rather than all of us die for our crimes - He would die once for us all. To end the killing - He would be killed. Jesus decided to show us the greatest picture of mercy ever. The cross is the very image of mercy. I know I don't deserve the mercy that God's given me for the things I've done in this life. I don't deserve to be forgiven and given another chance - but His mercy is far greater than my guilt and my shame. His forgiveness far outweighs my sins on the scales and trust me when I say I had my side of the scales stacked up pretty high. The simple truth is this - no matter what you've done, no matter where you've been or what you think you are - God's mercy for you is greater than all that stuff. God loves you and always has mercy for you. So if today you're feeling like the weight of what you've done is just too heavy, too much and too hard to bear - kneel before the King and drop it at Jesus feet and He will gladly take it from you. Jesus said "Come to me all you who are weary and have heavy burdens and I will give you rest". His mercy is always available and it's available to you. God loves you.
[ Psalm 103:10 - He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. ]
