The God Who Shows Mercy

The small wonder

There are moments in Scripture where God tells us who He is.

Not merely what He has done. Not merely what people think about Him. Not merely what creation hints at from a distance. God Himself speaks His own name and reveals His own character.

Exodus 34 is one of those moments.

Moses had asked to see God's glory. That is not a small request. It is the kind of request that could only be answered by mercy. No sinner can handle the unveiled glory of God as though it were a scenic lookout or a religious experience to be collected.

God hides Moses in the cleft of the rock. He passes by. Then He proclaims His character.

A merciful and gracious God.

That is astonishing.

The holy God reveals His glory by declaring His mercy.

He does not begin by showing Himself as distant, cold, reluctant or impossible to please. He does not reveal Himself as a divine accountant waiting for failure with folded arms. He declares Himself merciful and gracious. Slow to anger. Abounding in faithful love and truth.

This does not make Him soft. Scripture never presents God's mercy as weakness. His mercy shines because He is holy. His grace is magnificent because He is righteous. His patience is not indifference. It is the patience of the Lord who sees sin clearly yet delights to pardon those who return to Him.

What it shows us about God

God is not merciful because He has been talked into it.

He is merciful because mercy belongs to His character.

That is a great comfort for weary sinners. If mercy had to be dragged out of God, we would never have peace. If grace depended on our ability to make ourselves impressive first, we would be sunk before breakfast. If forgiveness rested on our religious mood, spiritual consistency or emotional intensity, none of us would stand.

But God reveals Himself as merciful and gracious.

Mercy means He has compassion on the needy and guilty. Grace means He gives favour that is not earned. He does not deny sin. He does not shrug at evil. He does not pretend rebellion is harmless. Yet He delights to forgive, restore and receive those who come to Him.

This is not a thin mercy.

It is not the mercy of someone who says, "Never mind" because sin does not matter.

It is the mercy that reaches its fullest display in Jesus Christ.

At the cross, God's mercy and justice meet. Sin is not ignored. It is judged. Grace is not vague. It is costly. The holy God provides the sacrifice. The Son bears the sin of His people. The guilty are not told to climb their way back to God. They are called to come by faith to the Saviour who has already come down.

That is why Christian mercy is never sentimental.

It is blood bought.

The God who proclaimed His mercy to Moses has shown His mercy in Christ. He has not changed. He is not moody. He is not generous on Monday and reluctant on Thursday. He is merciful and gracious.

That does not make repentance unnecessary. It makes repentance possible.

We come because He is merciful. We confess because He is gracious. We return because He is slow to anger. We hope because His steadfast love is not a thin thread but a mighty rope.

Lift your eyes

Think of how easily we misread God.

We imagine Him as irritated before we even pray. We assume He is tired of us before we confess. We treat Him as though He would rather not be bothered. We project onto Him the impatience, harshness and emotional distance we have seen in people.

But God has spoken.

He has revealed His character. He is merciful and gracious.

Do not let your fear write a false theology of God. Do not let your failures become louder than His own self revelation. Do not let yesterday's sin tell you that mercy has run dry.

Come to Him truthfully.

No hiding. No religious acting. No polished performance.

Come to Him through Christ. Come with confession. Come with empty hands. Come remembering that mercy is not an emergency supply kept at the back of heaven. It flows from the heart of God Himself.

A few Scriptures to carry

A Short Prayer