HIS MERCY IS AMAZING
Today my work friends were on a job where they had to come up with
a way of painting some carved rockwork so that a video would show up
beautifully on it. It's quite a complicated problem, and they are on a tight
schedule. Things that were tried previously didn't work. I'm sure they'll come
up with a great solution, but I felt like God was being really merciful to me
when my boss put me on a totally different project! There's no cause and effect
when it comes to God's mercy. He shows us mercy just because He loves us and
understands our dilemmas. Mercy has been defined as divine favor when we don't
deserve it.
Another time I was developing a technique with paint to make three
Masonite boards look like real steel. I decided I had to combine two different
techniques to get the right look. It was a rush job; I was scurrying, and I
wasn't happy with the final pieces. I was complaining the whole time in my
head, but God's mercy was greater than my grumbling. The client loved the
pieces.
The word "mercy" is used 262 times in the King James
Version of the Bible, and the first time is with Abraham's nephew Lot. From
what we see of Lot in the Bible, he was not a very spiritual man, and not a
very wise one either. When Abraham took him to Canaan with him, they stood up
on a mountain and looked down at all the land God had given Abraham. Abraham
asked Lot which part of that land he would like to have. Instead of deferring
to his elder, he immediately chose the greenest, most beautiful part of the
land. He chose Sodom and Gomorrah. Not a good choice for him.
Lot wasn't spiritually strong enough to prevail over the evil that
had taken over. The practices in those cities and the hearts of the people were
so confused and perverted that destruction was imminent.
God sent two angels to rescue Lot and his family. Lot happened to
be at the gate of the city when the angels came. The news spread fast that
there were two strangers that entered their city gates. The angels took on a
human form in this situation.
"The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot
was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and
bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, "My Lords, please
turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet.
Then you may rise up early and go on your way.'
"They said, 'No, we will spend the night in the town
square.' But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and
entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and
they ate.
"But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of
Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the
house. And they called to Lot, 'Where are the men who came to you
tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.' Lot went
out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, 'I beg
you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly'" (Gen. 19:1-7).
The people in the city of Sodom were so depraved that all of
them came hungrily to Lot's house to get at these two strangers. When it says
that they wanted "to know" the two men, it means they wanted to rape
them, and it's translated that way in many versions of the Bible. Can you even
imagine a whole city so spiritually and mentally perverted that they all would
want to come and see such a thing?!
How could Lot stay in such a place? And he called these men his "brothers."
Other translations say "friends."
But God obviously had mercy on Lot, and knowing that destruction
was coming, He sent two of His angels, looking like men, to get Lot and his
family out of there.
"But he [Lot] lingered. So
the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord
being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the
city. And as they brought them out, one said, 'Escape for your
life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the
hills, lest you be swept away.'
"And Lot said unto them, 'Oh,
not so, my Lord: Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight,
and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my
life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die:
"Behold, this city is near
enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a
little one? —and my life will be saved!' He said to him, 'Behold, I grant
you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have
spoken. Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there"
(Gen. 19: 16-22).
Not only did God have so much mercy on Lot that he let him and his
family escape (except for his wife who, of her own free will, looked back), but
when Lot pleaded with God to be able to go to a smaller city in the valley, God
once again had mercy on him and told him he wouldn't let the destruction come
on the city Lot wanted to stay in.
God's mercy is enormous. I can't say that I am naturally a merciful
person, but Jesus tells us: "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father
also is merciful" (Luke 6:36). God has shown me mercy (favor when I
didn't deserve it) and today was a good reminder that I need to be merciful too.
"Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk
in love, as Christ also hath loved us" (Eph. 5:1-2).
Love, Carolyn
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