Have you thought about ways in which we’ve benefited from God’s mercy? I don’t often do, but Today’s Holy Nougat invites us to reflect on God’s mercy.
Exodus 15:13 AFV
[13] You in Your mercy have led forth the people which You have redeemed. You have guided them in Your strength unto Your holy habitation.
God, in God’s Mercy
So what is mercy, and what does it have to do with crossing the Red Sea? According to our online friend, Wikipedia, mercy is ‘benevolence, forgiveness, or kindness’. Merriam-Webster adds compassion and divine favour. In the biblical thought of the Torah, there isn’t much difference. Strong’s indicates that ‘mercy’ originates from ‘checed’, or ‘khesed’ in Hebrew, which refers to kindness, mercy, goodness, pity, and merciful kindness. Some versions use ‘lovingkindness’.
Some might ask, after 400+ years, is that God’s lovingkindness? How can we see that as God’s mercy at work? I understand that question, believe me, I do. For when one is caught in a bad situation, it is not so easy to see any delay as a blessing.
But, in that moment, as they thought seriously about what God did, they realised the enormity of God’s love for them. And they were thankful. Or, more precisely, Moses was thankful to God.
Self-Check
Why should Moses see what God did as mercy? To whom should the praise be directed?
Application
It would have been so easy for Moses to have taken the credit for getting the Children of Israel safely across the sea. Indeed, he had told them to watch and see God’s saving work, but it was Moses who delivered the message, and Moses who held the rod. Moreover, it is Moses to whom they complained directly.
That’s exactly the point. Moses acted in obedience to God. In his strength, Moses would not have defeated the pursuing army, replete with chariots and marksmen. The Children of Israel were travelling on foot. Moses might have been able to handle a few, but not all of them. God could, and God did.
How then, is that God’s mercy, and what does it have to do with us, you ask. I’m so glad you did.
As I said previously, the point began with the Children of Israel’s grumbling and complaint. In their grumbling, they denied God’s power to save, which, in human spaces, would have been reason enough for God to leave them to their own devices, and eventual death.
But God didn’t. God chose mercy.
By opting against treating them as their sins warranted (Psalm 103:10-11), God demonstrated patience, forgiveness, compassion, and pity toward the Children of Israel. Why? Because they were ‘redeemed’. Here, redeemed relates to the principle of kinsman-redeemer, where a close relative is obliged to purchase (redeem) the freedom or debt of another. By virtue of God’s covenants with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (aka Israel), they were as God’s kin. In rescuing them from enslavement, God redeemed them.
In looking at our own lives, we could say that we’ve also been redeemed by God’s checed many times. The most obvious being Y’shua’s death and resurrection for our sakes. By the breath of God’s Spirit, we are also being led to God’s holy habitation. Not in this life only, but in the next. The price of God’s checed, our entry into covenant, sealed by the blood of Y’shua. On accepting Y’shua as Lord of our lives, we become God’s direct kin in a much different way from our being God’s creation.
For me, this makes this portion of the hymn prophetic, as it looked toward the future, even beyond our present lifetime. In that future, Moses saw us, God’s chosen – the redeemed of the Lord – making our habitation in the Land of God’s Promise. Yes, he thought it was the Promised Land, also called the Holy Land in our times. But, in fact, he was also prophesying about that day when Christ returns, in His strength, to lead us to His holy habitation.
Isn’t that why Y’shua promised that He’s gone to prepare a place for us, in John 14:1-10?
Siblings, this is what God’s mercy looks like. It’s GRACE: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. It’s not about our natural merit (see Ephesians 2:8-9), or the sticks in our hands. So, let’s take the time to celebrate our victory, despite our current circumstances.
Prayer Point
Who do we wish to be additional beneficiaries of God’s checed? Let’s place them before God in prayer.
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May all we seek be found in Christ
