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“Now will I… have mercy… and will be jealous for My holy Name” – Ezekiel 39:25
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At the first part of chapter 1, we traced the absolute sovereignty of God as is taught in Romans chapter 9 (as the Calvinists would correctly understand it). In the logical flow of the chapter’s argument, four persons or groups of persons are cited in the Old Covenant as examples of sovereign election, and by election I mean: elected unto salvation through an eternal love, or unto damnation through an eternal hatred. Referencing Jacob and Esau (Rom. 9:9-13) firstly, and the Israelites (Rom. 9:15) and Pharaoh (representative of the Egyptians, Rom. 9:17) secondarily, are two pairs which serve as examples for each predestination, unto heaven or hell. In a close study of these four persons/groups, we observed the sovereign and mysterious hatred of God upon Pharaoh in that it hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and this made it evident to us that God was ordaining him to destruction. Do you remember how this was a justice-shattering hatred?! That is to say, it shatters our comprehension of justice, but it is, somehow, altogether just and righteous in God; however, any person reading the chronicles of Pharaoh’s God-ordained hardening while still abiding in their limited and inferior ways of logic, would immediately feel emotionally harmed, even betrayed, thinking, “Is there unrighteousness with God” (Rom. 9:14)? Now hear me…As the predestinating HATRED of God provokes the question, “is there unrighteousness with God” (Rom. 9:14), the predestinating MERCY of God does likewise. It is justice-shattering mercy!
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“I will…be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy” – Exodus 33:19
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“I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” – Romans 9:15
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This phrase in Romans 9:15, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,” was declared by God during “The Great Pause” of the Covenant, in Exodus 33:19. If you recall, this momentous word was given during Moses’ second attempt for intercession by prayer for the fallen Israelites. The Israelite covenant was presently broken (Ex. 32:19), God was pausing to decide what to do (Ex. 33:5), and Moses fled outside of the camp to attempt an intercessory meeting with God, because God would not come into their midst lest He consume them (Ex. 33:3, 7-11). Because Moses went outside of the camp, God came down and met with him. Moses wrestled Him, God turned at Moses’ Spirit-empowered supplications, and then announced, “I…will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy” (Ex. 33:19, Rom. 9:15)! Why is this an example of sovereign, mysterious, incomprehensible, justice-shattering mercy?
In response to the Israelite rebellion, the justice within God had decided upon the recompense of total annihilation. Clearly, God’s intent, purpose, pursuit, and word was such (see Ex. 32:10). Even though this was almost immediately repented of after Moses’ intercessory prayer,
it was first desired by God, because this is unrestrained, pure, uncompromised justice. This was not an unjust thought in the heart of God, nor could God ever think or desire anything that was not perfectly and soundly just. Shockingly, the Lord pardoned Israel at this instance, but reader, we must understand that He does not always, consistently, nor continuously, pardon idolaters. Remember the justice of God upon Achan? Men alongside their women and children were mercilessly killed by God. Achan and his family personally underwent the justice of capital punishment, but at Israel’s gathering at Sinai when they fell into idolatry, at once, they all deserved the same annihilation as Achan! However, as you can see, somehow there was still mercy for Israel but not for Achan. What is the difference between the one that was pardoned and rewarded heaven, compared to the other that was punished and rewarded hell? My reader, behold – it is the sovereign right of God! As He saith, “I will have mercy ON WHOM I will have mercy” (Rom. 9:15). When God mercifully pardoned Israel at the Sinai idolatry, it was not according to their works, for their works merited for them the death penalty. Therefore, do you see how this is unexplainable mercy! It is mercy which provokes the question, “Is there unrighteousness with God” (Rom. 9:14), and therefore this mercy was cited in Romans 9 as an example of elective mercies, which are and always have been irrelevant to “any good or evil” that a man does (Rom. 9:11) – it is outside of the realm of comprehensible justice, or, justice which is according to a man’s deeds. God’s covenanted law established at Sinai was thereafter implemented with faithfulness according to the letter, which means that God continued to demand death for all idolaters, as it is written. According to the written law there was absolutely, without partiality, no way to escape the death penalty! I repeat: there was no option for mercy, forgiveness, or pardon! God specifically commanded against pity or mercy in times of justice. God wrote justice in its impartial, universally equal letter, and throughout history the Lord wrought the letter of the law’s execution upon so many that the fame of His justice was reckoned to be - “Shall not He render to every man according to his works” (Prov. 24:12). Thus was His justice universally, and thus He declares of Himself by the prophets: “Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is His name, great in counsel, and mighty in work: for Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings” (Jer. 32:18-19).
Turning the page to the doctrine of eternal election, God’s higher things, we have stepped out of the arena of the humanly comprehensible. What is famous about God in heaven? God’s audience of holy angels, which circle about His sovereign throne, admire the eternal and mysterious purposes of election which unfold a circumstantial stage of God’s eternal glory through humanity’s final redemption. They rest, knowing that God is sovereign over human events, even though they appear to be an undeterminable chaos of freewill creatures. Elective mercy is mysteriously incomprehensible to man, but it is the glory and praise of God in heaven! Therefore to us it is justice-shattering MERCY, even the justice so consistently wrought severally upon millions of men and their nations – justice according to deeds. In this mercy, God pardoned Israel at “The Great Pause,” unjustified by their works and therefore irrelevant of how they willed for idolatry and ran after revellings. “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy” (Rom. 9:16). Reader, be amazed! God can and does save people even against their willing and running, and again in another place He saith: “I was found of them that sought Me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after Me” (Rom. 11:20)! Are you unfamiliar with “THE GREAT PAUSE?” Carefully review the details of this Great Pause in the chapter titled, “The Near Annihilation of God’s People.” During “The Great Pause” there were several degrees of wrath which were repented of, until God decided to reestablish the Covenant as it was at the first. At the time of God’s decision to reestablish the Covenant - even with IDOLATERS – God said that Israel is “WHOM” He has shown mercy and grace. From henceforth, Israel will continue to be a people before God, “WHOM,” over and over, God shows elective mercy, peculiarly irrelevant of their works, partial to their advantage, to the shattering of comprehensible justice which was implemented in comparative experiences for other people or individuals within and outside of Israelite blood). For the Israelites, “as touching election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” This means that Israel will continue to be a people before God, now and forever, and their eventual and entire salvation before THE END of the world is a purpose of God that He will never repent of. How did Paul make the observation that Israel is elect by God’s sovereign mercy? Paul cites the passage at “The Great Pause” – “I will have mercy ON WHOM I will have mercy” (Rom. 9:15). How does Paul make the observation that Israel is called with a calling that is “without repentance” in God? My reader, God confirms this elective purpose over and over again!
Under the section, “The Near Annihilation of God’s People,” there were four separate instances where God actually spoke a command, in paraphrase, to get out of the way so that He might totally annihilate Israel (Ex. 32:10, Num. 14:11-12, 16:21-22, 16:45). When God broke forth to judgment by sudden and annihilating plagues, we can see that God was minded to destroy Israel in the same heart of these four times where God was minded to total annihilation – which means, until the wrath-provoking sin was removed from before His holy eyes, GOD would NOT stop annihilating. This was for sure, and all Israel learned to acknowledge it! By spoken word, intention, and active annihilation, God desired to, and began to, totally annihilate His people to make a full end of them.
At a later time, the Assyrian and Babylonian Captivities, God’s wrath did break forth into a paramount, unprecedented degree, and it was as God “thought to do” all those times before when He was moved to total annihilation, times which He did repent of, which were, Israel confesses, “according to our ways, and according to our doings” (Zech. 1:6). Read the entire verse: “But My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath He dealt with us” (Zech. 1:6). When Israel confesses, “so hath He dealt with us”, God was doing what He thought to do all those times when He intended to, verbally declared, or began to annihilate His people – only those times God was stayed from His just wrath because of intercessory prophets. So now, at the time period of the book of Zechariah, Israel confesses, what God “thought to do unto us…so hath He dealt with us” (Zech. 1:6), and how? What did God do? God brought upon them the Assyrian and Babylonian Captivities - a near annihilation. The justice in God that burned for the letter’s perfection lashed out from under the rule of Sovereign mercy unto its execution. That is to say, this justice was burning in the heart of God even while sovereign mercy barricaded its breaking forth. I REPEAT, even though it did not break forth in former times and seasons, it was still burning in God’s heart. Even though mercy was administered and salvation maintained, it was still burning as a real, genuine, and living desire in the holy heart of God! When justice finally broke forth, it was because sovereign mercy let it loose, and those who died were rightly and justly judged according to their works, but God did not kill or make a full end even in the captivities, as accounted in the former section: “I Am Weary With Repenting.” This, even this – the preservation of a few – this is how Israel came to understand MERCY! Do you understand it? “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed” (Lam. 3:22)! Can you feel the thankfulness and wonder in their hearts when they said – “WE ARE NOT CONSUMED!” – thus they stand amazed in worshipful wonder! Near-annihilating wrath taught them the purest revelation of mercy! They did not understand mercy except by the justice of God’s anger which desired their total annihilation. Again they said, “Nevertheless for Thy great mercies’ sake Thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for Thou art a gracious and merciful God” (Neh. 9:31). Do you understand this biblical mercy? An utter and total annihilation was, and is, justice, and all of those persons who are not judged according to their works do escape the totally annihilating wrath of God, because, they are privileged objects of sovereign, justice-shattering mercy – “Mercy On Whom I Will Have Mercy.”
In response to the Israelite rebellion, the justice within God had decided upon the recompense of total annihilation. Clearly, God’s intent, purpose, pursuit, and word was such (see Ex. 32:10). Even though this was almost immediately repented of after Moses’ intercessory prayer,
it was first desired by God, because this is unrestrained, pure, uncompromised justice. This was not an unjust thought in the heart of God, nor could God ever think or desire anything that was not perfectly and soundly just. Shockingly, the Lord pardoned Israel at this instance, but reader, we must understand that He does not always, consistently, nor continuously, pardon idolaters. Remember the justice of God upon Achan? Men alongside their women and children were mercilessly killed by God. Achan and his family personally underwent the justice of capital punishment, but at Israel’s gathering at Sinai when they fell into idolatry, at once, they all deserved the same annihilation as Achan! However, as you can see, somehow there was still mercy for Israel but not for Achan. What is the difference between the one that was pardoned and rewarded heaven, compared to the other that was punished and rewarded hell? My reader, behold – it is the sovereign right of God! As He saith, “I will have mercy ON WHOM I will have mercy” (Rom. 9:15). When God mercifully pardoned Israel at the Sinai idolatry, it was not according to their works, for their works merited for them the death penalty. Therefore, do you see how this is unexplainable mercy! It is mercy which provokes the question, “Is there unrighteousness with God” (Rom. 9:14), and therefore this mercy was cited in Romans 9 as an example of elective mercies, which are and always have been irrelevant to “any good or evil” that a man does (Rom. 9:11) – it is outside of the realm of comprehensible justice, or, justice which is according to a man’s deeds. God’s covenanted law established at Sinai was thereafter implemented with faithfulness according to the letter, which means that God continued to demand death for all idolaters, as it is written. According to the written law there was absolutely, without partiality, no way to escape the death penalty! I repeat: there was no option for mercy, forgiveness, or pardon! God specifically commanded against pity or mercy in times of justice. God wrote justice in its impartial, universally equal letter, and throughout history the Lord wrought the letter of the law’s execution upon so many that the fame of His justice was reckoned to be - “Shall not He render to every man according to his works” (Prov. 24:12). Thus was His justice universally, and thus He declares of Himself by the prophets: “Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is His name, great in counsel, and mighty in work: for Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings” (Jer. 32:18-19).
Turning the page to the doctrine of eternal election, God’s higher things, we have stepped out of the arena of the humanly comprehensible. What is famous about God in heaven? God’s audience of holy angels, which circle about His sovereign throne, admire the eternal and mysterious purposes of election which unfold a circumstantial stage of God’s eternal glory through humanity’s final redemption. They rest, knowing that God is sovereign over human events, even though they appear to be an undeterminable chaos of freewill creatures. Elective mercy is mysteriously incomprehensible to man, but it is the glory and praise of God in heaven! Therefore to us it is justice-shattering MERCY, even the justice so consistently wrought severally upon millions of men and their nations – justice according to deeds. In this mercy, God pardoned Israel at “The Great Pause,” unjustified by their works and therefore irrelevant of how they willed for idolatry and ran after revellings. “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy” (Rom. 9:16). Reader, be amazed! God can and does save people even against their willing and running, and again in another place He saith: “I was found of them that sought Me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after Me” (Rom. 11:20)! Are you unfamiliar with “THE GREAT PAUSE?” Carefully review the details of this Great Pause in the chapter titled, “The Near Annihilation of God’s People.” During “The Great Pause” there were several degrees of wrath which were repented of, until God decided to reestablish the Covenant as it was at the first. At the time of God’s decision to reestablish the Covenant - even with IDOLATERS – God said that Israel is “WHOM” He has shown mercy and grace. From henceforth, Israel will continue to be a people before God, “WHOM,” over and over, God shows elective mercy, peculiarly irrelevant of their works, partial to their advantage, to the shattering of comprehensible justice which was implemented in comparative experiences for other people or individuals within and outside of Israelite blood). For the Israelites, “as touching election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” This means that Israel will continue to be a people before God, now and forever, and their eventual and entire salvation before THE END of the world is a purpose of God that He will never repent of. How did Paul make the observation that Israel is elect by God’s sovereign mercy? Paul cites the passage at “The Great Pause” – “I will have mercy ON WHOM I will have mercy” (Rom. 9:15). How does Paul make the observation that Israel is called with a calling that is “without repentance” in God? My reader, God confirms this elective purpose over and over again!
Under the section, “The Near Annihilation of God’s People,” there were four separate instances where God actually spoke a command, in paraphrase, to get out of the way so that He might totally annihilate Israel (Ex. 32:10, Num. 14:11-12, 16:21-22, 16:45). When God broke forth to judgment by sudden and annihilating plagues, we can see that God was minded to destroy Israel in the same heart of these four times where God was minded to total annihilation – which means, until the wrath-provoking sin was removed from before His holy eyes, GOD would NOT stop annihilating. This was for sure, and all Israel learned to acknowledge it! By spoken word, intention, and active annihilation, God desired to, and began to, totally annihilate His people to make a full end of them.
At a later time, the Assyrian and Babylonian Captivities, God’s wrath did break forth into a paramount, unprecedented degree, and it was as God “thought to do” all those times before when He was moved to total annihilation, times which He did repent of, which were, Israel confesses, “according to our ways, and according to our doings” (Zech. 1:6). Read the entire verse: “But My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath He dealt with us” (Zech. 1:6). When Israel confesses, “so hath He dealt with us”, God was doing what He thought to do all those times when He intended to, verbally declared, or began to annihilate His people – only those times God was stayed from His just wrath because of intercessory prophets. So now, at the time period of the book of Zechariah, Israel confesses, what God “thought to do unto us…so hath He dealt with us” (Zech. 1:6), and how? What did God do? God brought upon them the Assyrian and Babylonian Captivities - a near annihilation. The justice in God that burned for the letter’s perfection lashed out from under the rule of Sovereign mercy unto its execution. That is to say, this justice was burning in the heart of God even while sovereign mercy barricaded its breaking forth. I REPEAT, even though it did not break forth in former times and seasons, it was still burning in God’s heart. Even though mercy was administered and salvation maintained, it was still burning as a real, genuine, and living desire in the holy heart of God! When justice finally broke forth, it was because sovereign mercy let it loose, and those who died were rightly and justly judged according to their works, but God did not kill or make a full end even in the captivities, as accounted in the former section: “I Am Weary With Repenting.” This, even this – the preservation of a few – this is how Israel came to understand MERCY! Do you understand it? “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed” (Lam. 3:22)! Can you feel the thankfulness and wonder in their hearts when they said – “WE ARE NOT CONSUMED!” – thus they stand amazed in worshipful wonder! Near-annihilating wrath taught them the purest revelation of mercy! They did not understand mercy except by the justice of God’s anger which desired their total annihilation. Again they said, “Nevertheless for Thy great mercies’ sake Thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for Thou art a gracious and merciful God” (Neh. 9:31). Do you understand this biblical mercy? An utter and total annihilation was, and is, justice, and all of those persons who are not judged according to their works do escape the totally annihilating wrath of God, because, they are privileged objects of sovereign, justice-shattering mercy – “Mercy On Whom I Will Have Mercy.”
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“We should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah” (Isaiah 1:9).
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The prophet Ezekiel, more than any other of his contemporaries, undertook the burden to make plain the justice of God’s continual desire for the total annihilation of Israel. In Ezekiel chapter 16, under God-breathed inspiration, Ezekiel makes the case that Israel has sinned against God to a greater degree than Sodom and Gomorrah, whom God did NOT SPARE from total annihilation. Thus Isaiah said of Israel, “We should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah” (Isa. 1:9). Israel should have been as Sodom and Gomorrah in total annihilation, because their wicked deeds demanded a worse punishment than Sodom and Gomorrah (Ezekiel 16). God’s anger was burning hot like the Sodomite fires of annihilation (Deut. 29:23), but God’s mercy lamented against it, and He said – “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within Me, My repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city” (Hos. 11:8-9). God was SO MOVED to total annihilation that, behold, He was staggering to restrain Himself! His changes of mind were tossing and turning! He had chosen – by sovereign mercy – that He would not totally annihilate Israel so as to, God says, “execute the fierceness of Mine anger,” like as what He did to Zeboim and Admah (neighboring cities to Sodom and Gomorrah which were likewise burned) – and this is MERCY! To understand mercy is to feel you are an inhabitant of Zoar, and apart from any merit, in contradiction to the legal of justice, “The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar” (Gen. 19:19:23), and you are spared! Praise God!
God called Jerusalem a spiritual Sodom and Gomorrah (Isa. 1:9-10), because they were followers of, and advancing in, Sodom’s nature and deeds, like a child copies his father – kin to kin. To show the strength of this ungodly bond, Ezekiel said they were as familial kindred with Sodom, even sisters, and with Samaria too (Ezek. 16)! God says of Sodom and Gomorrah, “They were haughty, and committed abomination before Me: therefore I took them away as I saw good” (Ezek. 16:50). The iniquity of Jerusalem exceeded Samaria, who was also taken away in wrath, and comparing Jerusalem with her two sisters (Sodom + Gomorrah & Samaria), God declares –
God called Jerusalem a spiritual Sodom and Gomorrah (Isa. 1:9-10), because they were followers of, and advancing in, Sodom’s nature and deeds, like a child copies his father – kin to kin. To show the strength of this ungodly bond, Ezekiel said they were as familial kindred with Sodom, even sisters, and with Samaria too (Ezek. 16)! God says of Sodom and Gomorrah, “They were haughty, and committed abomination before Me: therefore I took them away as I saw good” (Ezek. 16:50). The iniquity of Jerusalem exceeded Samaria, who was also taken away in wrath, and comparing Jerusalem with her two sisters (Sodom + Gomorrah & Samaria), God declares –
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“Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done. Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear they shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters…thou art a comfort unto them” (Ezek. 16:51-54).
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Jerusalem’s works demanded a greater, more fierce, annihilation from God, BUT THEY DID NOT UNDERGO IT! A remnant was spared! Mercy is that a remnant was spared, that they were not as Sodom and Gomorrah’s end – total annihilation. Thus God says, “I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning” (Amos 4:11) – so a remnant was plucked out from the fire, alive, but not unmarked by the fires. They were heated, burned, and smelted. They were purified, for it was ordained of God that they did exist to praise God’s sovereign mercy in holy, healthy, trembling fear. If Israel deserved the same as, or “should have been” as, Sodom and Gomorrah, which is TOTAL ANNIHILATION, but they were not, even while they were more wicked and hell-deserving of it, and instead God decided to save a remnant – this is elective, justice-shattering mercy, which is not according to their works.
How hot and how high were the fires of God’s wrath? Look to the secret visions and gasping cries of the prophets, who alone do wrestle against these unseen, erupting potentials. Hear the contemporary prophet of this generation say, “I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD! Wilt Thou destroy all the residue of Israel in Thy pouring out of Thy fury upon Jerusalem” (Ezek. 9:8)? And again, “Then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord GOD! Wilt Thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel” (Ezek. 11:13)? Even so, behold the visions of Amos as he pled against the mind of God to destroy:
How hot and how high were the fires of God’s wrath? Look to the secret visions and gasping cries of the prophets, who alone do wrestle against these unseen, erupting potentials. Hear the contemporary prophet of this generation say, “I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD! Wilt Thou destroy all the residue of Israel in Thy pouring out of Thy fury upon Jerusalem” (Ezek. 9:8)? And again, “Then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord GOD! Wilt Thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel” (Ezek. 11:13)? Even so, behold the visions of Amos as he pled against the mind of God to destroy:
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"Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me; and, behold, He formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings. And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech Thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small. The LORD repented for this: It shall not be, saith the LORD. Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part. Then said I, O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech Thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small. The LORD repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord GOD."
(Amos 7:1-6) |
Well did David Brainerd say, “let us always remember that we must through much tribulation enter in God’s eternal Kingdom of rest and peace, the righteous are scarcely saved, it is an infinite wonder that we have well rounded hopes of being saved at all. For my part, I feel the most vile of all creatures living and I am sure sometimes that there is not such another existing on this side hell… Let us run, wrestle, and fight that we may win the prize and obtain that complete happiness to be ‘holy as God is holy.’” He knew something about the thrice-holy countenance of God, and consequentially, he knew something of his own hell-deserving wretchedness, though he was one of “the righteous” (1 Peter 4:18), as Peter said. Brainerd wondered that God would presently and progressively save a man like himself, though he had already undergone regeneration. This concept of mercy was crystallized in his heart through the pressures of God’s holy terror - hotter than the earth’s mantle. Terror and humiliation was the “eyesalve” by which he washed his eyes, that he might behold MERCY as a beautiful wonder of God (Rev. 3); hushing the soul into silent admiration, piercing pride and awe-striking, leaving the stoutest champion humiliated, prostrated, and face-grounded in wonder. Such men as this learn to worship with ALL THEIR MIGHT! This same wonder of mercy is the renowned praise of God’s righteous people throughout the centuries, and by the righteous I mean they that were humbled, convicted, redeemed, and persevered. Men wondered at the mercy of God, that because of it they were not consumed, for they had holy revelations of their own just condemnation, they had a holy hatred of sin committed, and they had terrible visions of its aftermath after it was experienced, in a moment, when the reactive, perfectly holy will of God responded to sin. They learned the costliness and causes of sin, and it was bitter. They had a heavy mind and grave sensations of their present corruptions, that to be saved from underneath the inward pollutions of self was an infinite, incomprehensible, and unthinkable work of grace! Is this how you understand the mercy of God?
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Those who know Brainerd do well understand that he had a deep and acute sense of his sinfulness, but I contend that it was because he had a lifetime of close encounters with The Sinless One – his Holy Judge and Savior. So, for us to understand the wondrous mercy of God, we must see that our sins provoke God to justly pursue our destruction and damnation, but through a holy, alien-righteous mercy, HE SAVES US! When we see that our sins caused God to flame hot enough for our annihilation, sending the prophets into the agonizing experiences heretofore accounted – it is then that OUR SIN becomes exceedingly sinful. Sin becomes the more abominable as anger and agony circle overhead, and then, suddenly, mercy is scarcely secured. Sins are the more abominable to men when they know that their eternal damnation was so worthy of applause amidst the Three Persons of the Trinity. Even so, God says to Ezekiel – “Cause them TO KNOW the abominations of their fathers” (Ezek. 20:4)! In this entire chapter, Ezekiel recounts three instances where God intended, purposed, and sought after Israel’s total annihilation, so that men might know the nearness of it, their scarce escape from it, and the threefold justice in it. Men do take for granted clouds of rain, but they never have or will after they are long exercised under the cloudless heat of the Sun.
It is the mercy of God that any at all, ever, did persevere and were finally saved, that of the many called, the multitudes, few were still plucked out and hand-chosen from the furnace of destroying fires, and, lo, a remnant was saved! Thus Ezekiel argues, but what is the heavenly jewel which crowns God’s scepter of justice, that it, unto us, might be bowed for a kiss? Behold… |
Who in this entire world of men does experience the soul-crushing, body-depleting, and near-death pressures of wrestling against God’s wrath for personal and corporate salvation, as seen in the life of the beloved of God, King David? The famed missionary to the Native Americans, David Brainerd by name, was one man of such experience, but tragically, he is written off to be a man of melancholy, of mental and clinical sickness, but his rapturous experiences of nearness to God’s presence, the length and depth of his prayer life, and the revival powers that followed, all of these things are the envy of the children of God. It is with brokenness and astonishment that I have come to conclude, that Brainerd was in a right-standing relationship with God, and thereby, he was sensitive to, and responsive to, his own sinfulness, being aware of God’s reactive and changing wrath; all the while he was in pursuit of the promises of God to be performed, but how terrible it is that his life of lowly repentance and mourning is the hiss of God’s people, as they just brush it off?! They are of a stronger constitution, you see…but Brainerd’s power is their praise and they go on powerless all their days! Why!? Apparently they have sin that they don’t know about! But Brainerd knew it – oh, how he knew his wrath-aggravating sin! The secret of Brainerd’s success in the Spirit of God was this very breaking experience which “Americanized Christianity” spurns as a psychological instability, when, in truth, these experiences were death to the flesh so that Brainerd might live to God. This was not Brainerd’s melancholy, but godly sorrow. It was his deep wrestling against wrath, followed by rising successes of mercies won! Thus power endued and rested upon this humble man! Brainerd was an example, like King David, whose experiences of personal soul-travail against God’s wrath men do likewise spurn, so that men are nearly unaware of God’s wrath altogether, and it is because they refuse to suffer it. Leonard Ravenhill rightly said, “everyone wants my anointing but no one wants my sackcloth and ashes”.
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“And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for MY NAME’S SAKE, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD” (Ezek. 20:44).
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God would have men bow and kiss His Name, for under it we find a refuge for mercy. God’s Name is most precious in the eyes of God, and it is able to stay the wrath of annihilation. When God would not spare men for His love that He has for them, then He spared them for His love that He has for His own Name. God would save His Name before He would save you, and seeing you are called by His Name, you are privileged to be under the covering of the greatest and highest pursuit of God – HIS GLORY! If you are identified with His Name, then “rejoice with trembling” (Ps. 2:11)! Everything that does now exist, everything that was created, it is all for God – “For Whom are all things, and by Whom are all things” (Heb. 2:10) – “For of HIM, and through HIM, and to HIM, are all things: to Whom be glory for ever” (Rom. 11:36). God loves His glory, He loves Himself, and He does things for Himself – chiefly! His own pleasure is satisfied in the exultation of His Name. Therefore – listen closely – God saves men whom He justly hates and pities men who deserve no pity, and why? It is not for the pity of their person, nay! It is the pity that God has toward HIS NAME! This is the greatest desire in God. For God so loved HIMSELF He saved His people. God loveth The Most Lovely, adoreth The Most Adorable, esteemeth The Most Right, and rejoiceth in The Most Good – and it is HIMSELF. God loves God, and when all of creation is in its creative order, it will praise, hallow, bless, and love Him right along with Him! His eye spared Israel from the wrath that was upon them before their conversion, and after their conversion, even though they sinned and rebelled against a magnificent degree of light, even though they left the safe haven of gospel-faith, still they were selectively and progressively saved from a burning justice in God which burned hot throughout their Christian pilgrimage – so hot, mind you, it is soul-gasping, wondrous MERCY that He did not make a full annihilation of them! And why did God forbear from total annihilation? Because He loved The Name of God! Of the Exodus generation, He said, “Nevertheless Mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness” (Ezek. 20:17). And why? My reader, let the inspired prophet Ezekiel “proclaim” (Ex. 33:19) to you the “glory” (Ex. 33:18) of “the Name of the LORD” (Ex. 33:19), the same name spoken to Moses – the Name which is the refuge of elective and sovereign mercy, which prevents and triumphs over a total annihilating wrath in God!
Ezekiel 20:4-24
“Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them? cause them to know the abominations of their fathers: And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up Mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made Myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up Mine hand unto them, saying, I am the LORD your God; In the day that I lifted up Mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands: Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. But they rebelled against Me, and would not hearken unto Me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out My fury upon them, to accomplish My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. But I wrought for My name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made Myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt. Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave them My statutes, and shewed them My judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them. Moreover also I gave them My sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them.”
“But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness: they walked not in My statutes, and they despised My judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and My sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out My fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them. But I wrought for My name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out. Yet also I lifted up My hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands; Because they despised My judgments, and walked not in My statutes, but polluted My sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols. Nevertheless Mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness.”
“But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols: I am the LORD your God; walk in My statutes, and keep My judgments, and do them; And hallow My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God. Notwithstanding the children rebelled against Me: they walked not in My statutes, neither kept My judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted My sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out My fury upon them, to accomplish My anger against them in the wilderness. Nevertheless I withdrew Mine hand, and wrought for My name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth. I lifted up Mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries; Because they had not executed My judgments, but had despised My statutes, and had polluted My sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols.”
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Near Annihilation #1 – MERCY – “But I wrought for My Name’s Sake”
Near Annihilation #2 – MERCY – “But I wrought for My Name’s Sake”
Near Annihilation #3 – MERCY – “Nevertheless I…wrought for My Name’s Sake”
Concluding Parameters of MERCY – “I have wrought with you for My Name’s Sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings” (Ezek. 20:44).
Now do you believe that God’s messages of mercy to saved men contain the phrase, “Lest thou be consumed” (Genesis 19), and that you are as brother Lot, even now, if you are regenerate? Yes, friend, your body of flesh is a “body of death” that is full of the venom of Sodom and
Gomorrah. Now do you believe that, within the Person of God, there does burn a fire like that which broke forth upon Sodom and Gomorrah? Mercy! Mercy! It is mercy, because “WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN as Sodom” and “like unto Gomorrah” (Isa. 1:9); this is justice-shattering mercy! God poured forth His wrath upon Sodom and Gomorrah in apocalyptic fire, but for Israel and Judah, God wielded heathen nations as His hammer and axe to hew and dash His people into pieces (Isa. 10, Jer. 13). God announced this means of Israel’s destruction since the days of Moses, saying:
Near Annihilation #2 – MERCY – “But I wrought for My Name’s Sake”
Near Annihilation #3 – MERCY – “Nevertheless I…wrought for My Name’s Sake”
Concluding Parameters of MERCY – “I have wrought with you for My Name’s Sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings” (Ezek. 20:44).
Now do you believe that God’s messages of mercy to saved men contain the phrase, “Lest thou be consumed” (Genesis 19), and that you are as brother Lot, even now, if you are regenerate? Yes, friend, your body of flesh is a “body of death” that is full of the venom of Sodom and
Gomorrah. Now do you believe that, within the Person of God, there does burn a fire like that which broke forth upon Sodom and Gomorrah? Mercy! Mercy! It is mercy, because “WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN as Sodom” and “like unto Gomorrah” (Isa. 1:9); this is justice-shattering mercy! God poured forth His wrath upon Sodom and Gomorrah in apocalyptic fire, but for Israel and Judah, God wielded heathen nations as His hammer and axe to hew and dash His people into pieces (Isa. 10, Jer. 13). God announced this means of Israel’s destruction since the days of Moses, saying:
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“I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men: were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, ‘Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this. For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up” (Deut. 32:26-30)?
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The Lord said – “I said” – meaning that He was intent on totally annihilating them, “were it not” that He would profane His own name and glory in the process. Israel was called by God’s name, and if He destroyed them, then the heathen would rage in blasphemous glories over God’s Name. It is written again by Ezekiel and Isaiah:
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Ezekiel 36:19-23
“And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them. And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned My holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of His land. But I had pity for Mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for Mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will sanctify My great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.” Isaiah 48:9-11 “For My name's sake will I defer Mine anger, and for My praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For Mine own sake, even for Mine own sake, will I do it: for how should My name be polluted? and I will not give My glory unto another.” Psalm 106:8 “Nevertheless He saved them for His Name’s sake, that He might make His mighty power to be known.” |
The Lord said, “I do not this for your sakes,” but rather, He says in Isaiah, “for Mine own sake.” (Isaiah 43:25) “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions FOR MINE OWN SAKE, and will not remember thy sins.” All the eyes of God’s ransomed Church do fall upon God – The Glory of His Name – and all those who learn to savingly hope for mercy do solemnly hallow His Name! His Name, alone, became the most precious thing to man, because, it makes them precious to God! “Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy kingdom come…”
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Those which came out of the captivities drank deep from the cup of God’s wrath, but deeper yet from the mercy of God. Those who are saved are saved through God retaining not His anger forever – does that shock you!? Nevertheless He was angry! How many people who do believe in the sovereignty of God also believe that God cannot be angry with them? How many times did David find himself caught under the bent bow of God’s anger (Ps. 32:1-5)? How many times did the godly pray like prayers as David, like Psalm 77:8 – “Is His mercy clean gone for ever? Doth His promise fail for evermore?” In God’s eternality and sovereignty, and in unrepentant ordinations, He has chosen to save Israel before the end of time. For this purpose God spared a remnant of Israel, but take heed, it was by pacifying an able anger which was rearing to annihilate, and, lo, it was engaged by an opposing will in God, and they wrestled, then wrath was scarcely surmounted…then subdued, and the stronger will in God which dispensed mercy was moved, strengthened, and made unconquerable, because it stands as the highest priority in God, that in preserving His people He preserves His Name. In the light of this justice-shattering mercy which no man can explain, in the light of a situation of justice which kindles an eternal, forever-burning, unrelenting wrath unto our total annihilation, the saints recognize and wonder – God saves – and they praise Him that His anger does not continue FOREVER! It is the mercy of God!
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“Mine heart is turned within Me,
My repentings are kindled together” – Hosea 11:8 ************************************** Stand still for a moment and think of the will of God to save you wrestling with the will of God to destroy you, and a prophet there in the secret place, watching on, lifts up cries of intercessory prayers, and then, hardly and through much agony, by much scarcity, you are saved – yet all the while you never knew about or saw this great wrestling and the scarce Victor of MERCY Who triumphed over Wrath. |
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"Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:18-19).
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If the election of God determines the predestination of salvation to arise in a perseverant end, its rise is through a thorny path and raging sea of near annihilation. The survival of the saints through this course unto a salvific end is the exclamation of great, surpassing, unthinkable, inexpressible mercy. The final, finishing, and entire salvation of Israel is the capstone event at the end of time. This is His eternal purpose and sovereign counsel (God in the ways of God), and though His mind, works, and will change many times, the sovereignty and eternality of His judgments made from everlasting are always exalted right beside the contrasting events, circumstances, and manifestations of God’s condescension in the ways of man. Therefore God says, "For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed" (Malachi 3:6)! We must learn to relate to God in His condescension, but yet we must glorify God, knowing that every outcome is underneath His higher, secret, and full rule, because He is an unchanging, all-determining, predestinating King.
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“Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory” (Rom 9:21-23).
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All of this mercy toward Israel was the glory of God’s mercy toward “vessels of mercy,” chosen beforehand that they would be saved. The mercy originated, and is sustained, by the supreme and highest lifeline – “My Name’s sake,” says the Lord – a higher plane above the reaching and cries of comprehensible justice, granting forgiveness even though their deeds required destruction. Thus the Lord says, “Ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for My Name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings” (Ezek. 20:44). God, Who was jealous for His Name, won for Himself the adoration of the remnant BY SAVING THEM. The GREAT mystery of how God does this work of salvation, and yet, still silences Satan from his accusatory demands for justice, is a mystery in which the holy angels look on with praises and everlasting applause. Those fallen angels, now called devils, along with their once-or twice-dead kinsmen are amazed at the dispensation of mercy upon sinful men. In this way, God obtained the glory that He seeks to show in all the earth – “the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness” (Eph. 2:7) toward the elect throughout all the ages of time, “that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had afore prepared unto glory” (Rom. 9:23). The mercy of God which motivates election, as you can see, is a justice-shattering election, and when justice would demand destruction, God acts to defend His Name, yea, and for this chief cause He shows mercy. Are you understanding what the scriptures are saying? Consider God’s own rendered reasons on matters of justice-shattering mercy and election:
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“Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee. Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that He may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people. Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD. Also in Horeb ye provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you to have destroyed you” (Deut. 9:4-8).
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God says in this passage – “speak not” – “understand therefore” – “remember, and forget not” – which means that this is a VERY IMPORTANT BURDEN the Lord was trying to communicate to the saved remnant of Israel! But oh! Men don’t understand this today! You see, God wants men to understand the mercy of God in the light of the fact that they are worthy of total annihilation. Soul-humbling, mouth-stopping, terrifying, and awe-striking MERCY, is a MERCY which is undeserved! This is a MERCY that did reposition and suddenly move you just a hair out of the way of God’s swinging wrath which was intent to bring your soul down to hell! God had mercy, even when His people were “stiffnecked” (Deut. 9:6), “rebellious” (Deut. 9:7), and even when God was “angry with [them] to have destroyed [them]” (Deut. 9:8) – He still had mercy! Therefore, as they were being saved they were commanded to confess that their salvation was not “for [their] righteousness” (Deut. 9:4), nor was it “for the uprightness of [their] heart” (Deut. 9:5), but God saved them because they were the remaining offspring of Israel which carried the banner of His name over their lives, and therefore, they were most precious to God. You could say that it was for their fathers’ sake, and for the sake that God’s word would have preeminent glory in the earth (Deut. 9:5), which, even still, is directly connected to the preservation and exultation of God’s Name. This is what is meant when it was written: “as touching election, they are beloved for the Father’s sake” (Rom. 11:28). Do you see how men need to understand the totally annihilating wrath of God, that they might understand mercy? When God is famous for fierce, angry, and destroying blows of perfect, sinless justice, and thus “repayeth them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them”, and that, “He will not be slack to him that hateth Him, He will repay him to his face” (Deut. 7:10) – self-declaring that, in this way God is GOOD – for mercy to contradict, overpass, and triumph over this justice of judgment with heaven-high, incomprehensible, righteous, and eternal mercy, this is shocking! It is utterly amazing, and to mercy’s recipients, it is knee-bowing, head-grounding, heart-melting, and finally, men and angels are irresistibly compelled unto perfect worship and ejaculatory praise! “Let all the earth keep silence before Him” (Hab. 2:20). Can you see it!? Wrath attempted the total annihilation of YOU, yes YOU, and if you are saved today, it is because sovereign mercy removed you from the reach of God’s just and angry swing when He did intend to take you down to hell where you belong! Oh! For any criminal who feels how narrowly he escaped wrath throughout a lifetime of sojourning on a wicked world, then prostrated worship with silent admiration of God, even forever, seems like an unworthy privilege – that I, even I would have the honor to bow down in His presence and worship Him!? And for this we are insatiably satisfied to do! You can never satisfy this burning satisfaction to worship of God! Hallelujah! After one round of shouts and praises, heaven’s bells still ring the same sounding ring – heaven praise Him, praise God – The Father, The Son, & The Holy Ghost!
History proclaims just how hallowed God’s Name is to God, every time justice-shattering mercy is dispensed. Samson committed adultery, and had he lived in Moses’ day, he would have died without mercy (Deut. 22:22). David committed adultery and murder, even the murder of one of the mighty men of God’s army (Uriah the Hittite), and holy scripture justly declares, “whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man” (Gen. 9:6). Even still, God spared David’s life! The prophet Hosea was commanded by God TO MARRY a harlot, and how extraordinary is this! Usually prophets are commanded to denounce them, prophesy woes upon them, or charge Kings, judges, or armies to ride forth and slaughter them! God’s holy word demanded death by stoning for all harlots (Deut. 22:21). Could the letter of justice be any clearer when it says, “there shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel” (Deut. 23:17)? Even still, it is staggering that Rahab, the harlot, was the only individual saved from Jericho, and what was her deed of faith? She lied, even though the letter commands – “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” (Exo. 20:16). She lied to keep the Israelite spies hidden from the pursuing authorities of Jericho, and this lie was famed to be the deed of her salvation (James 2:25)! Rahab the harlot, of the condemned race of people that dwelt in the city of Jericho, of the condemned nation of Canaanites, with whom God forbade any agreement with, saying – “take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee” (Ex. 34:12), and again, “And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars” (Judges 2:2) – with her Israel made a covenant with. They had mercy upon her and let her live when God said, “thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them” (Deuteronomy 7:2). She came to dwell in the land of Israel, where God said, “they shall not dwell in thy land” (Ex. 23:33), and let it stagger you further! The woman who was a harlot, an occupation which God is utterly disgusted with – Rahab, who was of a nation which was so perverse that God said “the land is defiled” underneath them, “and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants” (Lev. 18:25), and how much more does God vomit out the inhabitants thereof – Rahab, even she was accepted, forgiven, shown pardon, and mercy, allowed to live on, and she was famed throughout the centuries as a saved woman (Heb. 11:13, Jas. 2:25). She was even one of the select few who were specifically mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus Christ – the sovereignly selected birth line of the Holy Messiah Himself (Matt. 1:5)!
Israel fell into idolatry under the leadership of Aaron, and yet Aaron, as well as a large majority of Israel, was pardoned and spared (Exodus 32-34), but Achan – only one generation later – he and all of his family died for lesser sins than full-blown calf worship (Josh. 7), which Aaron and Israel had committed. The wife of God, Israel, was an adulteress and a whore against God, her Husband, and in every respect He was deserving of a divorcement from her, and still more, the letter of the law demands the death of an adulterer, but God did not keep the justice as it was written in the law for the express purpose that He might make known the magnitude of His mercies. In all of these scenarios, we are forced to conclude that God HAD justice-shattering MERCY, and why? Because these people are those “on whom [He] will have mercy” (Rom. 9:15), and nothing more can be said of it! Let the clay look up, high above the spectrum of human observation, acknowledgment, understanding, and wisdom, and let it worship God, The Potter.
History proclaims just how hallowed God’s Name is to God, every time justice-shattering mercy is dispensed. Samson committed adultery, and had he lived in Moses’ day, he would have died without mercy (Deut. 22:22). David committed adultery and murder, even the murder of one of the mighty men of God’s army (Uriah the Hittite), and holy scripture justly declares, “whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man” (Gen. 9:6). Even still, God spared David’s life! The prophet Hosea was commanded by God TO MARRY a harlot, and how extraordinary is this! Usually prophets are commanded to denounce them, prophesy woes upon them, or charge Kings, judges, or armies to ride forth and slaughter them! God’s holy word demanded death by stoning for all harlots (Deut. 22:21). Could the letter of justice be any clearer when it says, “there shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel” (Deut. 23:17)? Even still, it is staggering that Rahab, the harlot, was the only individual saved from Jericho, and what was her deed of faith? She lied, even though the letter commands – “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” (Exo. 20:16). She lied to keep the Israelite spies hidden from the pursuing authorities of Jericho, and this lie was famed to be the deed of her salvation (James 2:25)! Rahab the harlot, of the condemned race of people that dwelt in the city of Jericho, of the condemned nation of Canaanites, with whom God forbade any agreement with, saying – “take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee” (Ex. 34:12), and again, “And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars” (Judges 2:2) – with her Israel made a covenant with. They had mercy upon her and let her live when God said, “thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them” (Deuteronomy 7:2). She came to dwell in the land of Israel, where God said, “they shall not dwell in thy land” (Ex. 23:33), and let it stagger you further! The woman who was a harlot, an occupation which God is utterly disgusted with – Rahab, who was of a nation which was so perverse that God said “the land is defiled” underneath them, “and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants” (Lev. 18:25), and how much more does God vomit out the inhabitants thereof – Rahab, even she was accepted, forgiven, shown pardon, and mercy, allowed to live on, and she was famed throughout the centuries as a saved woman (Heb. 11:13, Jas. 2:25). She was even one of the select few who were specifically mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus Christ – the sovereignly selected birth line of the Holy Messiah Himself (Matt. 1:5)!
Israel fell into idolatry under the leadership of Aaron, and yet Aaron, as well as a large majority of Israel, was pardoned and spared (Exodus 32-34), but Achan – only one generation later – he and all of his family died for lesser sins than full-blown calf worship (Josh. 7), which Aaron and Israel had committed. The wife of God, Israel, was an adulteress and a whore against God, her Husband, and in every respect He was deserving of a divorcement from her, and still more, the letter of the law demands the death of an adulterer, but God did not keep the justice as it was written in the law for the express purpose that He might make known the magnitude of His mercies. In all of these scenarios, we are forced to conclude that God HAD justice-shattering MERCY, and why? Because these people are those “on whom [He] will have mercy” (Rom. 9:15), and nothing more can be said of it! Let the clay look up, high above the spectrum of human observation, acknowledgment, understanding, and wisdom, and let it worship God, The Potter.