God’s Mercy

God’s Mercy. 12/6/14

Bible reading Jeremiah 18 vs

I’m sure you are aware of the people called Israel, the people chosen by God to be His own. As a matter of fact the whole history of the Old Testament is a sad history of all the good things God did for His people Israel and all the bad things they did to Him. So the natural question anyone will ask is: Did God make a mistake in calling Israel His people. Would He have done better if He perhaps chose the British or the Indian or the American…. But Paul in the book of Romans 9 answered this question with a unique answer and said; “Not all the descendants of Israel are Israel” Israel here refers to Jacob – God changed his name (Gen Not all Jews are what God called Israel).

God did not need all the Jews to accomplish His purpose, but He did need some and He always has enough. Elijah the prophet said to God in 2Kings … God I’m the only one left, everyone else has deserted you. But God answered Elijah “No! There are 7000 people who have never bowed a knee to Baal.

God always have a remnant that He always use. And even recently there has been a growing number of believing Jews. How does God use the word Israel? How does He see them? Those who remain faithful to God are Israel to God. For example Abraham has 8 sons, (many people don’t know that) and He chose the second son over the first. We all remember Esau and Jacob, Joseph and his 11 brothers, Ephraim over Manasseh. God chose the younger above the older.

Each generation God choose the younger which is not the natural selection. God makes the choice. Which naturally attract the remark, “It’s not fair”. I have to mention that God did not choose Israel for salvation. He chose then for His service. God chooses people for service as His channel in the world that doesn’t mean they are saved. Jews get saved as we areby faith. The Jews who believe in God and trusted and obey Him from Abraham are being saved, not because they were chosen for salvation, but chosen for service and they trusted and obeyed God and so they were saved.

So God’s choice was to be a channel of His salvation. So if we think about the God of Israel, people naturally say “It’s not fair”. It must be said that God has free will as we do. People are more concerned about their own free will. Since He is a God of mercy, He also has the right to who He showed mercy or not. Mercy is not what we deserve. It is at the disposal of He who shows mercy. E.g The parable of the owner of the vineyard showed how the worker who was hired at the last hour got the same pay as those who have been working since the morning, and those working since morning were angry. And the owner of the vineyard said, “Can I not do with my money as I please; are you angry because I am generous”.

The same with God, His mercy is entirely at His disposal to give to whomever He wills. Paul said God of Israel shows mercy to who He chose to. In the same way God is free to harden or soften. The natural response again is “It’s not fair”. How can God hold human being responsible for whatever we do if He has already determine who He hardens and who to show mercy to? We need to remember that God is free to choose just as we are. We are often times more concerned about our own choice. God is never unfair or unjust. It’s like the clay grumbling about the potter, or the creature grumbling about the creator whenever we say why did God do this or why did God allow that… It’s cheeky to make remarks like that God. Paul tried to change the attitude of the people he was talking to Rome.

The attitude of questioning God is out of place. Salvation is not a lottery. God doesn’t just choose someone and say I’ll show mercy to him or harden him. There is no such thing as chance or luck with God. I learnt that the word luck in Hebrew means “Gad”… and there the Old English saying “by Gad”. So if you don’t live “by God” you’ll live “by Gad”. You can either live by gambling or lottery or by trusting in God. God is not the habit of treating someone better than the other. Paul gave the answer, when he said God hardened Pharaoh. God waited patiently for people like Pharaoh to respond to Him before He hardens them. Actually if you read the book of Exodus carefully, you will find that about 7 times Pharaoh hardened his own heart, before God said ok, I will harden it for you. In other words, whatever course you choose, God will help you down the road.

After you have made your choice. That is not predestination. It’s God responding to us in the appropriate way. If you decide to harden your heart toward me, I will help you harden it. That’s fair! That’s just!! He is only reinforcing our choice. The last book of the Bible reads; He that is filthy, let him be filthy still, He that is clean, let him be clean still… There comes a point that God says to everyone, from now on you will stay as you are and I will help you with your choice. That’s how God deals with people. He is not an impostor. He shows mercy to those who ask for mercy. He hardens those who harden their heart against Him. And it’s not in the habit of picking names out of the hat.

Prophet Jeremiah was told by God to go down to the Potter’s house in Jeremiah 18; And God said what do you see Jeremiah. Jeremiah answered God; I see a potter wanting to mould a beautiful vase from this lump of clay, but the clay wouldn’t run in His hand, so he crush the clay and remould it into a ugly crude pot instead. So who decide what shape the clay became? Jeremiah answered, The Clay! Not the potter. So God said about Israel, He wants to make them into something beautiful but they wouldn’t run in His hands so He made them into a crude pot. However, if they repent, I’ll repent and I’ll make them into something beautiful. That’s how God operate. God doesn’t choose one to harden and the other to soften. He helps the choice that people already make. He wants to make all of us beautiful vessel, full of his mercy but if we won’t run in his hands, if we don’t respond to his moulding, he will still use you but as an example of His judgement. And there are many people in our world that are demonstrating God’s judgement and becoming the people that He never wanted them to be but it had been there choice, which God is now reinforcing.

Then God said to Jeremiah, to go back to the potter’s house the next day and see what the clay is now like. When he went back, it was still an ugly pot and it was now so hard that it could never be changed again – it was thrown out into the valley broken into pieces. Jeremiah, have you learnt the lesson of the potter and the clay? The answer is – while the clay is soft the potter can make something beautiful of it, if the clay is willing; but if it is not willing the potter will make something ugly of it. That is the clay’s choice and there will come a point when the clay is too had to change. That is a very solemn thought!

If we soften towards God and let Him make us into what He wants us to be He will make us beautiful. Infact, He will make us perfect! That is the promise that God wants to make me a beautiful person, if I will run in His hands. If I don’t, He will help me to be an ugly person who will demonstrate to the world what it is like to be godless and you can see as you walk around in this world people who are letting God mould them properly and you can see people who are kicking against God, they become ugly people demonstration of one thing God didn’t want to happen to us. That’s God’s free will, but He respond to our free will and our choice. He made us for His use and He will either use us to demonstrate what He can do in mercy or what HE can do in judgement. There can come a point when the human nature can become too hard to be changed. Then it can only be broken. And it is our choice!

Prayer: Righteous Father, We thank you for giving us free will, the unique ability to make choices. In your kindness you have blessed us with one blessing after the other during our time on earth. In you we live, and move and have our existence, your desire for us to make a choice to trust and obey you, God. The very thought of living our lives as a demonstration of your judgement is unbearable.

So we pray Lord that you soften us towards you in every area of our lives. Help us to respond positively to your moulding so that we can be made into someone beautiful from the inside out. You promised to perfect that which concerns us, we hold unto this promise as you finish the work you have already started in us. We bring before you our colleagues, friends and our loved ones, we pray that you soften their hearts towards you and make them run in your hands and make them into something you’ve always had in mind for them, something beautiful! You said if we will repent, you will repent and make us into a beautiful vessel to display your mercy in the world. We repent for our hard heartedness and our conscious kicking against you. As we repent you will repent and remould us to something beautiful. We ask these in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.