It was said of a reckless son that he had dodged tragedy on multiple occasions; that he was “living on borrowed time.” The cliché’ came to mind when I read of the Power of God’s Mercy regarding the Children of Israel. How many times they failed and God recovered them is beyond the telling. If truth be told, we all are living on Mercy’s Time. Of course not everyone embraces this truth. The religious, self-righteous, pious people who believe themselves above failure; they trust in themselves more than God’s covering. If a man thinks he stands, Take Heed… he will fall. Regardless of our length or tenure in the church, the saint is only made so by the Blood of Calvary.
The Blood is simply the liquid form of the Mercy of God.
We are all living under the umbrella of the Power of God’s Mercy. The poet wrote it like this: Lamentations 3:22 It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. The Mercy of the Lord is holding back immediate judgement against us. Our minds cannot fathom how often God’s mercy has saved us. The Word says we should be consumed, but God is faithful and His compassions will not fail.
Hear the psalmist: Psalms 78:38 But (God), being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. Psalms 78:39 For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
God’s Mercy stepped in between us and the law. God was so full of compassion that He turned Himself away from what should have happened because He remembered our fragile state. It means that what should have happened was held back. Mercy removed what was coming so that we did not receive what we deserved. The Blood held it back… mercy was flowing.
Pastor Jeffrey Harpole