God of Mercy

Nehemiah 9:16–29 ESV

16 “But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. 17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. 18 Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies, 19 you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. 20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. 21 Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. 22 “And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan. 23 You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess. 24 So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. 25 And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness. 26 “Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies. 27 Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer. And in the time of their suffering they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies you gave them saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies. 28 But after they had rest they did evil again before you, and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies. 29 And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he shall live by them, and they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey.

Have you ever sinned on purpose? Have you ever known that something was sinful, had every opportunity to avoid the sin, yet decided to do it anyway? If so, were you comforted in your decision by thoughts of God’s forgiving mercy?

Perhaps you said to yourself: “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than get permission.” This type of premeditated, intentional sin is called “presumptuous sin.”

Presumptuous sin is knowingly doing what God forbids while presuming that you will be covered by His mercy.

It is an attempt to force God to apply mercy instead of justice. It is no wonder that John Bunyan (author of Pilgrim’s Progress) once referred to sin as

“the dare of God’s justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love.”

What is the difference between God’s Mercy and Grace?

Mercy and grace are closely related. While the terms have similar meanings, grace and mercy are not exactly the same.

Mercy has to do with kindness and compassion; it is often spoken of in the context of God’s not punishing us as our sins deserve.

Grace includes kindness and compassion, but also carries the idea of bestowing a gift or favor. It may help to view mercy as a subset of grace.

In Scripture, mercy is often equated with a deliverance from judgment (e.g., Deuteronomy 4:30–31; 1 Timothy 1:13), and grace is always the extending of a blessing to the unworthy. (Romans 5:8).

What is the Mercy of God?

God’s Mercy is a part of His Character. (Its who God is. Lamentations 3:22-23

Lamentations 3:22–23 ESV

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Everyday has its own troubles and trials attached to it, therefore, each day has its own mercies. By the time you are twenty-one, you have experienced 7,665 unique mercies. When you hit midlife, it numbers 14,600, and when you hit retirement, God has mercied you 23,725 times.

Nehemiah reminds us that the manna given in the desert was given one day at a time. It was not intended to be kept or stored up for the next day.

The expression of mercy is a relational expression of God’s character and flows from his attributes of goodness and love. It is a vital part of God’s grace-based covenant relationship with his people.

Note: God’s mercy is evident whenever he delays punishment, even when his people are lost in sin and not aware of the relational consequences this sin brings. (think of all the times while you were lost and destitute in your sin and you should not even be here today that God was showing you His great mercy.)

Lexham Survey of Theology (God’s Mercy)

The mercy of God describes his focused disposition of compassionate forgiveness toward his people, especially in light of their distressful and dire circumstances.

God’s Mercy is His compassion towards a rebellious people?

We deserve God’s wrath. Romans 6:23 “For the wage of sin is death BUT the free gift of God is eternal life.” This verse in Romans displays both the mercy and the grace of God. The cost of our sin is irrevocably death, God not punishing us as we deserve, the second part is the gift of eternal life that is given to the undeserving, this is the Grace of God.

God’s Mercy is an attribute that humans can replicate.

Matthew 5:7 in the “B” attitudes Jesus tells us that “blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

Throughout the Bible mercy is pictured not only as God’s disposition but as his action on behalf and through His people. Those who are truly His show the divine attribute of mercy.

What do the People Do?

1). The People Became Arrogant towards God.

Essentially they became dull or selective in their hearing. Have you ever been accused of being selective in your hearing?

The words arrogance, arrogant, proud, and haughty are mentioned over 200 times in the Bible.

The Bible tells us those who are arrogant and have a haughty heart are an abomination to Him: “Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 16:5).

Of the seven things the Bible tells us that God hates, “haughty eyes” [“a proud look,” NKJV] is the first one listed (Proverbs 6:16-19).

Jesus Himself said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him,” and then goes on to list the thirteen characteristics of those who are outside of God’s favor, with arrogance being considered alongside sexual immorality and murder (Mark 7:20-23).

Arrogance is in direct opposition to godliness because it exalts self above all, and especially, above God. The story of King Nebuchadnezzar is an example of pride bringing a person low.

When Nebuchadnezzar took credit for building his kingdom on his own, he was banished to the wilderness by God, living like an animal, and it wasn't until he gave God the credit due Him that he was restored to his kingdom, saying: "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble"

No vice is more opposed to God. God hates pride because it is a manifestation of the deepest depravity, the root cause of all forms of sin.

C.S. Lewis says, “According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.”

Pride is a state of mind or, more essentially, a condition of the heart in which a person has supplanted the rule of God over his life with the rule of his own will.

Instead of depending entirely on God, as was God’s design, a proud heart now looks to itself to decide what is good and evil. This was exactly the folly of Adam and Eve when they determined to disobey God to become like God.

2). The people cried out to God when oppressed and when at rest they did evil.

vs. 27-29

So, basically this was the cycle the when at rest they cried out for mercy and when things were going well they forgot the mercy they had been given.

Consider how we step into the world with a cry at our Birth. Of course no one remembers the first sound they make which is leaving the warm protected environment of the womb for the cold harsh reality of existence of the planet we live on called earth.

Paul reminds us in Romans 8:22 that the whole of creation groans together as in the pains of child birth.

We do not stop crying after birth because the world is destitute and helplessly broken.

The Bible is full of things called Laments. Basically prayers crying out to God not the same as the babies cry, but crying non-the-less.

It is more than just the expression of sorrow or the venting of emotion.

Lament talks to God about pain. And it has a unique purpose: trust. It is a divinely-given invitation to pour out our fears, frustrations, and sorrows for the purpose of helping us to renew our confidence in God.

Element of Lamenting

1). Turn to God.

2). Bring your complaint.

3). Ask Boldly for Help.

4). Choose to Trust.

Exalting Jesus in Ezra-Nehemiah Exodus and Wilderness Wandering (9:9–21)

They refused to listen and did not remember Your wonders You performed among them.

Do you want to feel conviction over your sin?

Do what this passage says that Israel failed to do.

Look at your own life, and then look to the majesty of what you are as a human being, the way that God has created you in His own image.

Rehearse and list all the things that the Lord has done for you. Think of the way that no one you know has personally died from hunger. No one you know has died from thirst. The Lord has preserved you, clothed you, provided for you. He is even now allowing you to study His word.

Exalting Jesus in Ezra-Nehemiah Exodus and Wilderness Wandering (9:9–21)

They became stiff-necked and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.

God freed them, and now all they want to do is go back and be slaves again. This makes no sense. That’s how sin is.

SIN MAKES YOU STUPID

Paul asks a question in Romans 6, “Should we continue to sin that grace should abound, by no means.”

In essence how could those who have been set free from sin and death return to the same rotten pool of decaying flesh that we were fished out of to bring us to new life.

So, here is their reasoning, we had a better choice of food, we knew where we could get water by going to down to the Nile river.

Instead of being thankful for the provision that God had made for them they were never satisfied. It was never enough.

How are we today never satisfied with the gifts that God has given us. The overall reason is that we fail to see the bigger picture of what God is doing.

James 4:13 “we become arrogant in making our own plans without God in it, we say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.”

“yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

“Instead you should say, if the Lord wills.”

As it is, we boast in our arrogance. All such boasting is Evil.

The bigger problem arises when we fail to trust in God’s plan and take the reigns for ourselves. James goes on to proclaim that the one who knows the right thing and fails to do it, for him it is a sin.”

True conviction of our sins comes when we have a healthy understanding of the fear of the Lord and an even greater understanding of remorse and sorrow for our sins.

Proverbs 1:7 tells us that “the beginning of true wisdom is the fear of the Lord.”

What does God do?

1). God is ready to Forgive.

vs. 17b

God is the creator and ruler of all, who had chosen Abram, rescued his people out of Egypt, provided for them and guided them in the desert and gave them the Promised Land.

When they turned against him he warned them, punished them, delivered them, and called them to repent.

Do you know yourself to be a sinner? Is your soul sick? Are you stained with guilt? Are you miserable in yourself and know yourself to be hopeless without God?

2). God does not abandon you.

Right after Israel had sinned by making the golden calf to worship, God reminds them of His faithfulness to them even when they are faithless. He remind them and us today that even when we rebel and turn away from Him he does not abandon us. His mercies are new every morning, great is His faithfulness.

Exodus 34:6–7 ESV

6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

The Levites are now beginning to make their argument. They lay the foundation for their argument by rehearsing how the fathers were delivered, then they sinned and God forgave them. God showed that He is a merciful God.

Nehemiah 9:18–19 ESV

18 Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies, 19 you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go.

Ezra & Nehemiah: Walking in God’s Words Section 2: Blessing despite Rebellion

They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things … They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they revelled in your great goodness

What Pit are you Currently In

We all find ourselves in trials. Hardship is almost as common as breathing. The question is not if but when we find ourselves in one of the painful pits of life.

Philippians 1:29–30 ESV

29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

Trials and difficulties come with uncertainty. How intense they will be? How long they will last? We even have well meaning friends who often approach our difficulty with the words, “you will be ok,” we want to believe it. But if we are completely honest, we just do not know it is true.

The Bible reminds us that God not only offers us encouragement during our suffering but that he enters into the pit with us to see us through. We really will be ok, because God is with us.

We remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendaggo, who enter the fire of the furnace knowing that God will be with them in the flames. Joseph’s brothers threw him into a pit and sold him to the Ishmaelite slave traders taking him to Egypt. Betrayed and separated from his family, you would have thought that Joseph would have felt abandoned and alone. The writer of Genesis wants us to feel and taste the bleakness and desperate situation Joseph finds himself in.

If the story were to end here most people would have assumed that God was either angry with Joseph or had abandoned him altogether. Similarly while we are in the throws of difficulty, we may think that God has disappeared, or that he is displease with us.

What is the trials were intended to reveal to us something deeper and more profound. We read the words in Genesis 39:2 “The Lord was with Joseph.” God gets down in the muck and mire of our desperate situation. He gets in the pit of despair with us. The pit was purposeful not pointless. We are instructed throughout scripture not to discount our suffering and struggles as meaningless but to joyfully embrace our struggles as we read in James 1:2-4

James 1:2–4 ESV

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

We read at the end of Joseph’s story in Genesis 50:20 that what the brothers intended for evil purposes God meant for good, meaning the preserving of the nation of Israel that would have surely been whipped out by the great famine.

What helps the one who cannot cry another tear? What consoles the one who has no other medical options? How can you be comforted when relationships are shattered? Who can you turn to when false accusations are being hurled at you? How can you be strengthened to stand when tragedy has put you to your knees?

The trials of this life would have you feeling like you are rushing uncontrollably down a steep hill headed for the cliff.

You must cling to the presence and purpose of God. This is not an accident and you are not alone.

“You are not abandoned. God is with you in the pit, for his glory and your good.

Psalm 139:7–12 ESV

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

They Rebelled despite God’s Blessing, during the time of the judges, kings, prophets and exile.....even during that time God heard their cry from heaven, had great compassion and gave them deliverers....

3). God allows us to fall so we can learn to trust in Him.

2 KINDS OF PARENTS

The Overprotective Parent

This parent does not allow their children to make mistakes or Fail.

The Mercy of God is not God swooping in and not allowing us to struggle and suffer in our trials and tribulations. In fact many times He allows us to struggle through our trials and tribulations. “God told Peter that He was going to allow Satan to sift him like sand.” The nation of Israel experienced lots of struggles through the wilderness and as a result of their disobedience.

We do not serve an overprotective God that does not let us at time struggle through our sin and disobedience.

The Permissive Parent

The permissive parent uses their position to allow their children to basically run over them and set the parameters of what is acceptable or permissive. Instead of facing confrontation and struggles in the relationship they give in and let the child do whatever the child wants to do.

The Mercy of God is not permissive. It is not a license to continue to live in sin, because we know that God is merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in love. God’s mercy comes after the child has struggled and genuinely cries out to God for help and restoration. He doesn’t give mercy because of some ego struggle he has with His creation. We read in Romans 8 that His creation is growing as in the pains of childbirth.

Notice that in Nehemiah 9:29-30 reminds us that for many years He warned them, and bore with their sin and disobedience.

Nehemiah 9:28 tells us that “God abandoned them to … their enemies so that they ruled over them. Time and time again God allowed the enemies of Israel to win in battle and subdue the nation of Israel.

Why? The greater picture is that they would appreciate what God has done for them and learn to trust and rely on the good shepherd to lead them. Why do you teach your children to say please and thank you? So that they will be grateful and thankful children. The problem with Israel is that they had forgotten all that God had done for them and became ungrateful children who took it for granted.

So, what is the Purpose of Trials and Tribulations

All Trials are from God and we should thank Him for all of them.

“We know that Romans 8:28 tells us that for those who love God, “All things work together for the good.” So that must mean that the trials and tribulations He allows in our lives are a part of the working together of all things for good. Therefore, for the believer, all trials and tribulations must have a divine purpose.

SOME TRIALS ARE NOT A RESULT OF OUR SIN

The Lord uses these trials to test our faith and produce our spiritual maturity.

Trials grow us into His image.

The next verse it 29 teaches us that ultimate purpose is for us to grow more and more into the image of His son: “for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.....”

Trials develop in us a godly character.

Godly character is what allows us to rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that it produces perseverance, character and hope.

Romans 5:3–5 ESV

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

SOME TRIALS COME AS A RESULT OF OUR SINS OR THE SINS OF OTHERS

This was the case with the nation of Israel that Nehemiah is writing about. They had been shown the mercy of God but then when things became comfortable again they fell into their old evil practices of sinning.

Trials remind us whose we are.

Hebrews 12:7 ESV

7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

Notice that the writer of Hebrews reminds the read that the discipline of the Lord that we should be ready to endure.

Nehemiah 9:26 reminds us that they were disobedience and rebellious against you, therefore, they were warned in order to turn them back to God. The discipline is intended to remind them who they are in Christ.

Think about how many times God is disciplining you to remind you that you are not your own, you were bought with a price.

Trials wake us up from the sleep of selfishness.

Ephesians 5:14 ...Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

But, when we are faced with trials and testing, the desires of our hearts are exposed. God uses discipline to weed out that which is earthly within us — our pride, fears, idolatry, and presumptions — in order that we might confess sin, repent of it, and share in his holiness. God in Christ is faithful to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Psalm 118:8–9 ESV

8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. 9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.

Trials remind us of who the Lord is.

Just in case you have forgotten who the king of glory is and what our purpose is in His kingdom. God allows things to come into our life to move us back on course and to get our focus on the prize.

Psalm 24:8–10 ESV

8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! 9 Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory! Selah

Knowing that the enemy is at work around us constantly helps us understand how to respond when trials do come our way knowing that all that God allows to happen is for our good and His glory alone.

Isaiah 45:5–7 ESV

5 I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, 6 that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. 7 I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.

CLOSING

Nehemiah 9:31

Nehemiah 9:31 ESV

31 Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.

He did not make an end of them or forsake them but showed them grace and mercy.

This now brings us to our current situation. Just like Israel God is good and faithful to us in every way and we are unfaithful to Him. Quickly forgetting all that He has done for us and turning to our own way.

Mary McLaurine has an unusual condition called developmental topographical disorientation, or DTD. This means she can't form a mental map or image of her surroundings. Unlike most people, Mary has no internal compass. Here's how she described a typical incident of dealing with her DTD:

I was staying a friend's home and decided to take their dog Otis for a walk. As I started back, I had no idea where I was. I was only blocks from where I had started my walk, but I was lost. Fear and adrenaline pulsed through my veins and I began to sweat profusely. My surroundings looked completely unfamiliar. It was as though I'd been dropped into the middle of a foreign land.

I hadn't written down the address of the home where I was staying. Walking in any direction would be just a guess: Am I getting closer to or farther away? Would I have had to knock on someone's door to use their phone to call the police? How could I expect them to return me to a place if I had no address to provide?

Fortunately, Mary found someone to guide her back to her house. With DTD there is no brain injury—no car accident, no brain tumor, or stroke. People who have this condition, basically get lost every day in the most familiar surroundings. Mary continues: "Those of us struggling with this disorder are often left with feelings of anxiety, depression, isolation, and self-doubt."

How are we like this every day, we leave our house every morning and head out into the world. We have been given the road map hundreds of times. How quickly we forget the goodness of a merciful God who is compassionate, merciful, and slow to anger. The good shepherd wants to lead you beside still waters, bring you into His green pastures, and in the fields of the Lord surely goodness, and mercy will follow you all of the days of your life.

When you find yourself in unfamiliar territory what map are you following?

When you feel left destitute and alone in this world where do you turn for comfort, hope, and mercy?

When you forget the address of where you have been and where you are going how do you get back on track?