Mandate for Mercy Part 1

By the Mercies of the Lord

Throughout the Scriptures we find Israel turning from God and doing all forms of wickedness. Time and time again they lost sight of who God was and turned to pagan gods of the cultures around them. They gave their children as sacrifices to pagan gods and so much more. So many times they were a people so undeserving of God’s forgiveness and grace. It would have served them right for God to have left them enslaved to Egypt, Babylon, Assyria and even the Romans. But each time, when they cried out to the one true God of heaven and earth, He showed them mercy.

Lamentations 3:22–23 ESV

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

Luke 1:71–72 ESV

that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant,

Romans 9:15 ESV

For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

Have you ever knowingly sinned against God and when you finally came to repent you expected God to show you mercy and not just His judgment? Have you ever had someone sin against you and yet you refused to show them mercy? It does not matter how you justified it, you refused to show mercy. You made yourself like God deciding that you would determine who deserved your mercy and who does not. My Christian brothers and sisters, this is a dangerous thing you do. Why should God show you mercy that you refuse to give to others?

Read Matthew 18:21-35

Let us first look at what mercy is not. Mercy is not turning a blind eye to habitual, blatant, willful sin against God. Mercy is not continual tolerance for sin against God. Mercy is not a ticket to freely sin at will. Mercy is not to be abused or taken for granted. Mercy is not a commodity that you get to exchange at your will when it benefits you.

Isaiah 30:18 ESV

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

So, even though the Lord God is gracious and merciful. Though He longs and waits to lavish His mercies upon us, He is also a just God. And it amazes me how so many Christians struggle to reconcile God’s mercy and His justice. Let me illustrate a perfect example I encountered recently. We were watching a more recent episode of the very popular series, “The Chosen.” There is a scene where Jesus and John are discussing a Greek painting which was a poor rendition of the story in the Bible of Jephthah. Now, many of you may not be familiar with this story. But we find him in the book of Hebrews as being counted among the hero’s of the faith.

Hebrews 11:32 ESV

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—

In this episode of The Chosen, the disciple John parrots the widely propagated interpretation of Jephthah’s actions that he offered to God his only daughter as a human sacrifice because he had made a hasty vow. And in the show, Jesus goes along with the idea and just says, “Well, yeah but God did not ask him to do it.” Folks, this is so wrong on so many levels. This is an assault against the character and nature of God.

Why would God count Jephthah as a hero of the faith if he committed such an abomination against God? Do you realize that God sought to wipe out the entire Amalekite people for this very reason?

According to Lev.18:21; 20:2-5; Deut.12:29, 30, 31, a human sacrifice would have not only been a flagrant violation of divine precepts and contradiction to God’s nature and character but would have also demonstrated ignorance of Mosaic Law as you could not decide what you would offer to God. He would have been so far outside of the will of God with such pagan intent that it would not have been the Spirit of the God of Abraham on him but the spirit of Molech. Do you think God did not know what would come out of his house? The Spirit of God does not function outside the moral righteousness of God. God never violates one principle in order to fulfill His intent. A tainted conscience confuses the character of God with the compromise of men. In reality, Jephthah was in the will of God and did nothing outside the design of God. It is we who are missing something here.

As a Hebrew (a Gileadite) warrior, how could he not know that it was tradition for the women to run out of the house with tambourines first thing upon the men’s return from victory and celebrate their triumph? Instead of hermeneutically interpreting the passage, preachers assign God’s mercy upon the assumed ignorance and impulsivity of Jephthah. What a poor misuse of God’s mercy. What a poor effort to rightly divide the Word of God. If it contradicts God’s nature and character or assumes upon God, your interpretation is wrong, not the Scriptures. What we have here is an example of poor translation that lends to assumption on the part of interpretation.

In Jephthah’s negotiations with the king of the Ammonites, he showed himself a man of justice and humanity, soundness of mind, strength of understanding and of argumentation, and accurate acquaintance with the laws and records of his nation. The last words of his vow in the Hebrew will fairly admit of this rendering-"Shall surely be consecrated to the Lord, “or” I will offer it a burnt-offering." (See Young’s Literal Translation) Judges 11:30-31.

Judges 11:30–31 ESV

And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”

In the original Hebrew it is translated “vehayah layhovah, vehaalithihu olah”  וְהָיָה לַיהוָה וְהַעֲלִיתִהוּ עוֹלָה. Thus, the last part of his statement is olah עוֹלָה (or a burnt offering) not le’olah לעוֹלָה which is “for a burnt offering”. In fact, the word has many other meanings than burnt offering but also to be raised up in dignity and to be given as sacred. The word veha-alithi-hu וְהַעֲלִיתִ֖יהוּ means YHWH will raise him or her up. And the word vahayah וְהָיָה֙ means “to become like”, as in “to become like an offering to the Lord”. It could also be interpreted that Jephthah did both surrender his daughter as a consecrated servant to the Lord and gave a burnt offering to God.

His Daughter was to be consecrated to God as one of the Women in the Holy Place in the Temple of Yahweh- Exodus 38:8, "He made the basin of bronze and its stand of bronze, from the mirrors of the ministering women who ministered in the entrance of the tent of meeting." Jephthah’s vow is in alignment with Leviticus 27:2, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, if anyone makes a special vow to the Lord involving the valuation of persons.” (The Hebrew word for “special” here is pala’ which means “difficult, hard to understand, extraordinary”. And the word for value is ‘erek meaning to set in order.) And in Leviticus27:28 the Law states, “But no devoted thing that a man devotes to the Lord, of anything that he has, whether man or beast, or of his inherited field, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord. According to these laws Jephthah and his daughter had a way of escape in the law from this vow but both chose to honor the Lord with holiness. As well, in Judges 11:37-40 it speaks of her virginity and how she wanted time to grieve for it. Why? Because she would remain in the house of the Lord a virgin for the rest of her consecrated life. What Jephthah sacrificed to God was not his daughter, but his bloodline. What she sacrificed was here entire future. And through Jephthah’s sacrifice, God showed mercy to Israel.

You see, the true mercy of God is His favor, love, compassion, forgiveness and faithfulness regardless of our being undeserving and foolish. Jephthah may have sacrificed his lineage but he received so much mercy from the Lord. His daughter received much mercy of the Lord. Israel, as a result received much mercy of the Lord. In your acts of obedience to the Lord, others may be the benefactors of the Lord’s mercies. When mercy is sown mercy is reaped. But where mercy is withheld, the mercies of God are forfeited.

Jude 17–23 ESV

But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

There are several words in Hebrew for the word “wait”. All of their meanings apply here. Remain, endure, hold fast, demonstrate, be actively engaged, hoping for and sharing the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

There is a mandate in our day. Do not live in fear for tomorrow but embrace God’s mandate for mercy. Be merciful and show mercy to one another and those who are lost in sin. Cry out to God for mercy; Mercy for the nations, mercy for the people who are in darkness, mercy for the church and mercy for your family. Let your prayers today be, “Lord show mercy and make me merciful like You.” By the mercies of the Lord, righteousness prevails.