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The
Quality of His Mercy
When reading the historical
scriptural record a carnal man or woman will tend
to misjudge the events and Creator revealed
thereby, particularly in relation to the concepts
of supposed judgment and mercy.
Yet the same carnal attitude
predominates in our modern world in the form of the
strict, stringent, unyielding law of contracts.
A man, if judged to be in his right mind,
can literally voluntarily contract his life away --
as so many do with military enlistments, for
example -- without legal recourse.
One nation of people -- the
descendants of Abraham -- according to scripture,
made a binding life or death, blessings or cursings
contract with their Creator/Savior, following the
exodus from slavery in Egypt.
The promises or rewards for
their obedience to the contract these people
entered into, and the penalties or judgments for
disobedience or violation of that covenant, are
laid out in Deuteronomy 27:9 thru chapter 28, verse
68.
In addition to the original
covenant, known as the Ten Commandments, and other
statutes and judgments -- as recorded in Exodus 19
thru chapter 24, and repeated briefly in
Deuteronomy chapters 4 thru 6 -- the covenant was
renewed in Deuteronomy 29, promising prosperity for
repentance (turning away from disobedience to
become obedient), as recorded in Deuteronomy 30,
verses 1 to 10, and the entire life or death nature
of this contract was set forth in Deuteronomy 30,
verses 11 thru 20.
This law or covenant was read
every seven years, during the year in which all
debts were canceled (every seven years), at the
Feast of Tabernacles, to acquaint each new
generation with its provisions, requirements,
promises and the penalties for disobedience, as
covered in Deuteronomy 31, verses 9 thru 13.
The
Covenant Through the Ages
Several centuries after the
fulfillment of many of the promises made in that
covenant, such as founding the ancient nation of
Yasrael and giving it rest from all its enemies
through various judges, and finally King David and
his son Solomon, an important event took place that
reveals -- like no other recorded event in history
-- the quality of your Creator's mercy.
The pagan nations displaced
by the nation of Yasrael, besides being squatters
and trespassers upon land promised long before to
Abraham and his descendants -- foreigners who were
engaged in various horribly wicked practices,
involving human sacrifices, cannibalism, and sexual
perversions (such as incest, bestiality, etc.) --
were driven out or wiped out, according to the same
just judgment displayed by the Great Flood in
Noah's time.
Then, only a single man --
and through him, his wife and their three sons and
their wives -- escaped death and destruction, when
the evil and violent preflood races of humanity
were all destroyed suddenly and violently, suiting
their bloodthirsty and wicked nature (as recorded
in Genesis chapters 6 thru 8).
There was a covenant made
with Noah and his sons, and through them, all of
their future descendants on earth, as outlined in
Genesis 9:1-17.
It was the same covenant made
with Adam and his descendants -- the promise of
deliverance and salvation, ultimately, through the
coming of the promised Son of Man, "the second
Adam."
The
Creator Died For
YOU!
This Savior, or Messiah,
incredible as it may sound, was none other than the
very Creator Himself, who made the first man and
woman from the dust, and gave them the ability to
reproduce and populate the entire earth, and gave
their species the ability to be dominant over all
other species.
Thus, people are not -- as
some wrongly believe -- the "new dinosaurs," in
danger of extinction, but rather are a unique
creation of a merciful, ever-caring Creator who
later came to live and then die as a man, to insure
the success of His ultimate purpose for
humanity.
Your Creator suffered and
died for you!
He lowered Himself, divesting
Himself of all His former glory and immortality, to
become a mortal man, subject to all the same urges,
temptations, and weaknesses as you and I.
His sacrifice on
YOUR behalf
is, without a doubt, the epitome of His caring
concern for all His sinning children, for He died
so that you might live, and He did this while
humanity was still sinful and deserving only of
death.
This, more than anything
else, defines not only His righteous attitude, hope
and ultimate plan for humanity, but also the
undying quality of His perfect mercy.
You can do nothing better
with the life He gives you with every breath, than
to follow His example in helping convey the quality
of His mercy to our fellow mankind.
And you can best accomplish
this through deliberate but discerning, and
wisely-directed, acts of kindness, and also by
supporting this work with your prayers, tithes and
regular freewill offerings.
Then, together, we can
proclaim for all who will listen and heed, the
quality of His mercy and the certainty of His wrath
upon the unrepentantly disobedient and rebellious
of this age, in the near future.
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