But Your God Isn’t Merciful, Else…

How often we hear this phrase uttered by those who seek to discredit Yahweh and throw a spanner into the cogs of our faith?

How often do we hear that if Yahweh were indeed merciful, then He would have allowed for this or that, or even for non-believers to enter into heaven?

I am sure that for many Christians who have tried sharing the Good News, the common answer would be “too many times”.

But we know Yahweh to be merciful, and we know Yahweh to be merciful not just to the righteous, but also to the unrighteous!

The Lord is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The Lord is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.

Psalm 145:8-9

Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
our God is merciful.

Psalm 116:5

Yet, how do we communicate this across?

It is all the more perplexing that there are some who do not believe a single word recorded in God’s Word and whom, if you were to try using any verses, would immediately snub you and close their ears off to hearing more.

For me, I usually ask the person one or all of these questions as a start:

• When you lay down to rest last night, did you know for sure that you’d awake and be alive and talking to me now?
• How sure are you that the sun shall set today and the moon rise tonight, or that there will be light tomorrow morning?
• If you, then, cannot guarantee these things, then ask yourself this: by whose mercy are you living and breathing now, and the sun shine on you and keep you warm and give you light? For at any one time, death can take you.

Yet, words can only do so much.

Because the adage that action speaks louder than words is so very true, and this is where we ask ourselves if we have indeed shown mercy to others, and be the light of the world and salt of the earth as Yeshua taught.

A church elder once remarked to me that nothing, absolutely nothing, witnesses to non-believers better than our actions and behavior as Christians. So as they see us, they see Yeshua, and so as they see Yeshua, they see the Father, Yahweh.

Yahushua teaches us to be merciful as Yahweh is merciful unto us, and His warning to the Pharisees is food for thought on what the important things are in our walk with Yahweh.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

Matthew 23:23

Notice that Yeshua mentioned mercy together with matters of the law, judgment and faith! So it is the same with us, we cannot only keep His commandments and work on our faith, but having mercy on others and showing mercy to those around us is part and parcel of our walk.

So how do we show mercy in our everyday life, even to those who appear to be undeserving?

Do you not see how that, in numerous times in the four Gospels, Yahushua had mercy on those who were afflicted and called out to Him? Follow in His footsteps and show mercy unto the lame, the blind, the deaf, the poor, and the downtrodden.

Sure, we might not necessarily be able to make them walk, see, hear or become clean again as Yahushua did, but by reaching out to them with Yahweh’s love and mercy, we become instruments of Yahweh’s love and mercy to all of His creation.

And through our actions, we glorify Yahweh, and people may come to experience His mercy, and know that Yahweh is merciful.

But as you do these, remember to do them without fanfare, unlike the Pharisees who put on a show and love the praise of men.

Shalom Aleichem.

Illustration taken off truebiblecode.com.