In Genesis 22:2 God told Abraham, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering.”
You know the story. God spared Isaac, substituting a ram for the sacrifice. And the Lord told Abraham:
When we first read of Abraham, God is asking him to pack up his family and travel to an unnamed destination (see Genesis 12:1). This must have been an incredible test for Abraham, as well as for his loved ones. Yet, by faith, Abraham obeyed. He lived among strangers in strange lands—unharmed and blessed—and he was delivered from every crisis, through supernatural dreams and visions given by the Lord.
LOOK AT THE STARS
The truth is, we sometimes mistreat others. We separate ourselves from a brother or sister; we wound and hurt someone; we can easily misrepresent others. And we think it is “just between God and me.” So we confess it to the Lord and repent, then go our way, thinking all is well. Yet, we never give thought to how in the process, we’ve not only wounded a brother, we have wounded the Lord. Indeed, we did it to the whole Body of Christ, because if one hurts, all hurt.
Right now, the world needs a living example of the mercy of Christ. Tensions have never been greater. In Europe and the United States, racial tension is sweeping through society, even creeping into churches.
Imagine Saul’s anguish when Christ confronted him near Damascus with a painful reality. The Lord told Saul, “I am Jesus. And you are persecuting Me” (see Acts 9:4-5). Saul had thought he was simply dealing with individuals, doing God’s work to root out Jewish heretics.
Saul was jolted with the truth: “Jesus has a spiritual body. He is the head and His body — His children here on earth — are connected to the head. It is one body, made up of believers who are flesh of His flesh. And anyone who comes against one of them is actually coming against Him.”
The mercy of God has amazing power to deliver. His mercy has broken the chains of all addictions, translating multitudes from the kingdom of Satan into the Kingdom of Christ.
There was a time, with millions throughout the world narcotized, that Satan thought he had prevailed. Indeed, word spread throughout the world that once the devil binds you, you are hopelessly bound forever.
But in every generation, God sends His Holy Spirit into the highways and byways.
I picture the zealous Pharisee Saul at the beginning of the special day when mercy shone on him. He had asked for an audience with the high priest:
“The young man who persecutes the Jesus crowd wants permission to take his crusade to Damascus. He vows to jail them all. He actually thinks he will be able to put out this ‘Jesus fire.’”
The first cost of mercy to Jesus was His heavenly position. Mercy moved Him to come to earth to take on human flesh and, ultimately, the mercy He offered to the world cost Him His life. Yet Jesus’ example of mercy is a model to all who would follow Him. He tells us, in essence, “Let My life show you the cost of mercy — total rejection by this world.”
The apostle Paul paid the same high cost of living out God’s mercy that Jesus paid on earth and that He warned us about:
Even in your sinful bondage, your heart’s cry reached Jesus and His tender mercy found you. He opened your eyes, changed you, and filled you with His Holy Spirit. Then He made you a vessel of honor to proclaim His gospel.
Make no mistake: it is a costly mercy you have received. We preach that God’s mercy is free, that it is unmerited, and that the price for it was paid in full by Christ’s shed blood. And, indeed, all this is true. God is fully satisfied by the price Jesus paid to bring us His mercy, give us the inheritance of heaven, and assure us that we have eternal life.
“Love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful” (Luke 6:35-36, my italics).