“The Lord, the Lord, compassionate [merciful] and gracious…”

                 There are a good number of verses that describe the Lord as being merciful or full of mercy.  The Scripture calls God’s mercy abundant, everlasting, filling the earth, great, high as heaven, manifold, new every morning, over all his works, plenteous, rich, sure and tender.  But his mercy is no doubt best felt or understood in the context of a story.  Certainly the Bible is full of stories where God’s mercy ruled the day.  The whole story of Job was to demonstrate that “the Lord is full of compassion and mercy” (James 5:11).

One example of God’s mercy was demonstrated to Israel.  Traveling from Egypt on their way to the Promised Land, they came to Mt. Sinai.  There God called Moses to the top of the mountain to receive the specifics of God’s covenant conditions and the Tabernacle (Exodus chapters 19-31).  Included in the commands was the construction of the Ark of the Covenant (25:10-16).

This ark was a wooden rectangular box overlaid with gold inside and out.  It contained the ten commands of God’s moral law, a description of his character.  The ark had a cover, or lid, on top.  The cover was made of pure gold, no wood.  Atop this cover were 2 golden cherubim, or angels, slightly bowed down but facing each other, with wings spread out and up until they almost touched each other.

This cover had a critical purpose besides being the lid for the ark.  It was on the cover where the blood of an innocent sacrifice was poured for the sins of the people on the Day of Atonement.  If all of God’s conditions were fulfilled completely, the special appearance of God called the Shekinah glory would appear just above the angels, and He would give his directions to the people.  So what took place on the ark’s cover —the pouring of blood—was an incredibly important event.  Wrongs were atoned, forgiveness granted, restoration accomplished, the future anticipated.  And what was the special name for this special cover of the ark?  The mercy seat*—the seat of mercy!  Below the mercy seat lay the stone tablets describing God’s character.  Above it shone God’s indescribable glory.  In between, in the heart of the imagery, was the place of mercy!  It is difficult not to get the picture that in the very heart of God, surrounded by his holy character and glory, is a heart of mercy…mercy that saves, forgives and restores completely and forever.

But God doesn’t just talk mercy, he demonstrates it.  While on the mountain Moses communed with God about these wonderful truths, Israel committed the wicked sin of idolatry (Ex. 32).  They exchanged the glory of God for a golden calf and said it was the Lord (32:4, 8)!  God was ready to kill them all faster than you can say “goodbye,” but Moses successfully interceded for them.  Seeing that the people had broken the laws he carried on stone tablets, Moses threw them to the ground, breaking them.  The symbolism was not lost on them.  They instantly realized what they had done.  “About three thousand of the people died” for their sin by the sword that day (v. 27-28).  Others suffered from a plague (v. 35).

The next day Moses went up again to meet the Lord to ask for a pardon for the people.  At this point God says he will not go with the people but send “an angel” instead (33:2).  He says he might “destroy [them] on the way [to the Promised Land]” (v. 3).  But Moses successfully intercedes again, and God decides to go with them anyway.  In the next chapter we find God writing again his laws on two stone tablets Moses chiseled out (34:4).  God rewrote his commands on these tablets.  This is mercy at work!  God went with them — mercy again.  God reaffirmed his covenant (v. 10) — mercy indeed.  That is why he said, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate [merciful] and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (vs. 6-7).  And when Jesus hung on the cross, his blood poured out for the sins of the world, Calvary became the new mercy seat, in between God’s righteous and holy character, and his radiant glory in heaven above.  Mercy, wonderful mercy!  “He saved us, not because of righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:5).

When was the last time you fully appreciated his mercy?  Do you pass it on to others?

*See footnote c in the NIV.