Tag Archives: mercy

IT’S A MYSTERY

April 23, 2021Bible Studycompassion, mercy, powerLuella Campbell

IT’S A MYSTERY

“What, then, shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’

It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’ Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.” Romans 9:14-18.

Now we get to the difficult part. We view God through our human eyes and think that He has no right to do with people whatever He chooses.

Does that mean that God deliberately creates some people to show off His glory by making them wicked and then sending them to hell? The Bible never insinuates that He ever does anything like that. This is the kind of thing a man-made god, capricious and unpredictable like its creator, would do!

We have to see the picture from God’s perspective. Since our forefather Adam decided to disregard God’s instruction and make his own rules, the entire human race has been in a state of rebellion against God, leaving Him no option but to allow the consequences of our rebellion take their course. To be true to His justice, He has to punish sin. His punishment comes in the form of death because death is the result of anything imperfect and corrupt.

God could have left it at that and allowed the entire human race to perish at its own hand. Instead, because of His mercy, He intervened by sending His Son to take the rap for us. Having removed the reason for our punishment, He invites whoever wants to, to receive His mercy and His gift of forgiveness, and get back on track to being restored to His image. With sin and punishment out of the way, those who entrust themselves to Him are in the process of being made holy; that is, being set free from sin to obey God for His purposes and for His glory.

So, where do our rights come into it? As guilty sinners, the only right we ever have is to God’s justice – and that means eternal separation from Him. He put His law into our hearts at conception. Everyone instinctively knows what is right and wrong; and that makes us doubly guilty before God – guilty because we know what is right and guilty because we because we refuse to submit to His authority and choose to do wrong.

How can we question God if He chooses to show mercy to those who respond to His invitation to return to Him, and to reject those who reject Him? Take the case of Pharaoh to which Paul refers. The Biblical record indicates that God gave Pharaoh ten opportunities to listen to His instruction, and release His people, but five times Pharaoh refused.

Every time he refused to obey God, his heart became harder towards Him. It was not God’s fault that Pharaoh would not acknowledge His authority. Pharaoh made his choice and God simply confirmed it by making it impossible to for him change his mind. So, whose fault was it that Egypt was destroyed? God’s fault? No! Pharaoh chose to ignore God’s warnings and take the consequences. And, in so doing, he inadvertently shone the light on God’s power and glory.

Does that mean that our destiny is in our own hands? Yes, in a sense it does, and yet, at the same time, in a way which is beyond our understanding, God miraculously intervenes and rescues us from our own stubborn rejection. Take Paul, for example. He would never have become the apostle he was, had Jesus not confronted him on the Damascus road. He needed that kind of shock treatment to wake him up to the truth.

That is the mercy of God! If left to our own devices, would we ever turn to Him? I don’t think so. Self-will is too deeply entrenched for us to let go easily. The miracle is that some people actually respond to God’s mercy, turn away from their sin and follow the way back to Him. They are the ones who fulfil His will, enjoy His goodness and will experience the fullness of eternal life.

It truly is a mystery – this sovereignty of God!

Acknowledgement

A WILD CELEBRATION!

January 31, 2021Bible Studydeeds, fame, mercy, wrathLuella Campbell

A WILD CELEBRATION!

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet on shigionoth.

“Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy (Hab. 3: 1-2).

What is the meaning of shigionoth?

“Shiggaion, from the verb shagah, “to reel about through drink”, occurs in the title of Psalm 7. The plural form, shigionoth, is found in Habakkuk 3:1. The word denotes a lyrical poem composed under strong mental emotion; a song of impassioned imagination accompanied with suitable music; a dithyrambic ode.”

http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/shiggaion/

A dithyramb is a “usually short poem in an inspired wild irregular strain” http://i.word.com/idictionary/dithyramb

Why am I probing the meaning of shiggionoth? I believe it is significant to explore the wild emotion of Habakkuk’s prayer. This was his response to the revelation God gave him regarding his problem. This was far more than an intellectual issue. What he wrestled with touched him to the core of his being. Why did God seem not to care about the moral mess his people were in?

God’s response shook him because he was not anticipating the horrifying thought that not only did his holy God tolerate the actions of heathen nations against His people, He actually admitted to being directly responsible for raising them up to punish Israel. How could He? It was as though Habakkuk was betrayed by a trusted friend. His second dilemma was even worse than the first. What God was doing was unthinkable – He was in bed with the enemy!

Only when God revealed the final phase of His reply did the prophet get it. Aha! God placed every individual, heathen or Israelite, on the same footing – accountable to Him and responsible for his actions. No one was off the hook. His people could not hide behind their collective covenant relationship with Him and the heathen could not use the excuse that they were God’s instrument for dealing with His people.

It was this truth that sent the prophet into a frenzy of anticipation. He remembered God’s deliverance of His people from slavery and His judgment on Egypt. This great event in the history of His people marked the beginning of their life as a nation. In graphically poetic language, he related the effects of God’s coming on the natural world and on the enemy who seemed invincible.

With his confidence in the sovereignty of his God restored, he celebrated God’s mighty victory over the Egyptians. Surely, just as He fought for His people over their oppressors then, He would stand by them again against the Babylonians when His purposes for them were complete.

God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and His praise filled the earth. His splendour was like the sunrise; rays flashed from His hand, where His power was hidden. Plague went before Him; pestilence followed His steps. He stood, and shook the earth; He looked and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed – but He marches on forever (Hab. 3: 3-6).

God is unstoppable in His power. Nothing stands in the way of His march towards fulfilling His purposes. He demolishes every natural obstacle with ease. Even the mighty waters give way when He passes by.

I saw the tents of Cushan in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish. Were you angry with the rivers, Lord? Was your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode your horses and chariots in victory? You uncovered your bow, you called for many arrows. You split the earth with rivers; the mountains saw you and writhed. Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and lifted its waves on high (Hab. 3: 7-10).

He proceeded to review the horrendous and systematic destruction of Egypt through the eyes of a worshipper. From the other side of the Red Sea, in the land of Midian His people watched God come in majestic splendour to sweep away the Egyptian army through the writhing waters of the Red Sea.

As the prophet remembered, he worshipped. It was this God, this mighty Sovereign whose power was unstoppable, who would intervene again to rescue His people from the devastation of the Babylonians. Just as Egypt has served God’s purposes and then were crushed like bugs in God’s hand, so He would mete out judgment on another nation which thought it was God.

The Spirit Of Torah

February 20, 2016Christian Lifefaithfulness, glory, goodness, justice, mercy, weightLuella Campbell

THE SPIRIT OF TORAH

Unlike the other rabbis with s’mikhah (authority) who were permitted to make new interpretations of Torah, but who focused primarily on behaviour and actions, Jesus turned His hearers’ attention to the spirit of Torah, what He called ‘the more important matters of the law.’ (Matt. 23: 23). The Greek word translated “more important” has the connotation of “weight”, i.e., that which is heavy, which carries weight or is profound.

What is this “weight” of which Jesus spoke? To understand its meaning, we must go back to the Torah and look at its use there. Moses used the same word, “weight” (Hebrew kabod), when he asked God to show him His glory – kabod – Ex. 33:18. What was he asking? He was asking God to show him what was heaviest, weightiest or profoundest in Him – in His character as God.

This is how God responded:

And the LORD said, ‘I will cause all my goodness to pass by in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’ (Ex. 33:19)

It seems, then, that the weightiest part of God’s character is His goodness (functionality) expressed in His mercy and compassion. This was confirmed by the prophet Micah who asked the question:

With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? (Micah 6:6-7)

All the things that Micah has mentioned were requirements within the Torah but taken to the extreme. But at the same time, all of these were useless without the “weightier things” of Torah.

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6: 8)

In Matt. 23, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their attention to detail but the absolute neglect of their heart attitude of mercy. They did the right thing as far as Halakhah was concerned but they missed the point of Yahweh’s Torah completely. Whatever Halakhah demanded was to be fulfilled in the spirit of Torah – justice, mercy and faithfulness. These “religious” Jews were so intent on gaining a reputation for their “piety” that they were completely phoney before God.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practised the latter without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. (Matt. 23:23-24)

What was Jesus saying? Wherever the prescriptions of Halakhah came into conflict with the weightier matters of Torah, i.e. justice, mercy and faithfulness, Halakhah must give way.

Jesus’s many altercations with the religious leaders raged around the issue of mercy versus Halakhah. His call to Matthew to be a disciple and the subsequent banquet Matthew gave for Jesus with the disreputable element of society as his honoured guests, provoked a protest from the Pharisees.

When the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and “sinners”?’

On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.’ (Matt. 9:10-13)

A few days later the Pharisees went on the attack again. While Jesus and His disciples walked through a field of grain on the Sabbath, the men picked a few heads of grain and rubbed them in their hands because they were hungry. Always on the warpath, the Pharisees protested.

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, ‘Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.’ He answered, ‘Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread – which is not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests . . . If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’, you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.’ (Matt. 12:1-4; 7-8)

It is quite obvious that they had not learned the lesson. As far as Jesus was concerned, wherever mercy and Halakhah clashed, mercy took precedence, even when it came to the simple matter of hunger over what was lawful according to Torah. Every requirement of Torah had to be fulfilled in the spirit of Torah for it to be what God intended.

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3, eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

The Power Of The Cross – The Blood Of Jesus Speaks A Better Word Than The Blood Of Abel

October 25, 2015GospelAbel, better word, blood, Jesus, mercyLuella Campbell

THE POWER OF THE CROSS

THE BLOOD OF JESUS SPEAKS A BETTER WORD THAN THE BLOOD OF ABEL

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire . . . But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Heb. 12: 18; 22-24)

Better, better, better! Have you noticed how many times the writer to the Hebrews uses the word “better”? Everything about the new covenant is better because it is based on better promises and mediated by a better high priest, one who offered Himself once for sin, rose from the dead to prove that His sacrifice was acceptable to the Father, and sits at the right hand of God in the seat of authority and power.

Why does the writer single out Abel’s death as the contrast between the death of a murdered man and the death of Jesus? There were many murders that are recorded in Scripture. Why Abel? Is it because Abel’s was the first murder recorded in Scripture?

Both Abel and Jesus had their lives taken from them violently. Both Abel and Jesus died for doing the right thing. The perpetrators hated them because they were righteous and, instead of changing their ways and following their example, they killed them because of envy.

God demanded an explanation of Cain for what he had done, because He heard the blood of Abel crying out from the ground. Of course we don’t interpret those words literally. God didn’t need Abel’s blood to tell Him what had happened. It was His way of informing Cain that He knew what he had done. Cain hid Abel’s body in the ground, but nothing could hide the guilt of his crime. Sooner or later even his parents would know when Abel failed to appear.

But why was the killing of Abel different from the killing of Jesus? There are several reasons why the blood of Jesus speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Abel died violently but unwillingly at the hands of his brother. He had not part in his own death. Cain lured him into a field away from his home and rose up and killed him.

On the other hand, the Old Testament prophesied that Jesus would die. He was Yahweh’s Suffering Servant, whose coming was foretold by the prophets and whose death is described in detail. He was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Jesus’ life was focussed on His death. He came to die. He predicted His own death at the hands of the religious leaders. His own people would disown, reject and kill Him in the most violent and cruel way.

More than that, He made it clear that no one could take His life from Him. He would lay it down willingly as an atoning sacrifice for sin, and He would take it up again.

The reason the Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father. (John 10: 17-18)

Now that is amazing? It’s no wonder His opponents said He was crazy! He was either crazy, or He was speaking about an authority far about the understanding of human beings.

And even more than that, His death was the will of the Father.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer . . . (Isa. 53: 10)

And more than that, His death had a purpose.

For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in the flesh. (Rom. 8: 3)

And His resurrection had a purpose.

He was delivered over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification. (Rom 4: 25)

He came back to life not only to prove that death could not hold Him because He was sinless, but also to confirm that the Father had accepted His death of behalf of sinners, that the debt of sin had been paid in full, and that the Father could declare all sinners justified, that is, not guilty.

Of what, then, does the blood of Jesus speak? While Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance, the blood of Jesus speaks of mercy.

“Abel, the first martyr of faith, is a foreshadowing of our Lord Jesus, whose “blood… speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:24). For though Abel’s innocent blood cried out for justice against sin, Jesus’s innocent blood cried out for mercy for sinners. Abel’s blood exposed Cain in his wretchedness. Jesus’s blood covers our wretchedness and cleanses us from all sin (Romans 7:24; 1 John 1:9).”

http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-dead-abel-speaks-to-us (- retrieved October 2015)

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3, eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

The Bleat Of A Lost Lamb

August 5, 2015Bible StudyBartimaeus, mercy, Son of DavidLuella Campbell

THE BLEAT OF A LOST LAMB

Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and His disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’

Jesus stopped and said. ‘Call him.’ So they called to the blind man, ‘Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.’

Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Jesus asked him. The blind man said, ‘Rabbi, I want to see.’

‘Go,’ said Jesus, ‘your faith has healed you.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road (Mark 10. 42-52).

A well-worn story but so full of little surprises! Every child who ever attended Sunday school knows the story of blind Bartimaeus, but does every child understand the significance of the details? I don’t think so. Not even every Gentile adult understands the layers underneath the facts.

As a blind man, Bartimaeus was not permitted to beg without authorisation. There were many opportunists around who would rather beg than work. Therefore genuine beggars needed some sort of identification to be recognised as bona fide beggars. There was no tag identifying him as a beggar so he wore beggar’s cloak. An important detail in the story.

As a beggar, he was considered a “nobody” in society. In fact he was a nuisance. Notice how the people in the crowd treated him. ‘Shut up,’ they told him, as though he were nothing but a noisy intrusion. People were milling around, trying to get a glimpse of Jesus, not bothered with a smelly beggar. But the more they tried to shut him up, the louder and more insistent were his cries. From the crowds round about him he gathered that all the excitement was about Jesus of Nazareth.

Bartimaeus had heard of Him. Wasn’t He the rabbi who went around doing miracles and healing people? This was his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and he was not about to let it slip through his fingers. There was no way he could get near to Jesus but he could shout. And shout he did! What did he shout?

‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Who was the Son of David? Solomon? No way! Solomon began his reign after David with such promise and ended up in failure. Jesus was definitely not a replica of Solomon. Who, then, was the Son of David? This was a Messianic term. Prophets in the Old Testament spoke of one who would come from the dynasty of David, from the tribe of Judah, who would be God’s Messiah and deliverer.

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit (Isa. 11: 1).

Was this unwashed, blind beggar, a reject of society and a nuisance to people, filled with a longing for the Son of David to come? Did he have a hope and a conviction beating inside of him that this man who healed people and spoke of the kingdom of God was the one God would send? His words, “Son of David” betrayed that desire.

Try as they would, the crowd could not silence him. And in the midst of the noise, Jesus heard his voice. Was His heart so in tune with the Father that He heard the bleat of the lost lamb? I think so. So He called him. Funny how the attitude of the crowd changed – from “nuisance” to “Cheer up, He’s calling you.” He was suddenly the focus of attention – from nobody to somebody!

Barimaeus’ cry touched the nerve centre of Jesus’s being. “Have mercy on me.” Was His mission not to reveal the true nature of the Father – one who was full of mercy and compassion? It was a cry He would never ignore.

How significant the blind man’s action – he threw his beggar’s cloak away! Why would he do that? In a symbolic act of faith he declared, “I will never need this again.” He would need a cloak but not one that shouted out his blindness. His action did not go unnoticed. It was his unspoken declaration of faith in Jesus.

The next step sealed it for him. Jesus’ question, ‘What do you want me to do for you,’ was not asked out of ignorance. It was the final step in Bartimaeus’s faith journey. “Tell me exactly what you want,” said Jesus. No beating about the bush. “I want to see,” was his terse reply.

And the rest, they say, is history. Jesus commended his faith. There were steps to his faith. He heard about Jesus. He came to a conclusion – Son of David. He heard that Jesus was there – he began to yell for attention. He refused to be silenced. When he was called, he knew it was his moment. He threw away his dependence on his old life. Never again would he need to beg. He knew what he wanted – and he got it.

And the outcome – he followed Jesus.

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

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