“Mercy mercy mercy,” you cried out when your friend got you into submission in that childhood game. There is also a “mercy rule” in amateur sports when one team is being beat by the other one. Maybe you even begged for mercy when you disobeyed your parents and knew the consequence was coming.
Mercy is a concept you likely understand well. Mercy happens when judgement could be administered but instead is withheld. It is demonstrated when compassion is extended to the undeserving. We have the perfect example of mercy when we look to the Scriptures and see God’s merciful character.
As A.W. Tozer said it, “Mercy is not something God has, but something God is.”
VERSES OF GOD’S MERCIFUL CHARACTER
1. Deuteronomy 7:9
“Therefore, know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments …” (NKJ)
2. Lamentations 3:22-23
“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” (NKJ)
3. Ephesians 2:4-5
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) …” (ESV)
4. 1 Peter 2:10
“You once were not a people, but now you are God’s people. You were shown no mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (NET)
WE SHOULD SHOW MERCY
5. Luke 6:36
“Overflow with mercy and compassion for others, just as your heavenly Father overflows with mercy and compassion for all.” (TPT)
6. Proverbs 11:17
“The merciful man does good for his own soul, but he who is cruel troubles his own flesh.” (NIV)
7. Matthew 5:7
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” (ASV)
8. Proverbs 14:21
“He who despises his neighbor sins, but he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he.” (MEV)
9. James 2:13
“For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; but [to the one who has shown mercy] mercy triumphs [victoriously] over judgment.” (AMP)
THEY WERE SHOWN MERCY
10. The Ninevites
Jonah, totally frustrated that the enemies of Israel, the people from Nineveh, weren’t annihilated says “I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people.” (Jonah 4:2 NLT)
11. King Manasseh
He is known as a king who did evil in their Sight of the Lord. Yet, in moment of great distress, when he prayed and “The Lord responded to him and answered favorably his cry for mercy. The Lord brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh realized that the Lord is the true God.” (2 Chronicles 33:12-13 NET)
12. The Prodigal Son
Though this is a parable that Luke relates in chapter 15, it is understood that the Father in the story is God.
13. The soldiers at the Cross
Jesus, hanging from the Cross, was belittled and harassed by the soldiers. Yet, Jesus says “Father, forgive these people! They don’t know what they’re doing … the soldiers gambled for his clothes.” (Luke 23:34 NLT)
14. Epaphroditus
One of Paul’s assistants “was sick, and nearly died, but God had mercy on him” (Philippians 2:27 NCV)
15. Paul
In awe of God’s goodness to him, Paul writes “God showed me mercy, because I did not know what I was doing. I did not believe.” (1 Timothy 1:13 NCV).
16. The adulterous woman
When the Pharisees discover her, they want judgement, ready to stone her to death. When they ask for Jesus’ take on this situation, he replies “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7 NIV) To her surprise, Jesus extends mercy when he tells her “Neither do I condemn you … Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:11 NIV)
17. Jesus to the crowds
Many times, Jesus has shown mercy, expressed compassion and deeply cared for those who were sick, troubled and hungry. “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” (Matthew 15:32 ESV)
18. Joseph
Though he hadn’t committed any crime, Joseph found himself in prison. The Bible states, “the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” (Genesis 39:11 MEV).
19. Judas
Though his life did end up in a drama, it could be argued that even the traitor Judas was shown mercy. As instrumental as he was to Jesus’ crucifixion, he could have received judgment right away.
20. Jerusalem
There is this moment when Jesus, in his last few weeks on Earth, overlooks the city of Jerusalem and grieves, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.” (Matthew 23:37 NLT)
21. You (all of us!)
Our sin has separated from God and judgement was pending on you and me. And Titus reminds us of this great mercy when he writes, “God our Savior appeared he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” (Titus 3:5 NIV)
PRAYER FOR COMPASSION
22. King David
At one moment in his life, King David slept with a married woman, Bathsheba, and made sure the husband was killed at war. When the prophet Nathan confronts David about his sin, the king has a gut reaction “the man who did this deserves to die!” (2 Samuel 12:5 NET). When the prophet reminds him, he is that man, David writes this beautiful verse “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions” (Psalm 51:1ESV).
23. Jonah
His disobedience and bigotry are well noted in Scripture. After fleeing God in the opposite direction of his mission, finding himself in the belly of a big fish, Jonah “called out to the LORD in my distress, and he answered me. From the belly of the underworld, I cried out for help; you have heard my voice.” (Jonah 2:2 CEB)
His mercy upon you and I will never cease. These 23 times when God showed mercy through His character and actions remind us that “God’s mercy is so great that you may sooner drain the sea of its water, or deprive the sun of its light, or make space too narrow than diminish the great mercy of God.” (Charles Spurgeon)
May we all find encouragement in God’s great merciful character.
