Much like Grace,which we have already gone over, Mercy is another word used often to describe God and His actions. Most people would describe mercy is “receipt of a favor or consequence which wasn’t deserved”, while I agree with that definition, I think we can come to a better conclusion!

I think as we go through this quick study, God’s grace (defined as: Someone in Authority bowing down happily to give a gift to someone in lowly stature, such as a peasant) and mercy will jump out of the page more for you and you will be surprised at how beautiful our God really is. 

Mercy in English comes from Anglo-French ‘Merci’, which means as ‘Pity or Thanks’ while Merci comes from the Latin Merced- which means ‘Paid Wages or reward’. The word in Greek is very similar, it is the word ‘Eleos’ (ἔλεος), which according to Strongs NT concordance means “mercy; kindness or good will toward the miserable and afflicted, joined with a desire to relieve them” 

I think we’re getting to the bottom of this but, we need more information. Our final source will come from the Hebrew word that is used in the Old Testament to describe God. Then, like we did with Grace, we’ll combine them and get a median definition. 

In the Hebrew, the most commonly used word to mean mercy is ‘racham’(רַחַם), which means compassion. I think something else interesting that we can add, is that this word also means ‘deep’ or ‘bowels’. So it means: something at the very center of someone’s being. 

So what have we understood as a full meaning of mercy? Mercy from a combination of all languages used from the original manuscripts and then our current language means simply “Compassionately pays the price due to the miserable and afflicted in an effort to relieve them”

Let’s break this new definition down. (Now you’re saying, this sounds just like the original definition only wordier) God not only continually pays the price or the wage due to us daily out of compassion simply to provide relief, but He also does this compassionately or literally ‘with passion’. As I said earlier that definition of ‘Deeply’ will come into play. He feels so strongly and cares so much about the miserable and the afflicted, which is all of humanity, that daily He passionately takes away our dues for our screwups. What wages would need to be paid for our sin? Paul tells us in Romans, “the wages of sin is death”. 

So if we have a gracious and merciful God what does that actually mean? In one sentence, we come to this conclusion. God happily and passionately bows down to provide favor in order to distribute relief to the poor and afflicted and pay the price due to their continual failures. That my friends, is what I wanted to write this whole time. 

You ask why my blog is named ‘Something Extraordinary’, that right there is the reason. An all-powerful God in Hellenistic thought would have ignored us and moved on to a different planet, in Egyptian thought He would have destroyed us or made us slaves, in Babylonian thought He would be sacrificing our children to appease him. 

But God, who is rich in mercy, joyfully and passionately sent His only Son to die on a cross for our sins in order to provide relief for the poor, afflicted, pitiable and woeful to pay one price for our failures: past, present, and future.

Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” 

And that, my friends, is Something Extraordinary. 

“The Lord said to Abram”

Genesis 12:1, CSB

This is a strange start to a meditation, and it’s a simplistic verse. You’re all asking me, why would you put THAT as the verse for today. Well, it is a very important verse, something that we need to look at in depth. This isn’t even a post about faith really, it’s much more than that. It’s a look at ourselves and how little we know about God and who He is. 

I want you to look at this verse, there is no context before this besides simply showing Abram’s lineage after Babbel. So there is no context, this just starts like it says above. How strange of a verse, right? 

God didn’t announce himself in this verse, nor did he introduce himself. He just started talking. Personally, I think God was trying a different way to reach His creation using this message since walking with them, flooding the earth and scrambling the languages didn’t work. Maybe He was trying a more diplomatic approach. 

Abram went along with what He said, and personally I would have to if I heard a disembodied voice promising to protect me if I followed His lead. Anyways, I’m off topic here, and I’m most likely going to do a series on this later down the line.

The most astonishing thing here is, simply, God never introduced himself. He never gave his name. 

Well, he gave it later on. His name is Yahweh. 

Nope.

That’s what WE call him, His creation. That’s not actually His name. See, it’s an attribute of him. Knowing how important names are, biblically and in modern times, one would think we would actually know His name. 

Yahweh comes from a shortened version of Exodus 3:14 “I am that I am”. He was basically telling Moses “I was, I am, and I will be. I am the constant.” This was later shortened down to Yahweh. 

The Biblical scholars will now say “His name is EL.” No, that’s not right either. El was taken from a Canaanite god (who ironically was depicted as a golden calf [catching on yet?]) and replaced in Hebrew to name God ‘God’ and also to use generally as the word god. 

The Israelites also took names from other gods around to attribute to their God. The living God, but that’s not the point.

The point of all this is simple, we are much too small and ignorant by nature to know God. If we have any presumption of who God is while we’re praying, if we happen to even imagine he’s something that He’s not, then are we really praying to the living God?

We don’t even know His name, we just understand some attributes about Him. The closest we are ever going to get to know God is through His son Christ Jesus.

This is why it’s so important to have a relationship with Jesus, to know our creator through His son. Solomon, one of the wisest men to have ever lived, wrote in Proverbs 9:10:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. 

That word fear could be translated as ‘awe’.Even the wisest man to ever live couldn’t even begin to contemplate who God is. We are to begin our journey of knowing God through awe. Once you take apart all the preconceived notions of who you think God ought to be, and start actually worshipping the living God who sent His son as redemption for sin, you will begin to understand him. 

Take time during prayer today to seek Him first. To see who this God actually is, because I guarantee that idea you have of him is finite. We all know our God is infinite. Once you remove that you will really begin to see our father for who He is. Maybe we don’t know His name, but His actions are much more profound.

Quick update: I was supposed to post this yesterday; however, I’ve been busy, so I wanted to get this out the door today, and then tomorrow will be our current events analysis. Now, back to the show.

Ever see those insane Facebook ads? The ones promising you 4 Audiobooks and 3 maps to living your life where you’ll succeed? It’s nothing new. Snake oil salesmen have been doing it for hundreds of years. I think this is extremely funny, though, considering how much people want to “succeed” so badly, they think they can just pay for it.

I’m being serious, actually. These “courses” are EXPENSIVE; not only are they expensive, but they also upsell you every single time. Time and time again, they charge you to “get to that next step.” This one, in particular, costs $2000 a course, and that is only for one of their courses! This guy isn’t trying to get you to succeed in the stock market, though, or in business. No, you can get sued for that. This guy is trying to get someone to succeed “in life.” I find this extremely laughable.

For hundreds of years, we’ve had a book in the western world that promises success in life. It’s given by a Divine creator. Yet, the bookshelves all across the Nation’s bookstores are so sad. The titles they provide are “Live your best life,” “How to find happiness,” or “How to make friends and influence people.” These are ridiculous, but it’s a multi-million dollar industry.

The saddest part? I guarantee that the Bible is sitting in a lot of the homes not touched.

As I said, this isn’t something new, though. A man regarded for his wisdom throughout the ancient world, Solomon wrote extensively about this, if a man should trust these people, and how a man should act. Let’s look at a couple!

Proverbs 16:20b tells us:

“The one who trusts in the Lord will be happy.”

This is highly relevant in today’s society and crazy Facebook ads as well. If we know that we have an omnipotent creator in heaven that takes care of the birds daily (!), we can rest in his spirit. We don’t need to drop $2000 on courses.

Humility, the fear of the Lord, results in wealth, honor, and life.

Proverbs 22:4, CSB

If this is all we need, humility and respect in the sight of our king for a prosperous life, then why are Christians buying these things? All the way back to Adam, humans have thought they could do things themselves. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.

The world is at such a place that people will go to anyone or do anything to have happiness and prosperity in their life, whether to emulate Instagram photos or simply “feel” happiness. They will pay for books, doctors, and prescriptions to get there. When in reality, it’s been in the most widely circulated and often free book this whole time. I often wonder how much more sin is compounded by selling something that allows people to participate in their sin and validate it.

Fear the Lord, humble yourselves before him, and keep your eyes on the cross. God will be gracious to take care of you too. If you keep your eyes on Christ, He can keep his eyes on everything else for you.

Some quick housekeeping, and then we’ll get into it for today. As you might’ve been able to tell, yesterday’s post alluded to a new post in the “What is Love //” series being posted next Monday. I have an actual schedule now of posts after much deliberation and prayer. The new schedule is as follows: Mondays will be for Apologetics posts, Tuesdays and Thursdays will be for Study or Meditation, Wednesdays and Fridays are reserved for current events/culture analysis, and Saturdays are either resting days or for misguided thinking found in the wild of the internet.

Ok Let’s get into it for today.

There is a very well known passage that is often quoted among Christians that I wanted to take a look at.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 

“Master,” Simon replied, “we’ve worked hard all night long and caught nothing. But if you say so, I’ll let down the nets.”

When they did this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets^[c] began to tear. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’s knees and said, “Go away from me, because I’m a sinful man, Lord!” ⁹ For he and all those with him were amazed at the catch of fish they had taken,  and so were James and John, Zebedee’s sons, who were Simon’s partners.

“Don’t be afraid,” Jesus told Simon. “From now on you will be catching people.”

Luke 5:4-10, CSB

We often look at that as one of Jesus’ first miracles and wonders among the people, but it goes along with how God often deals with Humans. I’ll show more. Let’s look at Abraham, specifically in Genesis.

Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father.”

And he replied, “Here I am, my son.”

Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide^[a] the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together.

 When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”

He replied, “Here I am.”

 Then he said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.” Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son.  And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said, “It will be provided on the Lord’s mountain.”

Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn,”this is the Lord’s declaration: “Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your only son,  I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the city gates of their enemies. And all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring because you have obeyed my command.”

Genesis 22: 7-18, CSB

This is another showing of the same type of idea as quoted from Luke above. God told someone to do something, and through their obedience, not only did they become blessed, but they also had a new mission in life to fulfill. God tested Abraham in the same way He allowed Adam to be tested. He wanted to see if this man chosen to be a patriarch would rise to the occasion and follow God’s lead.

Finally, ironically, I want to look at Jeremiah, where this blog post started out in my head. I love Jeremiah from a literary standpoint because, besides Exodus and Job, it is really the only other time we get to see God the Father’s personality shine. This final passage is humorous in a way and shows that we really are made in God’s image in the way He communicates with us.

Jeremiah was told during the siege of Jerusalem to go and buy a parcel of Land. This seems a bit ridiculous, even from a divine standpoint. Not only did Jeremiah do it, but he had the same response as above with Abraham and Peter. He trusted God and gave all praise to God for the seemingly ridiculous ask. However, while praying, he acknowledges God’s wisdom but in a way that questions what exactly He is up to.

Oh, Lord God! You yourself made the heavens and earth by your great power and with your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for you! 

Jeremiah 32:17, CSB

Jeremiah was called the “reluctant” prophet, and though He was always respectful and praised God, he often made it known to him that he didn’t quite get what He was doing. Much like Peter above, he would go on to say in that prayer quoted from Jeremiah the following:

Look! Siege ramps have come against the city to capture it, and the city, as a result of the sword, famine, and plague, has been handed over to the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you have spoken has happened. Look, you can see it! Yet you, Lord God, have said to me, ‘Purchase the field and call in witnesses’—even though the city has been handed over to the Chaldeans!”

Jeremiah 32: 24-25, CSB

Jeremiah is basically saying, “God, I know you’re all-powerful, but really, this doesn’t make any sense!” Kind of like Peter said above when trying to fish. Even though Peter didn’t understand Christ was the Messiah at the time, He still knew He was a very wise teacher and to anyone with intellect, what Christ asked him to do was bonkers.

However, and this is the best part out of the whole discussion with Jeremiah and God. God says in the next verse:

Look, I am the Lord, the God over every creature. Is anything too difficult for me?

Jeremiah 32: 27, CSB

He throws Jeremiah’s words right back at him. The answer, of course, is “no.” There is nothing too difficult for God. Later on, we will see because of Jeremiah’s obedience, he is treated extremely well by the Babylonians and is allowed to continue to live in Jerusalem when most people of importance were taken captive (and many times would be slaughtered).

What is the point of all this? That first quoted passage from Luke shows me one thing. That Jesus is God. Yes, Jesus lived a perfect life, died a perfect death, and was raised from the dead three days later. That doesn’t show me He is God. This simple discussion shows me He is God because he retains the personality of God. Even though Abraham, through Jeremiah, through Jesus himself, God shows he will always retain that upper hand and sometimes with a sarcastic smirk. It’s completely ok because that knowing smile is what a good father does. He believes in us and trusts that we will follow Him. He also knows that when we mess up (we will, whether by our own actions or due to mortal failings) that He will ALWAYS be right by us to catch us.

See, Christ wasn’t going to allow Peter to fail there; after all, He had plans for him. God has plans for all of us, and even though whatever we are going through doesn’t make sense or is just insane from a ground-level perspective, God has a way to work it out. And go ahead, ask him about it. He promises to show us “great and incomprehensible things that you do not know.” Just, as we’ve seen with the men listed, have faith and “In all your ways acknowledge Him.”