7. Learning in the School of Ezra: Convinced of God’s Mercy

7. Learning in the School of Ezra: Convinced of God’s Mercy.

“When the builders laid the foundation of the Temple of the Lord, the priests in their robes and carrying trumpets, the Levites with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord, as David king of Israel had instructed. They sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord Yahweh, saying, ‘For He is good, and His mercy (“hesed”) continues forever toward Israel.” (Ezra 3:10-11).

Hesed = the Hebrew word for mercy, and is often translated as lovingkindness, indicating a steadfast love, covenant faithfulness, unfailing loyalty, love-in-action. Hesed has so many dimensions that it is much easier to describe than define. Hesed may be the most important word in the Hebrew Bible, because it is considered a summary word for all of God’s character traits, the driving force behind all He does. There is no one translation of hesed that is perfect or says it all. Hesed is used 26 times in the classic Psalm 136 in order to focus on God’s continued and unwavering mercy and patience due to His eternally faithful lovingkindness. Hesed is a covenant word, a relationship word, and celebrates God’s commitment to remaining true to his merciful promises out of sheer love. “Hesed” is used over 120 times in the book of Psalms alone, and a grand total of 250 times in the Hebrew Bible.

“It is better to limit belief in God’s power than to dampen faith in God’s mercy. Between mercy and power, mercy takes precedence. And to the mercy of heaven there is no limit… Beyond all mystery is the mercy of God. It is a love that transcends the world. To live by such a love, to reflect it, however numbly, is the test of religious existence.” (Abraham Joshua Heschel).

Descriptions of Mercy: Eager love-in-action; steadfast kindness; loyal compassion; faithful favor; generous grace; the ardent desire to do good to someone; a completely undeserved lovingkindness; an affectionate love that goes beyond what is expected, above and beyond, free of charge, no strings attached; the generous love reserved for someone in an intimate relationship, and if there is no prior relationship, the strong desire to treat someone as if that relationship existed.

Mercy is the Centerpiece of God’s Self-Identity. When at the base of Mt. Sinai, Moses asked God if he could see God’s glory. (Exodus 33:19). The Lord Yahweh responded by saying that He would pass before Moses, but he would not be allowed to see His “face,” only His backside. The Glory is too overwhelming for humans who are not equipped to experience a consuming fire quite yet. Yahweh told Moses that He will cause all His “goodness” to pass before Moses, and that in Moses’ presence He will pronounce His holy Name. Goodness is usually a synonym for mercy, because God’s goodness is revealed through His mercy. So Moses ascended Mt. Sinai to meet God at the top, and Yahweh descended in a cloud and stood there with Moses. Only God can accurately name Himself, and here we see the Lord pronouncing His sacred Name… “God passed before Moses and proclaimed, “I AM Yahweh! I AM Yahweh! A God who is compassionate and gracious, longsuffering and slow to anger, abounding in mercy (hesed) and truth, preserving mercy (hesed) for thousands of generations, forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin, but by no means clearing the guilty or allowing sin to go unpunished.” (Exodus 34:6-7). What a singular moment! The Almighty God, the Great I AM, describes His Name, His identity. He is revealing to Moses how He sees Himself in His Essence. What a turning point in history! The Lord of the universe chooses to reveal Himself in utter transparency to a human being! ‘You want to know what I am made of, Moses, the Lord is saying, then this is how I describe my character, these are my core attributes. Yes, I am the great LORD, and this is Me in a nutshell… rich in mercy, compassion, grace, forgiveness. That is truly who I am, Moses!’ At the very end of this historical self-description, God reminds Moses (and all of us) that He is Lord of a moral universe, that there is such a thing as right and wrong, and He has established an ultimate system of justice. God’s statement about justice and moral accountability, interestingly enough, seems to have been made in the context of mercy and forgiveness, of compassion and grace. So it appears that if God’s will springs out of God’s core character, His will must be mercy.

Ezra and Hesed. Apart from David himself, there is probably no other Biblical character who is so intimately convinced of hesed, of God’s mercy. Ezra composed the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, and all his books contain what became the national motto of Israel that was first declared in Scripture by Ezra in 1 Chronicles 16:34, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy (hesed) endures forever!” Ezra was the first Biblical author to coin that vital phrase in Jewish history, who did the impossible by putting God’s character in a nutshell, and he seemed to be referring directly to God’s self-revelation in Exodus 34:6-7 cited above. But that was just the first time that Ezra focused on hesed, on God’s mercy and covenant lovingkindness. Other nods to hesed by Ezra include: 1 Chronicles 16:41; 1 Chronicles 17:13; 2 Chronicles 6:14; 2 Chronicles 5:13; 2 Chronicles 7:3; 2 Chroniclers 7:6; 2 Chronicles 20:21; Nehemiah 1:5; Nehemiah 9:17; Nehemiah 9:32; and Nehemiah 13:22. Ezra was all hesed, all the time.

Follow the Leader. Once Ezra started the mercy train down the tracks with his hesed formula, it picked up steam as it made its way through the Hebrew Bible, and the motto “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good and His mercy (hesed) endures forever” can be found in heroes of the faith like:

David: Psalm 86:15; 103:7-10; 145:8-9.

Jehoshaphat: 2 Chronicles 26:21

Jeremiah: Jeremiah 33:11

Joel: Joel 2:13

Jonah: Jonah 4:2

Hidden in Plain Sight. “The earth, O Lord, is full of your mercy (hesed)! (Ps. 119:64). Really? As we take a look around us in this world, what do we see a lot of… cruelty, revenge, unforgiveness, injustice, hard hearts. That’s right, the opposite of mercy. And yet, and yet, Scripture says that the whole earth is overflowing with God’s mercy. Is that a fact? Yes! Creation was motivated by mercy, handmade in mercy, and is sustained by mercy. There is mercy shown every day by God in every breath we take, and sparks of mercy are demonstrated daily by people all around us. On the one hand, the world is filled with violence and hatred. On the other hand, the earth is saturated with hesed, the faithful, unfailing lovingkindness of God. In a rough and tumble world, God demonstrates that tender is the new tough, weak is the new strong, love is the most enduring. It may seem unlikely at times, but as light conquers darkness, and grace outmaneuvers sin, mercy overcomes unmercy, overshadows it at every turn. Every inch of nature is a mercy, every act of goodness, every morsel of truth, every glimpse of beauty. In fact, it is God’s mercy that enables us to enjoy anything at all. Let faith open our eyes to see God’s mercy in every step, every sunrise, around every corner. Acknowledge the omnipresence of mercy every day. Mercy abounds. The whole earth is full of His mercy. Ezra confidently trusted in God’s hesed, he was captivated by it. Ezra was heroic in his belief in the Lord’s hesed. Ezra was fully convinced of the truth of the psalmist, “The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His mercy (hesed).” (Ps. 33:5).

THOUGHTS AND VERSES ON MERCY:

1. “Without the word ‘mercy,’ the Bible is a dead book in which there is no revelation of God at all.”

“Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”  (Micah 7:18-19)

2. “The root of all of God’s activity in this world, beginning even with the world’s creation, is Mercy.”

“The Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world… For a child has been born to us, and authority has settled on his shoulders. He has been named ‘The Mighty God is Planning Grace; The Eternal Father, a Peaceable Ruler.’ O LORD, You are my God; I will extol you, I will praise Your Name. For You planned graciousness of old, counsels of steadfast faithfulness.” (Rev. 13:8; Isaiah 9:5 and 25:1; Tanakh version)

3. “Mercy is the cause and reason of all that God does. God does nothing, absolutely nothing, except as an expression of His Mercy.”

“I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my Name… ‘The LORD! The LORD! A God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and faithfulness, in mercy and truth, extending kindness and preserving mercy to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin.” (Exodus 33:19, 34:6-7)

4. “His Mercy stretches out to both extremes of infinity. All we will ever discover of God will be the deepening levels of His great, abundant, overflowing, rich, endless Mercy.”

“I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth.” (Psalm 108:3-5)

5. “When we deal with God, everything is Mercy. Everything else that can be said of God is but an aspect of His Mercy.”

“Though he was in the form of God, he did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at. Rather, he emptied himself and took the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men. He was known to be of human estate, and it was thus that he humbled himself, obediently accepting even death, death on a cross! (Philippians 2:6-8)

6. “‘For His Mercy endures forever’ lies under each line of Holy Scripture, and is the eternal song of the saints.”

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving; go into His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and call upon His Name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; His faithfulness endures from age to age.” (Psalm 100:3-4)

7. “It is better to limit belief in God’s power than to dampen faith in God’s mercy. Between mercy and power, mercy takes precedence – and to the mercy of Heaven there is no limit.”

“The Lord’s mercies never cease, His compassions never fail. They are renewed every morning. Great is your faithfulness! The Lord is my portion, He is all I have, therefore I have hope in Him.” (Lamentations 3:21-24)

8. “Mercy is the defining explanation of everything that God has revealed of Himself. Mercy is the explanation of every single thought that God has with respect to us.”

“‘I beseech you, Lord,’ he prayed, ‘is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I fled at first to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in lovingkindness, loathe to punish.” (Jonah 4:2)

9. “Mercy rather than justice is regarded as the outstanding attribute of God.”

“Rend your hearts rather than your garments, and turn back to the Lord your God. For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in kindness, and renouncing punishment.” (Joel 2:13)

10. “Beyond all mystery is the mercy of God. It is a love, a mercy that transcends the world, its value and merit. To live by such a love, to reflect it, however numbly, is the test of religious existence.”

“We are only on the outer fringes of Your works! How faint the whisper we hear of You! I am unworthy – How can I reply to You? I put my hand over my mouth. Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.” (Job 26:14, 40:4, 42:36)

11. “The encounter with God’s Mercy, a celebration of God’s sustained and abundant Mercy, is the root of all Christian worship.”

“The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: ‘He is good; His mercy endures forever.’ Then the temple of the Lord was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.” (2 Chron. 5:13-14).

[Quotes, Bold Italics: #1 is Brother Rex Andrews from his book What the Bible Teaches About Mercy; #7 (Heavenly Torah), and #9 (A Passion for Truth), and #10 (God in Search of Man) are from Abraham Joshua Heschel; all the remaining quotes are from Rev. Patrick Henry Reardon’s book Christ in the Psalms. Italics: Verses from Holy Scripture, various translations].

God’s Mercy and Man’s Mercy. Man’s mercy is stingy, conditional, inconsistent, tends to be self-serving, and often depends on the worthiness of the person being shown ‘mercy.’ Man’s mercy includes words like inexcusable, unforgivable, irredeemable, disgraceful. But God’s mercy is the opposite of all that, and is nothing even remotely like man’s mercy. God’s mercy and man’s mercy are like night and day… No, it’s even more different than that. God’s mercy and man’s mercy is infinitely distant from each other. God shows mercy in an infinitely different way than man. God’s quality of mercy is a universe apart from man’s mercy. God is infinitely more merciful than man, so much so that man cannot even hope to understand the depths of God’s mercy, unless you are looking at Jesus. God’s mercy is beyond human comprehension, but because of Jesus is now up close and personal. God’s lovingkindness breaks the mold, and now, since we’ve seen it in action through Christ, we can confidently thirst for that mercy in a world that often seems devoid of authentic love.

“On the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works, I will meditate. They shall speak of the might of Your awesome deeds, and I will declare Your greatness. They shall pour forth the fame of Your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. Lord Yahweh is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness. The Lord is good to all, and His steadfast love is over all that He has made.” (Psalm 145:5-9).