Justice and Mercy
Before I write what I originally came here to write, you may be wondering: where have you been? If this is your first time reading my blog, then probably not, haha. But if you’ve been here before, as the kids nowadays say, life has been lifing—“BUT GOD.”
Some phrases can often seem shallow, but that one? There is depth to it.
On every front, it has felt like life has been turning upside down. But it has caused me to run to God like never before—to lean on Him, delight in Him, abide in Him. You name it. I have grown in really seeing the worth of simply having Jesus.
I join Paul in saying, ‘I count all things as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord’ (Philippians 3:8).
But anyway, life has been so busy that I honestly haven’t had the time to write. Today is truly the first day when not only did the idea for something to write come to mind, but the will to actually do it followed. So, here I am.
Lately, I’ve been reading through the prophets as part of my two-year Whole Bible Plan, where you read both the Old and New Testament, and as of late, I’ve been in Ezekiel.
However, can I admit something?
The prophets are really hard for me.
I have found myself struggling to keep up with the plan, and most weeks I tend to be a day or two behind. Some of it is, again, the busyness of life, but some of it has to do with how daunting the prophets can seem to me—especially when there is so much prophecy and visions.
So, alongside my bible plan, I’ve also been reading this Christ in All of Scripture commentary, which has been sooo helpful.
For a little bit of context, Ezekiel is a prophet speaking to a people in the midst of exile because of their sin. God had taken them from nothing, loved them, saved them, provided for them—and yet they turned to trusting in idols instead of their God. Over and over again.
Because God is both just and merciful, judgment was coming. Yet, in His mercy, He sent prophet after prophet to speak to His people.
Ezekiel, as one of those prophets, was often told by God to enact the coming judgment. Some of the things God instructed him to do seemed CRAZY. I’ll leave that up to you to read for yourself.
[One sidebar that is worth mentioning is that whenever the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, he was constantly called “son of man.”
Any time I read that, I can’t help but think of Christ. Though He was the Son of God, another title for Him was also the Son of Man.
But Jesus didn’t merely enact God’s judgment.
He took it on! End of sidebar.]
So, with all of that in mind, let me take you back to Day 611 of my plan, which had me in Ezekiel 16 and Luke 14:1–14. For this blog, I’ll be focusing on the verses and commentary below:
Ezekiel 16:59–63
The LORD’s Everlasting Covenant
[59] “For thus says the Lord GOD: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, [60] yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. [61] Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and I give them to you as daughters, but not on account of the covenant with you. [62] I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD, [63] that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord GOD.” (ESV)
“Ezek. 16:59–63 In light of God’s unrelenting indictment of the Israelites, verse 60 comes as a shock to the reader. Verse 59 sounds like a continuation of judgment, but then—completely unexpectedly—God declares, ‘yet I will remember my covenant with you . . . and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant.’ Why does God show this grace to the Israelites, especially in light of their sin against him? It is not because they deserve his kindness. Verse 61 makes that clear. No, it is simply because he loves them, and therefore he determines to maintain his faithfulness to his covenant by everlasting commitment to his people in spite of their faithlessness.”
“The word ‘yet’ in verse 60 defibrillates our hearts with gospel grace. Following everything God has said to this point in the book, the word ‘yet’ is not a rational word. It is not logical. It does not come because of a considered argument, but rather solely and completely because of love. There is no reason for God to save and restore Israel, no reason for him to establish his covenant into eternity with them. And yet he does so anyway!
The same is true of the good news that Jesus saves sinners. Not one of us deserves God’s love. Rather, ‘God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom. 5:8). Our entire eternity rests on the fact that God—in inexplicable and astonishing love for us—looked on our sin and said, ‘Yet!’ (cf. Rom. 3:21; Eph. 2:4; Titus 3:4).”
— ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible
What a God!
What I’ve been amazed by, with refreshed eyes, is the mercy of God speaking to a people He knows wouldn’t listen.
So far in Ezekiel, He has referred to Israel as those who:
Whore with idols and images of men (Ezekiel 16:16–17)
Faithlessly act (Ezekiel 15:8)
Have taken idols into their hearts and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces (Ezekiel 14:2)
Falsely prophesy from their own hearts (Ezekiel 13:2–3)
Are a rebellious house (Ezekiel 12:24–25)
Have not walked in the Lord’s statutes or obeyed His rules, but have walked as the nations around them (Ezekiel 11:12)
And that’s just to name a few things.
There is so much more that could be said about Israel, but let’s make it personal.
What can be said of us? You and me?
I don’t know about you, but I know my sins all too well. And I no longer read this list and think too highly of myself or that I am somehow any better.
I may not create images, but I am guilty of idolatry—putting other things before God.
I am guilty of acting faithlessly.
I am guilty. Period.
And so I see myself with the Israelites on level ground. Do you?
Romans 3:22b–26 says:
“There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”
Do you see God’s justice and mercy?
It has been so evident to me as I’ve been going through the prophets again and therefore worth pressing into. Let’s be honest, it can be hard to read through all the judgment, and yet it reminds us of the holiness of God.
The analogy I always like to use when I’m trying to share the gospel with people is that of a judge.
If we had an earthly judge who simply let a guilty person go free, we’d be up in arms. We would scream, “Injustice!” And rightfully so.
How much more just is a God who not only sees all things, but knows the intentions of our hearts and our thoughts?
And YET, He made a way through Christ.
In the Old Testament, all the lambs they sacrificed and all the ceremonial laws foreshadowed what was to come in Christ.
The spotless Lamb, without sin, came not to excuse or overlook our sins—as some would say—but to bear them!
And that’s what makes mercy so sweet and, honestly, makes God worthy of every inch of me.
Not because I could earn anything—I could never—but because I am thankful for the lengths He went to—to save me.
Therefore, all I desire to say with my life is:
Thank You, Jesus.
