“For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear Him.”
In this passage the Hebrew word for “mercy” is “checed” (pronounced as “kheh-sed” and sometimes as “hesed”. It means favor, loving-kindness, compassion, and pity. (See Strongs #2617). Webster’s Dictionary points out that mercy is especially significant because it is extended to someone who is an “offender”, or “one who is “guilty” of a trespass and is “undeserving”! (Webster’s 9th Collegiate Dict. Page 743). To receive only a warning instead of a ticket from a Police Officer when we were guilty of speeding is mercy. To have a debt canceled that we obviously owed is mercy. To be forgiven when we know we were wrong is mercy. In each case, we were undeserving!
Scripture reminds us again and again of the mercy of God! We can only appreciate His mercy when we begin to understand His Holiness! The Lord is so Holy, so righteous, so pure and so removed from any possibility of sin that we cannot even begin to imagine it! Likewise, we are so unholy, so unrighteous and so impure and so corrupted by sin, that we had absolutely no hope of ever being accepted or received into His Holy Presence. (Exodus 33: 20; Rom.3:10; 23).
But the mercy of God is so great that when He saw us in our hopeless and helpless condition, He determined that He would do whatever it took to bring us to Himself! (John 3:16). The depth and height of such mercy are beyond our ability to understand fully! We who were once cut off and separated from this Holy God, have been washed and redeemed by the precious Blood of Jesus! (Eph. 2:12-13). Because of that Blood, we have been made holy and righteous in His sight! (2 Cor.5:21). We are now fully accepted and received by Him! Not only that but He has made us members of His very own family! We are now Sons and Daughters of the Most High God! That is true for everyone who has received Him, regardless of where He found us! As we ponder that, it should cause us to be ever humbly grateful for the mercy of God!
Rev. James W. Black
