Mercy in the Kingdom of God

“Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”  (Mat. 5:7)

God wants us to be merciful so that we can be blessed of Him.

Second Chronicles chapter six and verse 42 tells us,

“O LORD God, turn not away the face of thine anointed: remember the mercies of David thy servant.” (2Chron. 6:42)

The Bible teaches that David was a great example to us of how we ought to be merciful.

We can read in First Samuel chapter 24 verses one through eight and in First Samuel chapter 26 verses seven through 16 of how David was merciful unto Saul.

Twice David was in a position to thrust his spear into the heart of Saul and exact vengeance for himself.

David had the opportunity to kill the man who, for no reason, was chasing him and trying to kill him, but yet David was merciful. David said, “I will not touch God’s anointed”.

We can also read of David’s mercy in First Samuel the 25th chapter. These are the Scriptures referring to Abigail and her husband Nabal.

Nabal rightfully owed provisions to David’s men because they had protected Nabal’s servants while they were in the field.

However, Nabal mocked David’s men when David sent them to him and refused to give them the provisions they needed. David was furious and set out to destroy Nabal and all the men of his household.

Nabal’s wife Abigail was told of her husband’s foolish act so she loaded provisions and went to David to plead for his life. David saw the provisions and Abigail’s humility and decided to show mercy to Nabal for Abigail’s sake.

David committed Nabal unto God.

David committed Saul unto God.

And God wrought His sovereign vengeance on both Nabal and Saul in His time.

“Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” (Rom. 12:19)

Acts chapter 13 and verse 34 says,

“And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.” (Acts 13:34)

David was merciful and not only obtained mercy, but he obtained a promise from God that his descendent would sit upon his throne forever.

“The LORD hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne for evermore.” (Psalm 132:11-12)

God fulfilled this promise through David’s descendent Mary when she gave birth to Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Having mercy and being merciful are monumental in the eyes of God.

Galatians chapter six verses seven and eight says,

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” (Gal. 6:7-8)

What we plant we are going to reap. The Bible says “God is not mocked”. In other words, make no mistake about it. It does not matter how spiritual we think we may be.

What we sow we are going to reap.

Job was a merciful man. In Job chapter 42 and verse ten the Bible tells us,

“And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.” (Job 42:10)

Job was delivered when he prayed for others. When he offered sacrifices for the false comforters who had come against him, then he received his deliverance from God.

Jesus was merciful from the cross.

He said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Because of the mercy He showed to those who persecuted Him, tortured Him, and railed against Him, He received mercy as the Son of Man.

The mercy He received was the forgiveness of our sins.

In the Book of Zechariah we read,

“And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.”

“And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?”

“Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.”

“And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.”

“And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD stood by.”

“And the angel of the LORD protested unto Joshua, saying,”

“Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.” (Zech. 3:1-7)

In these Scriptures found in the Book of Zechariah, we are reading a prophetic vision which the prophet had of Jesus Christ standing before the Heavenly Father after His ascension into heaven.

We know that there was a Joshua that returned from captivity and was a High Priest in the Old Testament, but the Bible also tells us that Jesus Christ is a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

This is a perfect example of the apparent meaning of Scripture and the revealed meaning of Scripture.

To fully understand this portion of Scripture, we need to understand that the Hebrew word for Joshua is the same for Jesus: Yeshua.

Since Jesus said,

“And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” (John 3:13)

These Scriptures are not referring to any Joshua from the Old Testament, but here the word of God in prophecy is talking about Jesus Christ as He ascended from the depths of hell and came before God the Father clothed in the filthy rags of our sins.

“And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?”

After Jesus Christ had risen from the dead, He appeared to Mary and said, “Touch me not for I have not yet ascended unto my Father.” (John 20:17) Jesus could not allow Mary to touch Him for He still had the sin of the world upon His body.

He had to go and have the filthy spiritual garments removed. He had to be given the robes of righteousness to replace the filthy rags of our sins once they were taken away.

In the verse where the Lord says, “Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee”, He is talking about our iniquity. The Bible says that Jesus knew no sin, therefore He had no iniquity.

Jesus Christ was without sin, spotless, and blameless.

However, the Bible says

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2Cor. 5:21)

The filthy garments that were upon Him and the iniquity that was upon Him were our sins and iniquity which He took upon Himself at the cross of Calvary.

There He made the atonement for us. The Greek word for “atonement” is katallage (pronounced kat-al-lag-ay’) which means “the exchange”.

This is why Jesus had to be separated from the Father and had to die a spiritual death.

What is spiritual death? It is being separated from God.

This is why in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus was in agony, not over the physical death, but he was agonizing over the spiritual death of being separated from the Father, something He had never known since the beginning.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

In the garden Jesus was praying “Father, if there be any other way let this cup pass from me.” He was sweating as it were “great drops of blood”, not because of the physical death he was going to endure but in anticipation of the spiritual death that he was going to endure.

The Bible says, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:20)

The death this verse is talking about is spiritual separation from God, something that Christ had never known. Even before he came to this earth and was born in a manger, Christ had always been with the Father.

That is why He was in terrible agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

In Zechariah chapter three verse five the Lord said “Let them set a fair mitre upon his head”, meaning a “crown” or a “diadem”, signifying His restoration as the King of Heaven.

The angel was given a charge to speak unto Joshua or Jesus. He was speaking to the body of Christ. This is the charge given to the spiritual body of Christ. This is the charge given to us as Christians.

He says,

“Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.” (Zech. 3:7)

The Bible says we shall judge the house of God. The Bible says we shall rule and reign as kings and priests with God. The Bible says “if you will walk in my ways”, and this is what we are talking about: walking in the ways of God.

We are talking about keeping the principles of the kingdom of God.

Tomorrow- The 3 “P’s” of Kingdom Living

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