Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Leniency (04/18/24)
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TITLE: A God of Everlasting Leniency | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lakella Davenport
04/23/24 -
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Isaiah 55:8-9- “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Aren’t you glad we serve a merciful God? It is good to know that our eternal fate is not left in the hands of mankind. If final judgment was up to us, a lot of our fellow brothers and sisters would be sentenced to eternal damnation. It is not up to us to separate the wheat from the tares. “He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, wilt thou then we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn,” (Matthew 13:28-30).
John 3:17 states: “For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” The Bible clearly illustrates the depth of God’s mercy toward mankind. His mercy is illustrated in both the Old and New Testaments. My first example comes from Matthew chapter nine verses 10-13. “And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,” (Matthew 9: 10-13). Jesus’ thoughts toward the publicans and sinners were totally different from the Pharisees thoughts toward them.
Another example of the Lord’s mercy is found in Luke chapter 22 verses 49-52, when the “chief priests, and captains of the temple and elders,” had come to take Jesus to the high priest to put him on trial before his crucifixion. “When they which were about him saw what would follow, they said unto him, Lord shall we smite with the sword? And one of them smote the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. And Jesus answered and said, suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear and healed him,” (Luke 22: 49-51). His ways are not our ways. Jesus healed someone who intended to have him killed and crucified. When this incident occurred Jesus told his disciples, “ Put up again thy sword into his place: for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword,” Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:52-53).
Another example illustrating our savior’s mercy can be found in Luke chapter 9, verses 51-56, when Jesus had decided to go to Jerusalem, but he wanted to get ready for his trip in a village of the Samaritans. However, the Samaritans of the village rejected Jesus coming into their village and did not receive him. “And it came to pass when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his face: and they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples, James and John saw this, they said, Lord wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village,” (Luke 9: 51-56).
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,” (2 Peter 3:9).
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