Mercy – Page 5 – The Nexus

“And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.” (ESV – Read the chapter)

Manasseh’s story should give us a great deal of hope. He was the most evil and overtly pagan of any of the kings to rule over Judah. He essentially took his father Hezekiah’s legacy and turned it on its head. If there was some practice that would offend the Lord, he jumped into it with both feet. He led the whole nation astray and primed the pump for terrible judgment. Read the rest…

“O Lord our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.” (ESV – Read the chapter)

One of the things that can be so frustrating about the Scriptures is that over and over they take two ideas which seem to be contradictory, declare them both to be true, and, rather than resolving the tension, simply leave it in place.

Some examples of this would be divine sovereignty and human responsibility, Jesus’ full humanity and full divinity, and the three-persons and one-person nature of the Trinity. Right here we see another tension. The psalmist declares God to be both a forgiver of sins, but also an avenger of wrongdoings. Read the rest…

Tag: Mercy

Morning Musings: 2 Chronicles 33:12-13

Morning Musings: Psalm 99:8