Tuesday, May 26, 2020

When Mercy Outweighs Justice

 
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Psalm 99:6-9

Moses and Aaron were among his priests; Samuel also called on his name.  They cried to the Lord for help, and he answered them.  He spoke to Israel from the pillar of cloud, and they followed the laws and decrees he gave them.  O Lord our God, you answered them.  You were a forgiving God to them, but you punished them when they went wrong.  Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain in Jerusalem, for the Lord our God is holy!

The seed of arrogance grows best in the darkness of unbelief.  When a person closes eyes to the truth of God’s sovereignty there springs a limitless list of possibilities to ignorance and chaos.  In short, there’s dumb; there’s also dumber.
In the 1994 movie Dumb and Dumber[1] Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels take the character of “dumb” to new levels.  One scene’s focus shows Carrey attempting to blot out whatever his dumb partner (played by Jeff Daniels) is saying.  He sticks his fingers in his ears and loudly debates, na, na, na, na, na, na, Naaaaah!  That he blots out what Daniels is saying is true, he can’t hear it; that he makes what is real unreal, is, contrarywise, only what a fool would believe.
It is that way with fools shaking a clenched fist at the sky to proclaim (as the mind of fools is want to believe) that no God has the right to meddle in human’s lives; it says so right in our 244 year old Declaration of Independence.  A rather older source (by a mere 4,000 years) refutes that thinking.

Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!  Psalm 14:1[2]

There are so many moving parts to living as a human being.  Just breathing in and out, although we do it without thinking, would take a city of libraries to do even the slightest bit of justice to how magnificently the respiratory system conducts the orchestra of life’s miracle.  The fool somehow imagines he evolved into that because of some innate strength for which he or she alone can take credit.  Eyeroll intended!
If breathing is that incredible, yet everyone does it over 21,000 a day, what if we tried to fathom such things as reproduction, DNA, and human relationships?  Well, then you get really mind-boggled.
And, so, let me get to the point (before I don’t) – when life falls apart because of bad choices, like ingesting nicotine into really pink, healthy lungs, or eating yourself into a stupor, or imagining in any of 6 billion ways you can thumb your nose at how God designed life to be joyful, non-anxious, purposeful, and filled with joy, thinking you can do a better job…you’re sitting in the front seat of the pickup truck with Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, sticking your fingers in your ear and blotting out truth.
The Good News is that, for anyone who will unstop their ears from hearing, repent of unbelief, and trust in God’s mercy – that mercy far outweighs the justice that can lead to a fool’s demise.
Let’s Pray
Father, forgive us each for taking our turns with blotting out the truth; your voice calls in soft whispers; help us to be still, open the ears of our hearts, and listen.

For You Today

It helps to remember that it IS possible to blot-out truth; that doesn’t mean you’ve won the debate; God’s truth is eternal and unbreakable[3].
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!
Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For another post on Psalm 99 see The Case for Worship


[2] A search for the connection between fools and the human heart shows how strongly God feels about this

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