Growing with God: A daily devotional with Tonia Slimm.
Isaiah 48:9 (NIV)
“For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath; for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you, so as not to destroy you completely.”
Isaiah 48:9 (MSG)
“But out of the sheer goodness of my heart, because of who I am, I keep a tight rein on my anger and hold my temper. I don’t wash my hands of you.”
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“For the sake of My Name I refrain from My wrath, and for My praise I restrain Myself from you, so that I do not cut you off.” -AMPLIFIED
“In God’s mercy, we experience the goodness of God that withholds what we really deserve – judgment and death. In God’s grace, we experience the goodness of God that gives us what we really don’t deserve – forgiveness and life.” ~Gary Rohrmayer
God has been speaking to Judah. Yesterday’s text ended with Him informing Judah that they have been rebellious since birth.
“They are created now, brand new today, not long ago! You’ve never heard of them before now,
so you cannot say, ‘Oh, I already knew about that.’ You have never heard nor understood;
your ear had not been opened beforehand. Though I knew that you would fight against me
as a rebel from birth…” -Isaiah 48:7-8 (The Passion Translation)
God has been angry with Judah, but we find He holds that anger in check. We need to remember that Adonai is a God of mercy. Mercy is part of His character make-up, and He cannot change who He is. In Hebrew mercy is “rachamim”, if comes from the root word “racham”, which means, to love deeply, to have compassion, or pity. God’s response to Judah’s rebellious heart, even though He is angry with them, is one of mercy.
“On account of My reputation, I hold back my anger; for My own weighty grandeur, I am patient with you, so that I don’t make an absolute break with you.” -(VOICE)
God, through Isaiah, tells Judah that they are fortunate that He did not release His full anger against them. For if He had chosen to do so, He would have destroyed them. Instead, He held a tight rein on His anger. He was patient with them, for He is El Rachamim, the God of Mercy.
God shows Judah, and all of Israel, mercy. Mercy that they did not deserve. Why would He do that? In order to preserve His own reputation. He did this for His Name’s sake, for His own glory and praise.
“Yet for my own sake and for the honor of my name I will hold back my anger and not wipe you out.” -(TLB)
“For My name’s sake I will defer My anger: Knowing how deeply sinful His people are, why would the LORD ever show mercy to His people? He does it for His name’s sake. It isn’t because Israel deserves mercy; indeed, mercy can never be deserved. God gives it to glorify Himself and to further His eternal purpose.” ~David Guzik
David reminds us that God remembers that we are but dust. In Psalm 103 David wrote:
“Thankfully, God does not punish us for our sins and depravity as we deserve.
In His mercy, He tempers justice with peace.
Measure how high heaven is above the earth;
God’s wide, loving, kind heart is greater for those who revere Him.
You see, God takes all our crimes—our seemingly inexhaustible sins—and removes them.
As far as east is from the west, He removes them from us.
An earthly father expresses love for his children;
it is no different with our heavenly Father;
The Eternal shows His love for those who revere Him.
For He knows what we are made of;
He knows our frame is frail, and He remembers we came from dust.” -Psalm 103:10-14 (VOICE)
The Apostle Paul, writing to the church in Ephesus, reminds us of God’s great mercy and love. In fact, Paul writes that in His mercy, God took us out of a life of sin and disobedience, and has allowed us to become part of His family. All this was possible, not because of what we could do for Him, but because of His great love for us. Paul wrote:
“It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.” -Ephesians 2:1-10 (MSG)
In the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah reminds us that God’s mercies are new every morning. Hallelujah! His mercies will never run out. Our hope is in His faithfulness and mercy. Jeremiah writes:
“This I recall to my heart—therefore I have hope:
Because of the mercies of Adonai we will not be consumed, for His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning! Great is Your faithfulness.
“Adonai is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.” -Lamentations 3:21-24 (Tree of Life Version)
“When after all our work and struggles here on earth are over, and we finally reach the New Jerusalem, what right will we have to be there? Didn’t we, because of our sin, take part in that unholy rebellion that tried to dethrone the King of Glory? Didn’t we, in the past, walk in compliance with the course of this world, affirming the prince of the power of the air, that evil spirit that continues to work in the sons of disobedience? Didn’t we all live to satisfy the appetites of our flesh? Weren’t we by nature, children of wrath, just like the rest of humanity? But we one-time enemies of God who were alienated from Him will see God face to face, and His name will be on our foreheads. Though we earned banishment, we will enjoy communion. Though we deserve the pains of hell, we will enjoy the bliss of heaven. All of this will happen because of the tender mercies of our God given to us in the Messiah.” ~Rabbi Loren Jacobs
My friend, but for the mercy of God we all would be lost. Let us be grateful for His goodness and mercy extended to us. He loves us so much. Because of His great love for us, He provided the way for us to be made right with Him, it is only through accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord. Such amazing mercy and love.
“God’s mercies are new every morning. Receive them.” ~Max Lucado
My Prayer:
Adonai–Tzva’ot, God Almighty, thank you for your mercy. I am so grateful that you made a way for me to be counted as one of your family. You made a way when there was no other way. You showed me mercy when I did not deserve mercy. You loved me despite my rebellious heart. And I cannot tell you how fortunate and thankful I am. Lord, I am so blessed, and I am forever in your debt. Thank you for your love and mercy, which is fresh and new every morning. I love you, El Rachamim, God of Mercy.
Growing with God 