Years ago, I learned a song from a friend, from the Book of Habakkuk...Hab 3:2
"LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy."
As a child, raised on the stories of Jesus, I was always amused at the befuddlement of the disciples - not understanding and, later, not believing things too wonderful for them to imagine and things that, later, would become too mundane for me. It was not until college that it began to sink in that Jesus' disciples did not have my benefit of 2,000 years of 20-20 hindsight.
The Old Testament stories, too, amused me as a young Christian. The Jews, after experiencing wonders and miracles galore, so quickly fell into idolatry and wandering. Even Moses, a Prophet, Priest, and King who would - for many - foreshadow Jesus, not only was not allowed to enter the promised due to a fit of rage (footnote - Phil Wyman
But as I got older, I realized how difficult it is, trapped in space and time, to dwell in the presence of He who has infiltrated my heart in the divine conspiracy 24-7 and how easy it is to betray, fail, rage, and be unmerciful. Ultimately, the stories of both Easter and Passover are just that: Grace and, most of all, Mercy...
2 comments:
Passover may be grace, but not mercy, IMHO.
...But the story continues. Passover is wrath and it is intended that we all identify both as not only the Egyptians but also the Israelites who, after witnessing the greatest of miracles, like we all do, quickly forgot...
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7 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.'
9 "I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation."
11 But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. "O LORD," he said, "why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.' " 14 Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
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Remember, and to your point, the "mercy" shown Israel was not by good things they had done, but by grace...
"Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people..."
More later on, "we are all predestined for perfection..." -- not what the title may "suggest..." - and how mercy often follows grace (and vice versa...)
;-)
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