“Sow for yourself according to righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God); reap according to mercy and loving-kindness. Break up your uncultivated ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, to inquire for and of Him, and to require his favour, till he comes and teaches you righteousness and rains His righteous gift of salvation upon you.” Hosea 10:12 (Amplified)
If it could be said that any man does not deserve God’s mercy, the person that fitted the bill more than most was the man Manasseh. He was the extremely wicked king of Judah who provoked God’s anger and judgement more than any king, but who later turned from His wicked ways after God had brought him down a few notches by engineering a life-changing confrontation with him. He spent the latter part of his life trying to undo the damage he had done and worshipping God at the same time. For more of his story, read 2 Chr 33:1-20. Mercy is defined as God not giving us what we deserve as exemplified by the life of Manasseh. It was a classical case of God’s mercy triumphing over His inclination to judge in His desire to prove His power in our lives.
The law of action and reaction or cause and effect is quite clear to many of us as we have to obey them in our daily lives. For example, if you drink and drive and are caught, you should expect sanction. If you break a contract, you are expected to pay a penalty etc. According to our anchor passage, the effect of seeking God as we sow in righteousness is the reaping of His mercy. This means that God would choose to forgo the punishment due to our sinning and in its place bless us. In other words, God will choose to suspend the original law of cause and effect i.e. sin equals judgement, and replace it with His forgiveness and blessing. Therefore, mercy functions by actively displacing God’s anger due to sin and replacing it with His blessing. Mercy and grace work hand-in-hand. If mercy is God not giving us what we evidently deserve, grace is the opposite. It is God’s unmerited favour. It is God giving us what we do not deserve and can never earn on our merit.
So, what does this mean for us? It means that our act of conscientiously seeking God can only have but one effect; it will attract God’s favour into our lives and displace His inclination to judge us. How would we know that we have God’s favour? Well, according to Isa 61:1-3, God’s Spirit will alight on us to preach the Gospel, heal the broken hearted, proclaim liberty to the captives and give sight to the blind – spiritual and physical. More than ever, we need God to move in our lives and world as He declares His year of favour in response to our heartfelt prayers and intercession for our land. We need God to bless and heal lives and relationships. We need God to touch the modern equivalents of Manasseh that are terrorising our world. We need His kingdom to come right here and right now. We need the overflow of His grace and mercy in our world. You can make that happen by going on your knees and calling on God in righteous prayer. This is the time to call on God so that His mercy might indeed triumph over His inclination to judge our sins. Do not delay; get praying.
Prayer:
Lord, I come before your throne room of grace to seek your mercy not only for myself, but also for the world in which I live. Father, let your mercy overshadow me as you rain your righteous gift of salvation in its different form down on the world. In your wrath O Lord, remember mercy in Jesus name. Amen.