The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in James 2:13,
"Mercy triumphs over judgment!"
It seems to me that the instinct for self-preservation is built into the very fabric of life, all of life. One reason suicide is so bewildering is that this basic instinct is violated or overcome at times by a sense of desperation, whether due to discouragement, depression or whatever. So intense is this instinct, that death, something we are all bound for, is perhaps the greatest terror for many. We do not want to give up our lives to an event we really know very little of. We certainly can't imagine giving up something we are dependent upon, intimate with and is the very vehicle we relate to this life through: our bodies. And, having given up our body to the grave, what of that which remains? How does our conscious existence continue... does it continue? How does that happen if we are disembodied?
Short of death, that instinct for self-preservation is found in efforts we make to preserve whatever it is we have garnered in this life. We certainly do not wish to loose that which we have worked hard for. And certainly, none of us want to fade into obscurity or become inconsequential. Good health, financial stability, good friends, the tools for succeeding in life, all these become a part of our lives we seek to preserve... and yet, all of these are the very things we sense as hanging in the balance as we make our way through this life. In the back of our minds is that lingering reality that one day, all of us in this life will go to the grave alone and leave all these things behind.
Here is an excruciatingly depressing thought from the wisest man that ever lived, "A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded. Though it never saw the sun or knew anything, it has more rest than does that man— even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?" Ecclesiastes 6:3-6. He follows this up with the thought, "For who knows what is good for a man in life, during the few and meaningless days he passes through like a shadow? Who can tell him what will happen under the sun after he is gone?" Verse 12.
Morbid and depressing, yet this is exactly what life holds. We live this life in a world struggling under the full weight of God's judgment for just a short time and then leave it all behind. The basic instinct built into our lives for self-preservation struggles to even acknowledge this reality, let alone embrace it. After all, how would one cope if a man's day is filled with this basic instinct in full combat with an acknowledgment that it will one day be crushed to nothing? Where does one turn for solace and relief? Where does man go for hope in such a hopeless state of things? The mercy of God!
It is in this very darkness of the judgment and death of this life that we find the glorious light of God's mercy that shines so brightly. I am reminded of Isaiah 9:2, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." This great piercing light is the expression of God's great mercy in the person of his Son Jesus Christ. "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
It is through Jesus Christ that God's mercy triumphs over his judgment! From James' perspective, our ability to express mercy manifests we have experience God's mercy ourselves, and his mercy triumphs over judgment! It is in Jesus Christ that eternal life is found. It is in him that we have a bright and exciting future where the concern for self-preservation becomes a long lost nightmare from a world we have been delivered from. Fulfillment of all we were designed for in life, not in death, becomes ours as we enter into the resurrection. Here is the true measure of God's great mercy: we deserve eternal death for sin, but in his wonderful love he has made a way for us, a way into his family through Jesus Christ!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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