"showing mercy to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments" (Exodus 20:6).
In
there, among the Ten Commandments, there's the word, "mercy" - what a
wonderful word! What a wonderful thought - God is merciful. He does not
look upon us in our sin. He looks upon us in His Son, our Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He looks at Jesus - dying on the Cross. He sees
Jesus, bearing our sin - and He sees us, receiving Jesus' salvation. "In
my place, condemned He stood. Hallelujah! What a Saviour!" - This is
mercy, and it's right here in the Ten Commandments. How wonderful is
this!
God's Word speaks here of our love for the Lord and our
obedience to His commandments. Where does this come from? It comes from
the Lord - from the God of love, grace and mercy. Before we come to the
Ten Commandments, we have the great declaration of God's salvation: "I
am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of
the house of bondage" (Exodus 20:2). Real love for the Lord and true
obedience to his Word can never be reduced to legalism. It's always much
more than that. His love for us inspires our love for Him. Our
obedience to His Word is grounded in gratitude for His love.
Thousands
came out of Egypt. They had been redeemed by the Lord. They weren't
taken straight into the Promised Land. They had to spend many years in
the wilderness. Is that not the story of our life? We want to love Him
more truly and obey Him more fully - but our sin keeps on holding us
back. We're not the finished article. We're a work in progress.
Thousands - this is not just about the spiritual leaders, people like
Moses and Joshua. This is about ordinary people, people with a story
tell: "This is what the Lord has done for me." My story is not your
story. Your story is not my story. Each one tells their own story - in
their own way. All of us tell the same story - "Amazing grace! How sweet
the sound that saved a wretch like me ... " This is mercy - and it's
reached so many different people: different names, different faces,
different places, one Saviour - Jesus.
How does God's mercy lead us in the pathway of loving him more truly and obeying Him more fully?
"May
your Spirit make us look at the commandments not as a set of
observances. May they move us to serve you not in a slavish way but as
your sons and daughters who love you and whom you have set free. May we
thus fulfil more than the law and serve you as your sons and daughters,
in whom you recognize Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord forever."
"As
grateful children of God, let us put our hearts into seeking in the
commandments not our will but the will of God, so that we do not ask
what God orders us to do but simply how we can respond to his love and
show that love to the people around us."
"Commandments are not
just observances that guarantee our salvation. they are a response to
all God has given us. We ask God not what we are obliged to do, but what
He expects us to do to respond to his love."
"May we learn from
Jesus that love is the heart of the law and that true love knows how to
serve" (Camilo J. Marivoet, "Liturgy Alive - Models of Celebration:
Weekdays", pp. 314-316)
We've read about "thousands", receiving
God's mercy, "thousands", learning to love God and obey Him. God's Word
describes, for us, the glory of heaven. It says that there will be "a
great multitude, which no man could number" (Revelation 7:9). How
amazing is this! We'll come from different nations, different languages,
different cultures and different centuries. Each of us will come with a
different story to tell - our own unique story of what the Lord has
done for us. There will be so many differences, but they will mean
nothing to us. We will all be singing the same song. We'll be singing,
"Salvation to our God, who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb"
(Revelation 7:10). As we think of where we have come from - the depths
of sin - and where we have been brought to - the heights of glory, we
will sing to the Lord: "Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and
thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might be to our God for ever
and ever" (Revelation 7:12).
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