Mercy in the Mess of the Old Testament: How God’s Mercy Wins, Every Time.

The Old Testament can make me uncomfortable.

It holds historical accounts of complicated people who lived in real-world places and experienced suffering, sieges, and so much bloodshed. With my modern perspective, I struggle to make sense of the ancient biblical world, and its history can evoke my sense of injustice—especially when the violence is commanded by God himself.

It was in that vein that I stayed enrolled in a Bible study on God’s divided kingdom, which gave an account of the split of Israel and Judah in the Old Testament. Here—in these books of heavy upheaval—I learned an important part of God’s character: While I was expecting to find the God of wrath, I was awestruck when I encountered the gracious God I recognized from the New Testament, instead—that is, our God of mercy.

The Israelites were not obeying God. Their infighting had caused a split and both nations experienced successions of evil kings—with rare exception. God provided miracles, victories in battle, and generations of prophets in persistent pursuit of his wayward people, warning of coming judgment if they failed to repent.

Despite countless chances to return to His way, they chose to adopt the sins of their neighbors.

Wrath acts immediately, but mercy waits. Wrath lashes out, but mercy holds back. Wrath has no justification, but mercy has a motivation. Wrath satisfies one, but mercy satisfies many.

God waited. He gave the Israelites generations of second chances. But borrowed time is only temporary. God’s judgment came in the form of exile when Judah was overtaken by the Babylonians. Yet God’s mercy continued to prevail. Because “his anger lasts only a moment but his favor lasts a lifetime” (Psalm 30:5a), God told the prophet Jeremiah that his remaining remnant would be in captivity for only 70 years, after which they would be restored (see Jeremiah 25 and Ezra 1). They were aggressively cut off from their land, possessions, and freedom to worship the God they had spurned, but not forever—it is never forever for those he calls his own.

Yes, judgment came—God is the perfect judge—but in the space between disobedience and judgment was the gift of time. It was his mercy that caused him to linger a little longer, continuously calling to his lost children. It was his mercy that brought him to make a New

Covenant, dependent on his faithfulness and not our imperfect efforts. It was in God’s mercy that Jesus received his wrath instead of us, despite what we deserve as sinners who fall short of his glory (Romans 3:23).

And it is still his mercy that forestalls Jesus’ second coming, graciously allowing more opportunity for our distracted minds and hardened hearts to heed the call to repentance.

Through God’s design, “mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13). And in his goodness we are given the assurance of God’s never-changing character, as evidenced in the Old Testament and echoed in the New. Because of this, we are safe under the care of a merciful God. Therefore, we can wholeheartedly follow him, trusting his handling of the past and allowing it to be our confidence for the future.

***This article was originally published in Truly Magazine, Spring 2024 issue.