Mercy/Justice

In my “read through the Bible in a year on my cell phone” plan I am struggling. Oh, I am reading on schedule and doing it every day. I am in the book of Joshua and understanding it. The struggle part is that I don’t want to understand.  The author of the book (probably Joshua mostly) is brutally honest. He tells it like it is. And I don’t want to know these things about the character of Almighty God. I’m a “stick your head in the sand” kind of girl.

My Pastor Wade said something Sunday that jerked my head out of the sand. He said, “You really can’t understand or define the term “mercy of God” without understanding and using the term “justice of God.” I’m all about love and grace and mercy from my Abba Father God-friend. But there is more to His character. He is Holy and sinless. He is just and righteous. He holds every human accountable to His standard and when the standard is not met He punishes. Nobody wants to come face to face with this kind of God. No one wants to see His wrath side, especially me.

I was reading in Joshua 7 that after the famous victory in Jericho where the walls fell down and the soldiers didn’t have to lift a finger that God was very specific about what to take and what to destroy. The Bible says that the Children of Israel committed a trespass. God grouped the whole country together over one man, Achan. He took the forbidden by God and kept and hid it. God really was upset with the whole of the community because of this one man. Maybe they knew and kept quiet. Maybe they were as shocked as Joshua when he found out. And it wasn’t until the next battle at Ai that it was all brought out. Ai was a small place and should have been easily defeated. Joshua didn’t even send in all the troops. But, wow, 36 men of the children of Israel died as God’s people retreated in humiliation. Joshua found out from God the why. One of the soldiers didn’t follow God’s order. Someone took the things accursed to God. God said He wouldn’t be with them anymore until the “no no” stuff was destroyed along with the one that took all of it.

And it was Achan. And so Achan and all of His family and possessions had to be destroyed, killed, stoned, and burned. Death was the justification to God for this sin.

I don’t like knowing that God is so exacting. I’d rather know His mercy than His justice. But as My Pastor Wade says, I won’t really understand His mercy until I understand His justice. Death is the justification for sin. This really puts Christ’s death in a greater perspective. The only way I can enjoy a love relationship with God is to bow to the knowledge of the price paid for my sin by Jesus Christ.

Jesus the Son of God placed Himself in front of me when the punishment was handed out for my sin. He took all of the punishment full force intended for me from God the Father.

So it comes down to this (whether I want to admit it or not, whether I want to avoid it or not) I can learn the God way or the Achan way. The God way – accept His forgiveness for my sin through Jesus’ death for me. Or the Achan way – try to hide my sin from God and hope He doesn’t find out. (We all know how that will end.)

I’ll take mercy.

 I’ll take forgiveness.

And I will understand the full extent of what mercy and forgiveness means to God because I will understand His justice.

James 2:13    Mercy triumphs over Justice.