Isaiah 40
1 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
Jerusalem was in ruins and God’s people were utterly vanquished by the enemy. Many were in captivity in Babylon. They realised that they had sinned grievously, and were totally despondent. And then God’s Word turned from judgement to mercy.
Consider this carefully, for it is applicable to our day too. There are Christians who have been taken captive and live a defeated Christian life, as we read in Rom 7, “For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do”. They realise and acknowledge their utter desperate state, and have grown despondent. God has pity and feels compassion on His people who have lost their way and acknowledge their desperate state and cry unto Him for mercy.
When the prodigal son came to himself in the foreign country, while feeding the pigs, and realised how utterly foolish he was and cast himself on his father’s mercy, the Bible says his father had compassion on him, embraced and kissed him, and clothed him with the best clothes. Then he prepared a great feast for him, for he said, “my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” (Luke 15:24) May we remain in step with our Heavenly Father; not like the elder brother who returned from the field and became extremely angry when he heard how his father had received his penitent brother. When you continue to hold a grudge against a brother and treat him like an unbeliever, because of a sin he had committed but repented from, beware lest you are one day excluded from the Heavenly feast while that brother partakes of it.
Jesus had compassion on that immoral woman who washed His feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. She realised her utter lost state and wept profusely because of her sins, and she was forgiven much for she loved much.
John the Baptist’s name means “The Lord is merciful”. When the angel gave the news of John’s birth to his father Zacharias, he did not believe, and God tied his tongue so that he became dumb. If only he had considered the meaning of “John”, he would not have doubted, for the whole matter was God showing mercy on Zacharias and his wife Elisabeth, the nation of Israel and even all the nations of the earth. However, when the child was born, Zacharias insisted that his name should be called John, though his relatives found it strange, and God untied his tongue again, so that he gave glory to God, and declared God’s mercy towards His people.
The one who hides his sins shall not prosper but the one who confesses and forsakes them shall obtain mercy.
Consider how low you and I would have fallen if it had not been for God’s mercy. May we therefore remain in step with our Heavenly Father and show mercy to and have true compassion on those who have fallen and return to God for forgiveness and mercy. May we point them to Jesus Who makes all things new.