A God Who Feels

"One Year Bible" Old Testament History Passage
Judges 9:22-10:18

"So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord.  And His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel."  Judges 10:16 (NKJV)

Occasionally in Scripture, we get a glimpse of the heart of God.  Much of the time we read about what He says and what He does.  Occasionally, He will tell us of His attributes -- what He is like (all-knowing, all-powerful, and so forth).  But, then from time to time, we read of what God FEELS.  Some might think this is going too far.  God is God, and He doesn't feel things like man does.  That's true, but nevertheless, in whatever way you might understand this, Scripture occasionally tells how God is grieved or delighted, saddened or pleased.

This is one such passage.  And we not only read of what God felt (He could no longer endure watching Israel's misery), we can take from this something about the character and nature of our God.

Israel had done treacherously.  They had sinned willfully.  They had rebelled in every way.  God, in His justice, had every reason to wipe them out.  Yet, as Israel turned back to God, He then had mercy.

Our God is BY NATURE a redeemer.  He is not some cold principle of ethics.  He is not a philosophy.  He is not an angry deity seeking revenge or appeasement.  He is BY NATURE a lover.  He wants to show mercy.  We must never presume upon His mercy, but we can rest on the knowledge that He is a God who stoops low to build up the broken.  He is a lover who seeks ways to mend and heal.  That's our God!

James echoes this in James 2:13.  "For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.  MERCY TRIUMPHS OVER JUDGMENT."  God desires to deal with us not according to the severity of law and judgment, but instead according to mercy and its twin brother grace. 

If it were not for this, Judges would be a very short book in the Bible.