The Lord is merciful

The LORD is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: Neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, So great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, So far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:8‭-‬12 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.103.8-12.KJV

The world around us doesn’t think that God is merciful, especially during times of war or famine, or economic chaos. Most of the time, the world wants to blame Him for their troubles, whatever they may be. God doesn’t need to explain His actions or His inaction in any situation. Sometimes in the past, He did tell His prophets why He was doing this or that but He usually did this because He wanted the Israelites to know His reasons.

Did God feel the need to tell them why He was allowing a famine or why He was withholding the rain? God told them the reasons for some of His punishments because they needed to know why they were being punished. Usually, it was because they had disobeyed His commands or His commandments such as when they were worshiping other gods rather than Him. Moses had told them many years before that they would do these things and that they would be punished but most of them had forgotten all of those warnings.

God’s Word tells us what happened in the past so we will not make those mistakes today. Yet, many people in the church still look at the Old Testament as an outdated document that we don’t need to read today. The same is said about the Constitution of the United States. Our history and the history in the Bible are there to show us what could happen if we make the same mistakes.

Jesus came to be the sacrifice that would take care of ALL of humanity’s sins. He paid our debts so that we could become the adopted children of God. To be able to have a relationship with God for all eternity.