God's Mercy and Grace
As believers, we must never forget
to thank and worship God
for His mercy and grace in delivering us
from eternal death.
Here now is Dr. Gene Getz:
The two key words in this Principle
are mercy and grace.
And the fact is it ties in with the story,
right at the end of the book of Jeremiah.
But before we look at the story,
let's review the three phases
in the Babylonian captivity.
In 605 B.C. Daniel and his friends were deported.
That was the first time that that happened.
A very familiar story obviously
in the Old Testament.
In 597 B.C. ten thousand Jews were deported--
plus the king and other leaders in Israel,
including Jehoiachin.
Now Jehoiachin is the story
of mercy and grace.
And we're going to see that
as we look at this last chapter.
And then finally in 605 B.C.
Jerusalem was destroyed
and the remaining Jews were deported.
And that's when Zedekiah
was taken into captivity.
And remember, that was a horrible situation.
And Jeremiah, by the way,
was amazingly freed.
And we see God's mercy and grace
in his life after all of the things
that he had to say about Judah--
predicting what was going to happen.
Now here is the story about Jehoiachin.
I call it Jehoiachin pardoned.
In Jeremiah 52, verse 31:
On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month
of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of
Judah's King Jehoiachin...
And let me just say now that Jehoiachin
actually reigned only about three months
before he was taken into captivity--
into Babylonian captivity.
But we read on that:
...Evil-merodach king of Babylon...
And by the way, I'm fascinated with that name.
His name was "Evil."
That just simply was what he was called.
...Evil-merodach king of Babylon,
in the first year of his reign,
pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah
and released him from prison. ...
Now Evil-merodach replaced
Nebuchadnezzar as king of Babylon.
...[This king] spoke kindly to him
[that is to Jehoiachin]
and set his throne above the thrones of the kings
who were with him in Babylon. ...
In other words, there were certain kings
that were taken into captivity
from other parts of the world.
And as a king, they knew that
these individuals were kings.
And so he gave him a position above the
other kings that were in captivity.
...So Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes,
and he dined regularly in the presence
of the king of Babylon for the rest of his life.
As for his allowance, a regular allowance
was given to him by the king of Babylon,
a portion for each day until the
day of his death, for the rest of his life.
And that raises a very significant question:
Why?
Well there's obvious some things we don't know.
For example, maybe he went through
a time of repentance like Manasseh.
Manasseh was a previous king of Judah--
horrible king.
One of the bloodiest kings.
They said the blood would flow through
Jerusalem because of his evil.
He was taken into captivity.
But while in captivity,
humbled himself before God.
And God had mercy on him.
Maybe that happened to Johoiachin.
I don't know.
We're not told.
But the fact is, it was grace.
It was God's mercy.
And as I thought about this,
and I'm just speculating,
maybe this was one of the apostle Paul's
favorite stories.
Because Paul could identify with this
story in ways that we can't.
Paul was a blasphemer.
That's what he said about himself.
We know that's true.
A persecutor.
An arrogant man.
This is what he wrote to Timothy about himself.
He persecuted and imprisoned
and even killed Christians.
But here's what he wrote about God's grace:
This saying is trustworthy
and deserving of full acceptance:
"Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners"--and I am the worst of them. ...
That's how Paul truly viewed himself.
...But I received mercy for this reason,
so that in me, the worst of them,
Christ Jesus might demonstrate
His extraordinary patience
as an example to those
who would believe in Him for eternal life. ...
And then Paul goes into this
grand doxology in thanksgiving
and praise for God's mercy and grace:
...Now to the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only God,
be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
God's grace.
In many respects, we can
all identify with that.
It's God's grace.
It's God's mercy.
And here's a question for thought:
Why is it so easy to take God's mercy
and grace for granted even as believers?
Now as unbelievers, I think there's
one basic word that emerges
and it's pride. It's arrogance.
Obviously, it can involve ignorance.
But when it gets down to it,
we're all saved by grace.
Amazing grace.