Throwing Ourselves on God's Mercy
We can get ourselves in some pretty desperate situations sometimes because of our sins. We can even come to the point of being put in jail if we have broken a law. Whatever the situation, most of the time we find ourselves having to deal with other people and hoping they will be merciful to us. It could happen, but, but many people lack mercy, especially when there is something for them to gain. However, God is merciful, so it is better when we have to deal with God.
King David sinned by taking a census out of pride. God was angry and had to punish him. God sent Gad to give David the choice of having a famine, falling into the hands of men, or of God sending a plague. (I Chronicles 21:13) David told Gad that he was in a desperate situation, but to let him fall into the hands of the Lord, for His mercy is very great, instead of falling into the hands of man. David made the wise choice, and we can learn from this.
How many times do we put our trust in people, but they let us down? How often do we expect people to treat us right, but they take advantage of us? I am afraid it happens all of the time. What does this teach us? We need to be very careful in our dealings with others. It is not that we should be paranoid or that we should not love others. What we need to do is to be realistic about what could happen if things go wrong, so we limit out exposure to harm. Then, when we find the right people, and they do treat us well, we should be very thankful.
However, the main lesson we need to learn from David's statement is that we can always count on the Lord to treat us better than we deserve. With David a lot of people died in the plague, but God ended it early because of His mercy. That is what David was counting on, and we can count on it, too. After all, we are all sinful people, and Jesus was so merciful to die for us while we were still sinners and save us by grace through faith. Nothing could be more merciful than that, but God also treats us with mercy every day in all situations. We can and should be so thankful for that part of His nature.
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Tomorrow, I intend to read I Chronicles