A Merciful God (Job 32-33)
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+32-33
What struck me in today’s passage, in Elihu’s first speech, is the appeal to God’s mercy. Elihu calls Job to a different approach with God than he had been taking. Job was pursuing the path of declaiming his innocence and righteousness before God. Elihu instead argues that this will get him nowhere, but rather that he should appeal to the Lord’s mercy.
In verse 27-28 Elihu describes someone who found relief in God’s mercy, and through the intervention of a messenger or angel (the advocate Job called for earlier?). After receiving God’s mercy, he proclaims, “I have sinned, I have perverted what is right, but I did not get what I deserved. God has delivered me from going down to the pit, and I shall live to enjoy the light of life.”
The appeal to God’s mercy is a refreshing breath of air in a book dominated by appeals to justice and fairness. Ultimately, this is the ground for all of our appeals to the Lord for His blessing and provision. We deserve none of the things with which He has graced us, including salvation and eternal life, not to mention daily bread. But we have received mercy because we do have an “angel” a “messenger,” Jesus Christ, who has made intercession for us.
So my prayer today is one of thanksgiving for God’s mercy. I am offering thanks for the mercy in making me a member of His kingdom, as well as the mercy shown to me in the blessings of yesterday, and the blessings He will shower on me today. Thanks be to God for His mercy!
What is the Word leading you to pray about today?
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