"Vengeance is a Curse

Mercy is a Blessing"

1 Kings 21

We usually demand justice and fairness when others grieve us. We always desire mercy and grace when we are the ones at fault.

Most people know how I treasure my vehicles and seek to take care of them and protect them. Imagine you being desperate for transportation and you borrow my truck. You then find yourself in a terrible accident of your doing that sees my truck totaled. Broken, you come to me with explanation and plead for my understanding and forgiveness. We then bear hug it out and I tell you all is forgiven and forgotten. This is mercy. But wait I say, you still need a car to drive. Here is Wanda's van. That is grace.

God, in His Mercy, withholds our due and just punishment.

God in His Grace grants us abundant life on earth and eternal life in Heaven.

Last week we looked at four facts concerning the Gospel of Grace. Sunday I want to show you a supreme example of God's Mercy being granted to one of the most underserving people found in history.

Ahab was a vile human toad that squatted upon the throne of Israel. He had command of the nation's wealth and the nation's army but no command of his evil appetites. He wore the fine clothes of a King but under those clothes he had a wicked heart. He had perpetrated many sick and depraved acts. One of the worst was the murdering of Naboth and his sons to attain a plot of land for a vegetable garden. Naboth loved God and sought to obey Him by not selling his inherited land. But when the Prophet of God rebuked Ahab for his great and grave sin, our God granted him undeserving mercy.

We can never understand the Mercy of God, but we must be eternally grateful for it.