Mercy On the Rebel

“To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;” (Da 9:9 AV)

It is a good thing to admit what one is.  I am a rebel at heart.  So is every other human being.  We naturally do not do as we should or must.  If there is a rule, we seek to break it.  We are not naturally obedient.  We are not naturally humble.  The verse above is in the middle of Daniel’s prayer to the LORD for understanding regarding a vision he had just received.  The confession above belongs to the nation as a whole.  I am sure Daniel included himself in the number of rebels.  His plea is the only one any of us have.  He pleads for understanding despite the nation’s rebellion because God is merciful and forgives.  This is the only hope any of us have.  If that be the case, we must plead for it, but we must also trust God will grant it.  That is the hard part.  Trusting God’s mercy despite our rebellion is not easy.  But trust we must.

There is one word in the verse above that jumps out and screams, “Trust me”.  What is that word?  That little word ‘though’.  Despite the fact we are rebels, God has mercy and forgiveness.  That little word is a word of immense hope.  This is important considering the whole theme of Daniel.  Daniel begins the book by relating four events that prove God’s sovereign power over those who could do the child of God harm.  We learn God blessed Daniel and his friends when they refused the king’s meat.  We learn Daniel’s friends would not suffer harm in the fiery furnace.  We saw Daniel save the lives of all the wise men of Chaldea by receiving a divinely provided interpretation of the king’s dream.  And, we saw the lions let him be while he spent a night among them.  God protected Daniel and his three friends for the entire fifty or so years they served the LORD by serving the king.  Add to this the events of Esther, and one can see God’s hand of protection toward Israel even amid adverse circumstances. This hope of mercy and forgiveness, for Israel, is future tense in the sense Daniel is looking forward to Israel’s restoration and redemption.  What a tremendous message of hope!  No matter how far they have rebelled from God, mercy and forgiveness is promised.

For the saint, the promise is no less true.  If we have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are a child of God.  He is our Father.  He loves us with an everlasting love that cannot be rescinded.  No matter how much we walk in disobedience, the mercy and forgiveness of God is available.  All that is required is genuine repentance.  Our God is far more patient than we could ever know.  Our God is far more loving than we could ever comprehend.  Our God is a God full of mercy and tender-heartedness.  When Daniel prays this prayer, there is little, if any doubt.  When Daniel prays this prayer, he knows full well that God will answer.  When we have failed, we must pray with that same faith.  God is waiting.