God’s wrath and mercy

For this time I am about to send all my plagues against you, your officials, and your people. Then you will know there is no one like me on the whole earth.

By now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague, and you would have been obliterated from the earth.

However, I have let you live for this purpose: to show you my power and to make my name known on the whole earth. (Exodus 9:14-16)

This passage really struck me today.

For all the judgment that God poured out on the Egyptians, he also showed mercy.

He could have wiped them out in an instant for their sin. And yet, he didn’t.

More, he gave them warning on how they could save their own lives from the hail he was going to send. (19)

For all the wrath that God pours out on people for their sin, he still shows mercy.

He’s patient. He gives them time to repent.

Ultimately, his desire is that people will come to know and love him.

Pharaoh had said mockingly to Moses, “I don’t know the Lord.” (Exodus 5:2)

So God showed him the kind of God he was. That he is a God of justice who punishes sin. But also that he is a God of mercy to those who will fear him.

But even more interesting to me, we see the truth of God’s words in the life of Rahab.

By letting the Pharaoh live, he showed his power and made his name known to the surrounding nations, particularly when he split the Red Sea.

The result? Rahab and her family were saved. (Joshua 2:8-14, 6:25)

So even in the wrath God poured out on Pharaoh on his army at the Red Sea, the result was mercy shown to Rahab and her family.

Not only that, Rahab ended up in the family tree of Jesus. (Matthew 1:5)

God shows mercy to us all in a sense. He shows mercy to all in not wiping us out right now.

But mercy that leads to salvation comes only with repentance.

God warns us. God gives us time to repent.

The question is what will you do with it?

For he says:

At an acceptable time I listened to you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.

See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation! (2 Corinthians 6:2)