“O Lord, I have heard your speech, and was afraid: O Lord, revive your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.”
In wrath, God remembers mercy. This fact is unalterable. God always remembers mercy amidst His wrath. Though the world be damned, God IS always saving the elect. Though He chasten, He is always bringing our salvation to pass by the enemies He afflicts us with. Ethiopia and Seba are ransoms for us, and so are all the wicked. They exist so we can live. He sends wrath to destroy sinners, and yet He sends mercy to save sinners as well – “Rejoice, O you nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people” (Deut 32:43).
He has an elect for His mercy, and He has people APPOINTED to destruction, because His character demands both – “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness: otherwise you also shall be cut off” (Rom 11:22). It doesn’t matter who we are; if we leave God’s Son, we’ll perish in our ungodliness, because we’re important only as we’re in Christ, and to leave Him… if we die in sin… evidences we were appointed to wrath (I Pet 2:8). He is holy and forgiving, loving and just. He is good and severe, and if we want His goodness, then we will believe in His goodness, though wrath is deserved.
God sent the Chaldeans to afflict Israel, and then God sent destruction upon the afflicter (Hab 1). God will use the boss to afflict the child of God’s behavior, and then He’ll destroy the boss for his lack of love and kindness – “For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior: I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for you” (Is 43:3). The second cause is punished, but the elect is spared. You are precious, so He uses all things for your good, chastening you sore, and destroying the means of chastisement. In either way, both ATTRIBUTES of God – goodness and severity – are revealed.
When chastened and tasting wrath, remember His mercy, because He does – “You will perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which you have sworn unto our father from the days of old” (Micah 7:20). If you will have mercy then believe His mercy. He is merciful indeed.
You and I may hurt now, but just as He punishes, He will heal… just as He HURTS, He will also save. He doesn’t keep anger forever – (Micah 7:18) “Who is a God like unto you, that pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retains not his anger forever, because he delights in mercy”.
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