Mercy Ministry and The OT

• Chris Barksdale
• Jan 11, 2010
• Series: Mercy Ministry
• Categories: Church Planting Articles

 Chris Barksdale | Lead Pastor | Hollywood Church | Hollywood, CA

 
 Chris Barksdale, “The History and Practice of Mercy Ministry”
Unpublished document © Chris Barksdale

Mercy Ministry and the Old Testament

Intro:

1. What does the OT have to say about doing justice and showing
mercy?

2. Does God really care about doing justice and showing mercy?

Exodus 34:6  The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God
merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

Isaiah 30:18  Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to
show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.
He is continually working for justice and showing mercy:

Deuteronomy 10:17-18   For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the
mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.  18 He executes justice for
the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

Psalm 10:14   To you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless.

Psalm 146:7-9  The Lord executes justice for the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The
LORD sets the prisoners free;  8 the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those
who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous.  9 The LORD watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless.
He even identifies with the poor/disenfranchised!

Proverbs 14:31  Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to
the needy honors him.

Proverbs 17:5  Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker.  

Proverbs 19:17  Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for
his deed.

3. Does God really want everyone to do justice and show mercy like He
does?

Deuteronomy 10:19   Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
Proverbs 3:27-28  Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to
do it.  28 Do not say to your neighbor, "Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it"- when you
have it with you.

Proverbs 31:8-9  Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute.  9 Open
your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.

Jeremiah 22:16  He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know
me? declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 29:7  But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the
LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

4. Isn’t God most concerned about me being at church? Isn’t that
where worship takes place?

Isaiah 58:1-7  "Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people
their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.  2 Yet they seek me daily and delight to know
my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their
God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.  3 'Why have we
fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?'
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers.  4
Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this
day will not make your voice to be heard on high.  5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a
person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and
ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD?  6 "Is not this the
fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the
oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?  7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and
bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide
yourself from your own flesh?

Micah 6:6-8  "With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?  7 Will the LORD be pleased
with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my
transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"  8 He has told you, O man, what is
good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk
humbly with your God?

5. Did people actually follow through in doing justice and showing
mercy? Does God really hold them accountable for not doing so?
There were a few who modeled this:

Job 29:11-16  When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved,  12
because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him.  13
The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to
sing for joy.  14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban.  
15 I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.  16 I was a father to the needy, and I searched out
the cause of him whom I did not know.

Proverbs 31:20  She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy.
But the overwhelming evidence in the OT is a resounding “no”. Much of the
judgment on Israel was the result of their lack of doing justice and showing
mercy!

Isaiah 1:15-17  When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you
make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.  16 Wash yourselves; make
yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,  17 learn
to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's
cause.

Jeremiah 7:5-7  For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one
with another,  6 if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent
blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm,  7 then I will let you
dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

Ezekiel 16:49-50   Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had
pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.  50 They were
haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.

Amos 5:11-15  Therefore because you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from
him, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted
pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.  12 For I know how many are your
transgressions and how great are your sins- you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and
turn aside the needy in the gate.  13 Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time,
for it is an evil time.  14 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of
hosts, will be with you, as you have said.  15 Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the
gate; it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Amos 5:21-24  "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.  
22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and
the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.  23 Take away from me
the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.  24 But let justice roll down
like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Amos 8:4, 9-10  Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an
end . . .  9 And on that day," declares the Lord GOD, "I will make the sun go down at noon and
darken the earth in broad daylight.  10 I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into
lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like
the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.

6. What is beneficial about doing justice and showing mercy?

City Rejoices

Proverbs 11:10  When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices, and when the wicked
perish there are shouts of gladness.

Church Rejoices

Jeremiah 29:7  But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the
LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
Individuals Rejoice

Psalm 41:1-3  Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the LORD
delivers him;  2 the LORD protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; you
do not give him up to the will of his enemies.  3 The LORD sustains him on his sickbed; in his
illness you restore him to full health.

Proverbs 14:21  Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to
the poor.

Isaiah 58:10  if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then
shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.

7. I understand the idea of showing mercy but what about doing
justice? What does that look like?

Nehemiah 5:1-5 Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their
Jewish brothers.  2 For there were those who said, "With our sons and our daughters, we are
many. So let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive."  3 There were also those who said,
"We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the
famine."  4 And there were those who said, "We have borrowed money for the king's tax on our
fields and our vineyards.  5 Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their
children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters
have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and
our vineyards."  

Nehemiah 5:6-8 I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words.  7 I took counsel
with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “You are
exacting interest, each from his brother.” And I held a great assembly against them  8 and said to
them, “We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to
the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us!” They were silent and
could not find a word to say.

Nehemiah 5:9 So I said, "The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the
fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?

Nehemiah 5:10-13 Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and
grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest.  11 Return to them this very day their fields, their
vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and
oil that you have been exacting from them.”  12 Then they said, “We will restore these and require
nothing from them. We will do as you say.” And I called the priests and made them swear to do as
they had promised.  13 I also shook out the fold of my garment and said, “So may God shake out
every man from his house and from his labor who does not keep this promise. So may he be
shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said “Amen” and praised the LORD. And the
people did as they had promised.  

8. What is the motivation for doing justice and showing mercy?

Isaiah 64:6-7  We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a
polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.  7 There
is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you;
There is only one righteous and that is Jesus! Ultimately it was only Jesus who
fully embodied this!

Isaiah 11:4  but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek
of the earth;

Isaiah 59:15-16  Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The LORD
saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.  16 He saw that there was no man, and
wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his
righteousness upheld him.

Isaiah 61:1-3  The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to
bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to
the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;  2 to proclaim the year of the
LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;  3 to grant to
those who mourn in Zion- to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness
instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of
righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.

2 Corinthians 8:9  For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet
for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.