“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Micah 6:8 NIV
Love. Mercy.
Beyond sentiment, the word to love – ah-HAV [[אָהַב] – speaks of cherishing and loyalty to something. It alerts us to a very deliberate posture that seeks out, celebrates and protects the object of affection being referred to. This call to cherish mercy evokes the sense of a passionate inner longing and is intimately connected with God’s desire that is spoken of in the text. The two concepts used here – the call to love mercy and God’s desire – are built on the exact core concept of a deep longing.
Love. Mercy.
This desire of Yaweh is not a requirement as we know it. it is more a longing than a demand – this free morpheme of longing is different than a command. it is a word that speaks of a relational and searching nuance that is more about seeking and enquiring than a rigid, legalistic command or legal demand.
One more linguistic step in the text. The word for mercy here – חֶ֫סֶד – “khesed,” is one of the most common descriptions of God in the Hebrew Bible appearing nearly 250 times in scripture being virtually impossible to translate into any other language.
Did you catch that? No other language can capture the depth and import of the Hebraic writing here.
Why?
This word is that which – in the Hebrew text – describes the core understanding of the very nature and essence of God Himself.
It is fathomless.
Consequently, there are many synonyms employed in translating khesed in order to express the vast dimensions and layers of meaning involved, such as “kindness,” “lovingkindness,” “goodness,” “grace,” “favour,” “pity,” “compassion,” and “steadfast love.” Prominent to the concept of mercy is a compassionate disposition to forgive an offender or adversary – even an enemy – and to help them untangle from their position or spare them [deserved] judgement.
Listen to Isaiah speaking on “behalf” of God Himself,
“Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
“Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.”
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
These verses are not speaking to us of how incomprehensibly intelligent He is. They are speaking of mercy.
Mercy is more than something God does – or extends – or musters up. It is experienced because it is who He is. Mercy is not given to those who are deserving – or well, it simply isn’t mercy anymore.
And so it is who we are to become in our becoming. Saint John captures it this way utilizing the Greek word agapē in 1 John 4:8, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love”
All justice. All hope. All ministry. All service. Our humility. All is drawn and sustained from the well spring of mercy.
Love. Mercy.