February 13, 2024

February 13: Heavenly Happiness.

God Delights in Mercy.
Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgressions of His heritage?  He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy.--Micah 7:18, NKJV

GOD "DELIGHTETH IN MERCY."  "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked."  Micah 7:18; Ezekiel 33:!1.  To him the work of destruction and the denunciation of judgment is a "strange work."  Isaiah 28:21.  But it is in mercy and love that He lifts the veil from the future, and reveals to me the results of a course of sin.--The Desire of Ages, 582.

The word of God reveals His character.  He Himself has declared His infinite love and pity.  When Moses prayed, "Show me Thy glory," the Lord answered, "I will make all My goodness pass before thee."  Exodus 33:18, 19.  This is His glory.  The Lord passed before Moses, and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin."  Exodus 34:6, 7.  He is "slow to anger, and of great kindness," "because He delighteth in mercy."  Jonah 4:2; Micah 7:18.--Steps to Christ, 10.

             He prayed to the Lord, "Isn't this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home?
                                 That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish.
                            I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God,
                                             slow to anger and abounding in love,
                                         a God who relents from sending calamity."
                              
                                                                --Jonah 4:2, NIV