A number of Christians may speak about the great love of God in Christ, but I am concerned that what they speak is not so thorough. If they were thorough in knowing God in His attributes in different levels, they would speak much about God's mercy. This is because our day by day present situation does not match the level of God's love. Our real practical situation surely fits the lowest level of God's attributes, that is, God's mercy.

God's love and God's grace are on a higher level than His mercy. Grace is a gift. God has a heart loving us, and out of that heart God prepares a gift for us. That gift is grace. Because we are not worthy of this gift, however, God has come down to reach us in His mercy. In His attribute of mercy, He can reach us on the lowest level. Very few of God's children, however, realize that they need God's mercy. In my prayers in the early days of my being a Christian, I spoke about God's love. Today after many years of experience, however, I trust in God's mercy. This is because my low situation does not match the high level of God's love.

We may consider that we are ladies and gentlemen, but really we are "scorpions" and "gophers." The people considered David as a high king, but he considered himself as a worm (Psa. 22:6). This is why he told God that he needed His mercy (51:1; 52:8b). Eventually, David's very descendant would be the King of kings on this earth to be the sure mercies to the entire royal family of David.

Mercies are somewhat like kindness and compassion. God's mercies (kindness and compassion), as the initiation of God's grace in His love, reach us the farthest. Mercy is the initiation for God's grace to come in with God's love. God's grace cannot be separated from His love. His mercies usher us into God's grace. When we get into grace, we have His love. God's mercy reaches us the farthest. Many times in our experience we are far away from God. We are not so close to God. Thus, we need God's attribute of mercy to reach us.

Jeremiah and Lamentations really show us the pitiful situation of Israel. God could not come to them in His love or in His grace. God needed to exercise His mercy. Without mercy, He could not have reached His people. According to Jeremiah, the children of Israel at the time of the exile to Babylon were in a pitifully low situation. It is difficult to even describe how low their condition was. That was why God gave them up for seventy years. But after seventy years, God came back to them in His mercy.

In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus came in mercy. He came in a very low level to have mercy upon the fallen Israelites, but most of them rejected Him. Eventually, the Lord cried for them and wept for them. In Matthew 23:37-38 the Lord said, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I desired to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left to you desolate!" The Lord predicted that Jerusalem would be destroyed. In reference to the buildings of the temple, He told the disciples, "Truly I say to you, There shall by no means be left here a stone upon a stone, which shall not be thrown down" (24:2). This was fulfilled in A.D. 70 when Titus and the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem. Josephus, in his history, tells us of the terrible destruction of Jerusalem by Titus.