God’s Mercy

Fox News interviewed a black couple whose soon-to-open Sports Bar was ransacked and destroyed by looters. The owner, a former firefighter, had invested everything he had in his new business. As the interview began, he acknowledged that earlier in the evening he had taken his children out so they could see and be a part of the “peaceful protest”. However, the protest turned into mob violence and his business was destroyed even as he stood in the building asking looters to stop. I’m having a hard time mustering up any compassion since the previous night the city protests were also violent. I can’t understand why, even for the sake of giving his children an experience, he would take them to the next potentially violent protest. Paul said, “What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy” (Ro 9:14-16 NIV).