April 15 2014 Samereh Alinejad demonstrated an incredible act of mercy and forgiveness. Samereh’s teenage son was killed by a man named Balal. When faced with the decision of whether or not she would have her son’s murderer executed, Samereh chose to show Balal mercy and pardon him from his death penalty. The act of forgiving someone for something so terrible seems unfathomable to most of us, Samereh had every right to have that man executed. But she didn’t. The verse I would like to focus on is Isaiah 55:8-9 “‘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.’” And I know that verse seems unrelated to the story that I just shared, but I promise I’m going somewhere with this.
Most of the time when people think of Isaiah 55:8-9 they fail to remember the context within the rest of the chapter. In the time that Isaish was written, the Israelites were devastated. They just lost their king, city, and temple all because they were unfaithful to God repeatedly. They had done awful things that dishonored the Lord, but Isaiah offers words of comfort and hope. The verse right before 8 and 9 says this: “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.” When God talks about His ways and understanding being greater than ours, He’s specifically talking about His mercy.
We can’t fathom God’s forgiveness no matter how hard we try. It’s impossible to get an accurate estimate of how many times someone sins in a day, but let’s just say you sin ten times a day. (which is probably an understatement because this includes unholy thoughts, small lies, gossip, anything that goes against God’s word) Even if you only sinned ten times a day, that would be 25 trillion sins in a year. 25 trillion times that we disobey and dishonor the Lord. And He still forgives us. Psalm 103:12 says “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” When God looks at us He doesn’t see the countless times we sin in a day, He sees His beautiful child.
The last point that I’d like to make is that God calls us to forgive like He does. Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 18 verse 23. (read Matthew 18:23-35). Unforgiveness is very dangerous, but the only way we can truly forgive is with God’s help, and sometimes you have to forgive them multiple times as bitterness resurfaces. Pray to God for help, there is freedom in forgiveness.
God has perfect forgiveness and mercy, more than we could even imagine, and He calls us to have that same forgiveness. My challenge to you is to reflect on your own life. Is there anyone that you need to forgive? If so, pray for forgiveness over them and even go as far as to pray blessings over them.