Thankful for God's Forceful Mercy!

I was reminded of this post from a few years ago as I read Genesis 18-20 yesterday:

Have you every heard someone say that God is a "gentleman," and will never force you to do anything? It is usually an attempt to affirm the sovereignty of man's free will. You will be hard pressed to find this kind of language in the Bible.
I am thankful for the forceful mercy of God. I am thankful that God sovereignly restrains and keeps me from a thousand sins every day. Given my depravity, if God did not restrain me through His mercy, I would always chose against Him.

Listen to the language of Genesis 19-20:

In Genesis 19, God is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. However, before He "rains" sulfur and fire from heaven, He saves Lot and his family. Lot is not the most willing rescuee. Can you imagine? God says, "I am about to destroy this city and everyone in it." Lot wants to ponder what he should do for a while. In fact, 19:16 says that Lot "lingered" after being told of the immediate destruction of the city. So, what should God do at this moment? Should He withhold judgment until Lot decides to leave the city? Should He just punish Lot along with the other wicked folks? No, God's forceful mercy is put on full display! Here is what the text says, "So the men (19:1 says they were angels) seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city." Did you catch that? The mercy of the Lord forced Lot and his whole family out of the city.

In Genesis 20, Abraham claims that Sarah is his sister again. Abimelech likes Sarah and is going to take her as his wife. God communicates to Abimelech that he is a dead man because of Sarah. Abimelech pleads his case, that he did not know she was Abraham's wife. God says, "Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her."

Thank God for His Forceful Mercy!