It has always been a source of astonishment to me when I look at what God had developed in David's life. The fact that he could show mercy to his betrayers in the way that he did, and then show mercy again and again to them in the face of their crimes against him is why, I believe, Jesus made it clear that if our brother offend us, we are to forgive seventy times seven -- and that was in a single day.

Continuing on with the picture of the goodness and mercy of the Lord that follows us, let's pick up today where we left off last week and see how Jesus viewed the concept of mercy.

For the past three weeks, we've looked at the "goodness" portion of David's statement that, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."

his is the third week of our study in the life of Abraham and considering the goodness of the Lord that followed him. Now we will see the final overcoming of fear in Abraham's life -- specifically, the Fear of Death -- and just how the goodness of the Lord brought Abraham to this place.

We were just getting started last week in the picture of God's goodness and mercy in the life of Abraham, and the constant display of that goodness and mercy as Abraham slowly but surely overcame the fears that had so programmed his life during his early years in Ur of the Chaldees, and the subsequent 25 years he spent in Haran prior to his father's death. Let's pick up this narrative where we left off last week.