By W.R. Selvig

abbaunveiled@gmail.com

For centuries, Christians have assumed that the merciful Father Jesus revealed is the same deity Israel knew as Yahweh. But is that true? When we place the words of Jesus side by side with the Old Testament descriptions of Yahweh, a stark contrast appears. I for one, am always looking for fruit. As Jesus told us, “If I do not do the works of my Father, don’t believe me."" According to Him, we have permission to test the fruit of the character of God. So let’s compare, shall we?

Jesus on the Father’s Mercy

When Jesus spoke of His Father, mercy was not an afterthought. It was the essence of who Abba is:

• Mercy to enemies. Love your enemies that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:44-45, NKJV)
• Mercy without limits. Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. (Luke 6:36, NKJV)
• Mercy instead of condemnation. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:17, NKJV)
• Mercy without payment. In the parable of the prodigal son, the Father restores the wayward son without sacrifice, without ritual, without blood, only with embrace and a feast (Luke 15:20-24).

In Jesus’s teaching, mercy flows freely. It is relational, unconditional, and available even to those who hate or reject Him.

Yahweh on Mercy

Now compare that with the Old Testament declarations of Yahweh’s mercy.

Scriptures Showing Yahweh Not Merciful

Passages Where Yahweh Withholds Mercy

• Deuteronomy 7:2 “You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.”
• Deuteronomy 13:8–9 “You shall not consent to him… nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; but you shall surely kill him.”
• Deuteronomy 19:13 “Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel.”
• Deuteronomy 25:19 “You shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget.”

Yahweh Rejoicing in Destruction

• Ezekiel 5:11 “I will not spare, nor will I have any pity.”
• Ezekiel 7:4 “My eye will not spare you, nor will I have pity; but I will repay your ways upon you.”
• Jeremiah 13:14 “I will not pity nor spare nor have mercy, but will destroy them.”
• Hosea 1:6 “I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away.”

Yahweh Actively Bringing Calamity

• Amos 3:6 “If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?”
• Isaiah 13:9 “The day of the Lord comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He will destroy its sinners from it.”
• Lamentations 2:21 “You have slain them in the day of Your anger, You have slaughtered and not pitied.”

The Redaction Question

Even more telling: these Yahweh is merciful verses are almost all repetitions of the same formula first recorded in Exodus 34. Scholars widely recognize this phrase merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in mercy as a redactional refrain inserted into multiple books (Nehemiah, Joel, Psalms) by later scribes to soften Yahweh’s harsher image.

In other words, this wasn’t the spontaneous voice of God, it was an editorial gloss. A theological attempt to balance Yahweh’s violence with a hint of compassion. The true Father didn’t need to be balanced. Jesus showed us what the Father is actually like.

The Difference

• Yahweh’s mercy: conditional, covenant-bound, often redacted into the text.
• Abba’s mercy: unconditional, relational, and revealed perfectly in Jesus.

When Jesus said, Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:36), He was drawing a line in the sand. The Father’s mercy is not about holding back wrath when you’ve repented enough. It is radical kindness to the unthankful and evil.

Conclusion

If we’re going to believe anyone about the character of God, we should believe Jesus. Yahweh’s mercy may have been a scribal attempt to temper a terrifying deity. But Abba’s mercy is revealed in Jesus without condition, without sacrifice, without redaction.

I believe Jesus when He describes the Father.

👉 Want to go deeper? Get your copy of The Yahweh Deception today and begin uncovering the truth for yourself. Buy the book here