Mercy, Master, please have mercy!

There are over 27 million slaves in the world today. There are up to 400,000 children in child slavery in Haiti.

I have over 50 books on slavery and the Abolition Movement. Two of these books are entitled, Slave Narratives which consists of interviews of 2000 of the 100,000 former slaves who were still alive in the 1930’s.

Recently we rented a DVD documentary of the Slave Narratives and wept all the way through.

One story portrayed was of January, a slave who was tied to stakes in the ground and severely beaten. Although January was in tremendous pain, he would not cry out so the slave owner became angrier and continued to beat him unmercifully. Finally, when almost dead, January cried in a weak whisper, “Master, master, please have mercy. Mercy master… mercy.” But no mercy was shown. Salt was then rubbed in January’s wounds to increase the pain, and he died.

Jesus, our Master, does not beat and put us to death, instead He died for us. He has taken the beating and the salt of sin in our place. When we were tied down to the world’s slavery, agony, troubles, pain, sin and sorrow, we cried out, “Mercy Master, please have mercy.” Jesus removed the whip from sin’s master and untied the ropes. He lifted us up in His mercy, care and salvation.

Our Master is the Shepherd of the sheep, the Great Shepherd, the True Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, the Savior of the world. Praise God He listens when we cry out, “Mercy Master, please have mercy.”