and said to him, “Your servants have counted the soldiers under our command, and not one is missing.

• Numbers 31:49

“‘Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing.

• 1 Samuel 25:7

Then Joab stopped pursuing Abner and assembled the whole army. Besides Asahel, nineteen of David’s men were found missing.

• 2 Samuel 2:30

You will know that your tent is secure; you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing.

• Job 5:24

Your teeth are like a flock of sheep coming up from the washing. Each has its twin, not one of them is missing.

• Song of Songs 6:6

Look in the scroll of the Lord and read: None of these will be missing, not one will lack her mate. For it is his mouth that has given the order, and his Spirit will gather them together.

• Isaiah 34:16

I have done this before.  I have ten verses with one word missing from each verse.  One of two different words will complete each of the verses.  The discussions between the questions and Bible References and then between the Bible References and Answers will speak of these words, using the definition of the words.

The questions are in Biblical order.  Each word will be the missing word in five verses.  There are five verses from each of the testaments.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	And may God Almighty grant you ____ before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”
2	Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for ____, Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day.
3	But when ____ is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and do not regard the majesty of the Lord.
4	“Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with ____, and there my house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,’ declares the Lord Almighty.
5	“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of ____ and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
6	Shouldn’t you have had ____ on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’
7	And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the ____ of God was on him.
8	and all are justified freely by his ____ through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
9	But for that very reason I was shown ____ so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.
10	The ____ of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.

I am writing a short story that will come out eleven days from now.  It is really three stories in one.

In the first story, two little three-year-old girls go on an adventure.  One of the girls was getting over a trauma.  The other little girl was told not to go where they went.  But she went anyway, to be with her friend.

Under the circumstances, she was not punished.  Oops. Spoiler alert.

Have you ever done something that was wrong?  Then, you were found out, but you did not get the punishment that you deserved.

Once I was driving home from a district scouting meeting.  I was pulled over by a policeman for doing about five miles per hour above the speed limit.  They usually do not bother you for only going that little amount above the speed limit, but this policeman was probably needing to meet his quota.  When he saw my wife and I both in scouting uniforms, he waved off the ticket.  Was I speeding?  Yes.  So, I did not get the punishment that I deserved.

God does that for us if we trust in Jesus Christ.  Are we sometimes required to pay the fine?  Yes, God teaches us a lesson in that regard, but the ultimate punishment for sin is the second death and Jesus paid the price for that, if we believe and trust in Him.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	And may God Almighty grant you ____ before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”	Genesis 43:14
2	Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for ____, Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day.	1 Kings 8:28
3	But when ____ is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and do not regard the majesty of the Lord.	Isaiah 26:10
4	“Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with ____, and there my house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,’ declares the Lord Almighty.	Zechariah 1:16
5	“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of ____ and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.	Zechariah 12:10
6	Shouldn’t you have had ____ on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’	Matthew 18:33
7	And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the ____ of God was on him.	Luke 2:40
8	and all are justified freely by his ____ through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.	Romans 3:24
9	But for that very reason I was shown ____ so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.	1 Timothy 1:16
10	The ____ of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.	Revelation 22:21

Back to those three short stories.  The third story has an element of another attribute of God.

Have you ever received a gift that was not deserved?

I am not talking about those participation awards.  If you participated, you earned that award.  The bar was set very low, but you met the requirements.

But what if you worked really hard for something, but you failed to reach the mark.  But then you were awarded the prize anyway.

In the short story, the children who had done something wrong were taken out of preschool for a little over a week to go on a vacation together.  It’s one thing to avoid time out or being grounded, but it is something quite different to go on a special trip.  Of course, there was a reason for the trip, but the children were not burdened with that reason.  They came along for the ride and had fun.

So, it is with God.  We do not deserve Heaven.  We do not deserve to be in God’s presence forever.  But God gives us abundant gifts, here on earth at times and overwhelmingly in Heaven.  But what did we do to deserve those gifts?  Deserving has nothing to do with it.  It is all because of God’s Love.

   …

   …

   …

The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	And may God Almighty grant you ____ before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”	Genesis 43:14	mercy
2	Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for ____, Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day.	1 Kings 8:28	mercy
3	But when ____ is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and do not regard the majesty of the Lord.	Isaiah 26:10	grace
4	“Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with ____, and there my house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,’ declares the Lord Almighty.	Zechariah 1:16	mercy
5	“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of ____ and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.	Zechariah 12:10	grace
6	Shouldn’t you have had ____ on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’	Matthew 18:33	mercy
7	And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the ____ of God was on him.	Luke 2:40	grace
8	and all are justified freely by his ____ through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.	Romans 3:24	grace
9	But for that very reason I was shown ____ so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.	1 Timothy 1:16	mercy
10	The ____ of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.	Revelation 22:21	grace

Before we get to the reward, whether you did well or not, in other words, Grace, in doing a search for these two words in the NIV, the results were “predictable.”  Mercy is mentioned ever so slightly more often in the Old Testament.  Grace is mentioned more in the New Testament, but most of the Old Testament uses of “grace” are more on the lines of graceful.

God does not change.  The message does not change.  But with the debt for our sins paid, God focuses slightly more on Grace in the New Testament.  But in the Old Testament, God’s People were bound by the Law.  We can never live up to that high standard, thus Mercy is what the people focused on more.

God is the same God throughout the Bible, but our understanding changes.  We receive both Mercy and Grace.

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here is Casting Crowns singing All Because of Mercy.

Here is Keith and Kristyn Getty with His Mercy is More.

Here is MercyMe singing Grace Got You.

If you need a fourth song, sing Amazing Grace.  If you don’t know all the words, search for it online.  God gives us Mercy by withholding the punishment we deserve.  He gives us Grace by lavishing upon us things we do not deserve, like being called His own children.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.