the patriarchs (Lk. 1:72) and is displayed, for example, in God’s “great mercy” to Elizabeth in giving her a child (1:58). Zechariah celebrates the role of his son as the one who will prepare the way for the Messiah, “because of the tender mercy of our God” (1:78). Paul speaks of God as “rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us” (Eph. 2:4; cf. Rom. 9:23). God’s mercy is “one of the weightier matters of the law” (Mt. 23:23). His wisdom, the “wisdom from above,” is “full of mercy
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