Deuteronomy 34: 6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.
The passage above teaches us that although God is a God of mercy, He is also just or fair in His dealings with His created beings. Mercy, in and of itself does not, and cannot exist all alone in a vacuum, because it will produce an imbalance that would eventually make itself null and void. If God were to only show mercy, He would soon run out of mercy, because in some instances He would be unjust in showing mercy.
And therefore, there’s a balance that has to be maintained between justice and mercy, or else the one will end up trampling the other. However, God prefers mercy for He takes delight in it, hence the reason why the mercy seat is located strategically above the law in the most Holy place. He forgives and bears long with us, giving grace for grace, and where sin abounds, grace abounds even more, as the Bible teaches.
However, to be merciful and just at the same time requires that whenever inequities and wrongs take place in persons or nations, forgiveness would be granted on condition of confession and repentance, but if for some reason these are missing, the justice aspect must take up the slack. Thus, both justice and mercy were displayed at the cross, for Jesus fulfilled both aspects by His death on Calvary. He made pardon and forgiveness for the sinner possible, while at the same time suffering our just penalty of God’s broken law.
Deuteronomy 34:7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
May God add His blessing to the study of His word. “Good night” and God bless!