Compassion

Last week's entry marked the end of the one year Sabbath reading cycle as practiced in synagogues around the world. I learned so much about my faith in Christ reading along with them. Many of the Sabbath readings carry a prophetic importance as well. Israel and Jerusalem have a great and unique importance in the prophetic and salvation plan of God, especially in the days to come. God has made important promises to Israel that will impact the whole earth, and He will keep those promises. He is not done with either Israel or Jerusalem, and He will never be done with them! My intention, as a Christian, in following the Sabbath readings this past year was not to replace the Jewish people on their path of study, but to walk beside them, and learn with them. I have a feeling that as I begin the new yearly cycle of readings, it will be in a different way than I had done in this past year. This week, I opened the first chapter of Genesis, and the corresponding reading from Isaiah 42. As I started reading, I was surprised to find out about the role that compassion played in the creation of the heavens and the earth. The power God exhibited in the Creation seemed to have been focussed through the presence first of compassion in the form of the Holy Spirit, as I hope we will see. After stating that God created the heavens and the earth, Genesis 1:2 goes on to say: "The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering/moving over the face of the waters." There is great power in the Spirit of God, but the Spirit is also called "The Comforter" by Jesus (Jn. 14:26, 15:26). In this verse from Genesis, the Spirit was hovering over a terrible sight. The Hebrew word for "hovering" is rehap meaning "shake, move, flutter, to grow soft, to brood, with the feeling of tender love hence to cherish, to brood over/cherish young as an eagle, of parents who cherish their children, to soothe a child". (The Hebrew meaning, rehap can also include "to cause to tremble with fear, like the bones of a person terrified". Even as the Holy Spirit can move with comfort and compassion, we can also say then that it can move in a way to create fear.) The conditions over which the Spirit of God hovered in Gen. 1:2 above, are written as "without form, void, darkness, and deep". These words have the Hebrew meaning "the dark, misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness, desolation, confusion, lie waste, abyss". Before the Word of God was spoken into this desolation, the Spirit hovered over it, "brooding" over it, cherishing it as a parent cherishes a child. In speaking "Light" over this void, and dividing the light from the darkness (v. 3-5), God (Elohim) was, at the same time, taking authority over the darkness on the First Day. John Ch. 1 tells us that the words of Creation spoken was Jesus, who was with God, and was God, and became flesh to dwell with us (v. 14). Again this first moment is described in John 1:5 as: "And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend (seize, overtake, overcome) it." (Jn. 1:5). We see again that the darkness cannot overcome the Word of God. As Jesus worked in the power of His anointing, it was often said in scripture that He was moved by compassion for the people, whether they had gotten into their calamities through their own fault or not (Mt. 14:14, 15:32, 20:30-34). Jesus taught in a heavy warning of the consequences of failing to show to others that same compassion which we have received from "the king", or the Lord (Mt. 18:21-35). He taught parables about incorporating compassion as a lifestyle, and as a fulfillment of the Law (Lk. 10:26-37), and a parable, know to us as The Prodigal Son, of the role of compassion in the restoration of one who was lost (Lk. 15:18-24). The apostles' teaching also reminds us to exercise compassion (1 Peter 3:8, Heb. 10:34). The Greek word and root word for compassion used in these parables means "from the deepest part of a person, having compassion from the seat of sympathy, love, and pity; a great passion that includes love, tenderer affections, kindness, benevolence, mercies, compassion". The only people that Jesus seemed to lack compassion for were those who lacked compassion for others, most of these being the religious authorities of His time. What can sometimes be surprising however, is how angry and stirred up some may become because of what they consider to be an inconvenient or inappropriate show of compassion (Lk. 15:25-32, Lk. 7:36-48, Jn. 12:1-7). Coming back to the Creation of Gen. 1, we see that it begins with the presence and work of Christ as the Word (Jn. 1:1-3), Who is also revealed in the first phrase of Genesis 1 for those who wish to search it out, but it also involved a work of compassion by the Spirit of God. Looking at Isaiah 42 of this week's reading, the words of the LORD remind the reader again of Gen. 1 as the LORD declares that He created the heavens, the earth, and gave breath to the living (v. 5). His unchanging purpose is to bring forth justice for the truth (v. 3-4). Will we see again compassion having a role in this work of justice? Towards this purpose, the LORD prophesies that He is sending Someone, whom He describes as "My Servant", "My Elect One". He says, "I have put My Spirit upon Him." (v. 1). To this special Servant, whom we know as the Messiah, Jesus, God says: "I the LORD have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people..." (v. 6). We will know this Servant by certain works to which the LORD has appointed Him in Isa. 42. They are works of compassion: "...as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house." The LORD continues: "I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, and not forsake them." (v. 16). In this chapter from Isaiah, judgment has also been sent mong God's people in order to bring forth "justice for truth". The LORD describes the judgment of His people who would not listen to Him: "But this is a people robbed and plundered; All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prison houses; They are for prey, and no one delivers; For plunder, and no one says "Restore!". (v. 22). The LORD said that He is the one who put them in this condition (v. 24). Even so, the LORD turns and shows His compassion: "But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are mine." (Isa. 43:1). Sometimes we may think that by showing compassion, we are ignoring sin. However, it may be that it is the constant, ever-available compassion of God that is one thing that draws men to repentance of sin. Why would a man seek repentance in the first place, unless he feels that he is dealing with the LORD who will turn and have compassion on him, and forgive him? First John 1:9 guarantees us that if we confess our sins before God, not only is He faithful to forgive, but His justice requires that He forgives. However, the compassion of God goes even beyond this. The prophet Joel wrote of God's people assembling for the purpose of repentance before the LORD. The LORD gave the promise of compassion to His people if they repented before Him: "Now, therefore, says the LORD, 'Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart...Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm." (Joel 2:12-13). Joel promised that the LORD would have pity, and answer His people (v. 18). Not only did the LORD promise to restore His people, but He went beyond restoration to even more abundance (v. 19, 23-27). On top of the greater abundance, He promised to pour out His Spirit upon all, regardless of gender, social position, or age in a miraculous way never before seen (Joel 3:28-29). In the same manner, for those who accepted His compassionate gift of forgiveness and reconciliation through His Messiah and Son, Jesus Christ, the LORD again did even greater than a restoring work: "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (Jn. 10:10). We are given even more than restoration as a result of salvation, beyond what Adam and Eve had before their fall into sin. They were given dominion over the earth (Gen. 1:26), but, to serve as an example of the compassion (love, kindness) of God, those in Christ are given greater. They are seated in the heavenly places with Him (Eph. 2:4-7), and have become joint-heirs with Christ Himself, which is the work of the Spirit, the Comforter, in us (Rom. 8:16-18). While Adam and Eve experienced a visitation of God in the Garden (Gen 3:8-9), those who have accepted God's gift of compassion through Jesus Christ, don't have to wait for a visitation, but now have both Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God dwelling within them, and communing with them (Rom. 8:10-11). The law of compassion, it seems from the evidence, does not just restore to the previous condition, but it supersedes the previous condition with even greater than before. Compassion is not the only quality of God that impacts man, and by which we impact each other, but perhaps it deserves a deeper look. The power of God is focused through compassion in the examples that we have read. Compassion does not give unrepented sin a "pass", but I think it is one way that God uses to defeat Satan at his own game of destroying human souls. Because of this, compassion should play an important role in our lives as believers. If you would like to receive and live in the compassion of God through Jesus Christ, you can pray: "Dear Father, You sent Your Son into my life out of Your compassion and love for me. Through Jesus, You not only cleansed me from sin, and reconciled me back to Yourself, but You gave me a greater, more abundant life. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit so that I can minister compassion to others as You ministered to me. Lead me in discernment so I may see when compassion shown can break the stronghold of the enemy over another person's life. Let me not forget to show others the same compassion that You showed me, as You drew me back to Yourself. I ask and thank You for this in the name of Jesus. Amen."

Suffering

Many might say that a suffering church, or a suffering individual, is not blessed. Perhaps some may say, like Job's friends, that suffering comes because we must be doing something wrong. Scripture discusses many different examples of suffering. Jesus even gave the cause of one young man's blindness from birth, as not being any wrong that he or his parents committed, but as an opportunity for God to be glorified. It was then that Jesus healed him (Jn. 9:1-3). Even if we have only this one example as an exception, it puts to rest once and for all the dogma that people have earned their suffering by something wrong that they have done.
What possible blessing could suffering be in our lives? Suffering accomplishes a spiritual work in us that nothing else can accomplish. The work that is accomplished in us through suffering is compassion. There is absolutely no other way that a church, or an individual believer, can walk in the footsteps of Christ, or the fullness of ministry without that quality.
Compassion differs from sympathy, or even empathy. By its Hebrew and Greek meanings, compassion is formed in our deepest soul. The word is associated with the bowels, the deepest, innermost parts. It is not a surface expression of sentiment, but a flow that comes out of a deep wound in the gut. It isn't generated from a circumstance our minds can imagine, but from an experience.
Many of the works of the Father and the Son are works from the pool of compassion within Them. The Psalms describe the LORD as full of compassion:
"But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth...The LORD is gracious and full of compassion...slow to anger and great in mercy."  Ps. 86:15, 111:4, 145:8
The great work of the LORD in gathering the exiles of Israel and bringing them back to the land is a work accomplished out of His compassion (Deut. 30:3, Jer. 12:15).
The forgiveness of sin and iniquities comes out of God's compassion:
"But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them." Ps. 78:38
"He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea."  Mic. 7:19
Jesus repeatedly ministered miracles out of compassion:
"But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd."  Mt. 9:36
"And when Jesus went out, He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick."  Mt. 14:14
"Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat..." Mt. 15:32
After feeling the compassion for this multitude above, Jesus miraculously fed over 4,000 men, plus the women and children that accompanied them.
In a parable (Mt. 18:23-35), Jesus teaches about a master who, out of compassion, forgives a servant's debt to him. The master then argues that this forgiven servant should then be able to forgive others' debts out of that same compassion that was shown to him. It is the argument of this master in Jesus' parable that not only is it worthy to have compassion, but also that it is an expected characteristic of compassion that it should also beget compassion, or multiply (see also 1 Jn. 3:16 ).
Jesus also cleansed leprosy, restored sight to the blind, cast out a legion of demons, and raised a woman's dead son out of His compassion (Mk. 1:41, Mt. 20:34 , Mk. 5:19 , Lk. 7:13 ).
There are examples in scripture of people who are forever recorded for the works that they accomplished out of compassion:
Pharaoh's daughter, full of compassion (Ex. 2:6), not only rescued a Hebrew slave's baby out of a river, but raised the child, Moses, as her own. It is an extraordinary work for a royal princess to adopt a slave as her son. Could the compassion she felt have been created by suffering the loss of a child of her own? We don't know that for sure, but there is no mention that she had other children.
A father received back his miserable, wayward son out of compassion (Lk. 15:20). Could this father's compassion have come from the deep wound created when his son demanded an early inheritance, left his father's house, and cut off all contact, until the father feared he was dead? (v. 24)
A Samaritan, feeling compassion (Lk. 10:33), went out of his way to minister to a robbed and wounded man, when others, who should have cared, just left him on the road. Perhaps the compassion that flowed from the Samaritan came from the wound of suffering ethnic and religious prejudice and hatred, as was felt towards Samaritans at the time.
Jesus' feet were washed and anointed by a weeping woman who had known the very worst circumstances in life, while the self-righteous looked on with scorn. She poured out upon Him from an alabaster box. It was in this type of box that unguents used for healing and soothing wounds and sores were kept. This is what our compassion is. Poured from our alabaster box, it heals and soothes others' wounds and sores. Jesus said that because she had ministered to Him out of a very great love, her many sins were forgiven her (Lk. 7:36-50).
As we can see in the examples above, compassion runs much more deeply than just a thought of sympathy, or words of consolation. Compassion acts.
The compassion of a church, led to its sacrificial giving (Heb. 10:34) to a suffering apostle. Did this compassionate church know from experience what it was like to suffer, and do without so much themselves?
The Apostles urged believers to have compassion, and condemned those who refused to minister it (1 Pet. 3:8, Jude 1:22, 1 Jn. 3:17).
We instinctively desire to escape from the painful experiences that are brought into our lives, but these very experiences produce the precious gold of compassion within us, and cause us to reach our greatest unity with God. 

Our Father has a heart of compassion.

"Alabaster Box"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq8VP9osGrg


*Artwork at the top of the page: "Suffering" by Paula Heffel