Compassionate (2)
The Character of God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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12 Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ 13 Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.”
How can God be known?
How can God be known?
We have been exploring in this series that God cannot be known via our own life experiences, nor other peoples experiences or even we can just hold assumptions about God based on observing “life”. The truth is, it mostly clouds the judgement.
When we look at that text again, we see “God is the only one who can show His way”, Hence, Moses didn’t try to woven event together to conclude, what he did was to interprete events in the light of God’s character. Why is that?
Events are subjective, and to really get to know God’s act in events, it has to begin from a knowledge of his Character.
“Way” — דֶּרֶךְ (derek).
It is a word which means
Lexham Theological Wordbook דֶּרֶךְ
metaphorically, a lifestyle. (manner of life)
Now this is quite important. You will see the Psalmist also prayed thesame prayer.
11 Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.
Also,
11 Teach me Your way, O Lord, And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
You will see, teach me your way i.e. your manner of life. I will walk in your truth.
This is quite an important prayer that we all should pray. Meaning, it is God who indeed reveals and teaches us his way.
So hence, while we are studying his character, I must not lose sight of “HOW” the knowledge of who he is comes, it is such a knowledge that God himself gives.
Now, will it be different from what every other writer have said about God? No. It will be thesame thing. Yet, it is one thing to have an idea about God and his character and to walk in that truth (like the psalmist will say, “Teach me; I will walk in YOUR truth”). The difference is God teaching me and you his way, and this is a prayer thing.
Hence, it is possible for us to finish from here today, and in the next 1hour, you believe contrary to everything you saw in God’s word. I must say, that seems to be man’s common experience.
It shows that this is what Moses also did. “Show me your way”, “That I may know you”.
God, makes himself known
Looking at Moses’ experience.
Looking at Moses’ experience.
17 So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.” 18 And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” 19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
We started looking at the phrase “I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you”.
Now, this is Yahweh, speaking about the proclaimation of his own name. What does that mean?
“Name” — שָׁם šām (pronounced sham)
When used of God, this word not only refers to God’s self-designation or renowned character, but also in a sense represents him.
So, it is a word that we can say represents God, God’s self-designation or his renowned character. The context it appears in relation to God, is what determines the meaning.
In the context here, it is pretty clear it refers to his “renowned character” i.e. This is who he is.
Hence, it is God about to talk about who he is.
What he said is “He is a God who has within his right to be gracious to whom he will be gracious” and “He is a God who have compassion on whom he will have compassion”. This in itself challenges alot of assumptions.
Hence, in the proclaimation of himself, He leads with “it is within his perogative to be merciful and gracious and this is what you will find with him”.
What does “God is compassionate” mean?
What does “God is compassionate” mean?
Compassionate — רֶ֫חֶם rěʹ·ḥěm (verb) and רַחוּם rǎ·ḥûm (adjective)
rěʹ·ḥěm primarily is how we see God as rǎ·ḥûm (compassinate). I.e. His actions reflect to us the depth of his character, as a God who is compassionate.
Looking at rǎ·ḥûm (adjective) (Ocured 13x)
Lexham Theological Wordbook רַחוּם
Describes the quality or character of a merciful or compassionate person or being.
Deuteronomy 4:31 “31 For Yahweh your God is a compassionate God; he will not abandon you, and he will not destroy you, and he will not forget the covenant of your ancestors that he swore to them.”
and the conversation is mostly around God having compassion on Israel or God and the works of his hand.
Now, most of the times, when we look at the verb of it, it surrounds the “forgiveness” of sins
rěʹ·ḥěm
to show kindness or forgiveness toward.
Let us look into that alot more.
14 Shepherd Your people with Your staff, The flock of Your heritage, Who dwell solitarily in a woodland, In the midst of Carmel; Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, As in days of old. 15 “As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them wonders.” 16 The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; They shall put their hand over their mouth; Their ears shall be deaf. 17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent; They shall crawl from their holes like snakes of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord our God, And shall fear because of You. 18 Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. 19 He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea. 20 You will give truth to Jacob And mercy to Abraham, Which You have sworn to our fathers From days of old.
A great way, we see the compassion of God on Isreal is “subdue our iniquities”. This is what the compassion of God deals with alot. That is, God subdues iniquities.
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. 9 He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. 10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. 11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Quite important for us to note. This is our God, not dealing with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.
Now, when we hear this, our minds kindof drifts to exceptions concerning ourselves, but we should not forget, it is God who says , “he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion”. It is within his right to show compassion on whom he will show compassion.
Say with me; God is compassionate and gracious.
What will be a practical way for us concerning this right now?
When I have events and experiences that come up regarding me failing, what builds me back up, is the knowledge of God who has forgiven me.
Tweet I saw today
22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”
28 Let him sit alone and keep silent, Because God has laid it on him; 29 Let him put his mouth in the dust— There may yet be hope. 30 Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, And be full of reproach. 31 For the Lord will not cast off forever. 32 Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion According to the multitude of His mercies. 33 For He does not afflict willingly, Nor grieve the children of men.
This is quite facinating. afflict willingly i.e. to afflict from the heart. This is key to understanding things and events within the scriptures but we will pick that up later someday.
God, will not forget you and me. This is part of his compassion (raḥûm). God will care for you and me.
He is not the source of our pain or hurt, it is not his very heart for that to happen.
Re-entering Compassion
Re-entering Compassion
Now, this is not the only way to think about God’s compassion, we can also think about God as compassionate around the fact that, God, cares for all. Let us explore this further.
1 Praise the Lord! I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, In the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. 2 The works of the Lord are great, Studied by all who have pleasure in them. 3 His work is honorable and glorious, And His righteousness endures forever. 4 He has made His wonderful works to be remembered; The Lord is gracious and full of compassion.
Here, we see him describing the works of God which we will always call to mind; The Lord is gracious and full of compassion.
Hence, this is the graciousness & compassion of God., verse 5 to 7 highlights for us that grace and compassion of God;
5 He has given food to those who fear Him; He will ever be mindful of His covenant. 6 He has declared to His people the power of His works, In giving them the heritage of the nations. 7 The works of His hands are verity and justice; All His precepts are sure.
He said him giving food to those who fear Him; He also is mindful of His covenant is a display of God’s compassion and grace.
1 Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, Who delights greatly in His commandments. 2 His descendants will be mighty on earth; The generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches will be in his house, And his righteousness endures forever. 4 Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness; He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
If you pay close attention, Psalms 111:5 and Psalm 112:4; seems to be only concerned with those who fear him and those who are upright.
Let us compare with Luke 6 statement;
32 “But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. 36 Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
He is kind to the unthankful and evil. When we read the Matthew account, he rendered it differently but with thesame goal in mind.
39 But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. 40 If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. 41 And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. 42 Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away. 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Jesus said, this compassion of God is not limited to only the righteous, but it is to all.
Now, what does that mean? Is Jesus contradicting the Psalmist? No.
The psalmist was simply making a contextual statement of God’s light arises on the upright and he gives food to those who fear him within the framework of his loyal love, that doesn’t mean, he doesn’t care for the unjust, he does.
We can say, God’s compassion is such that it spans beyond the shores of the righteous, even to the wicked. This is our God.
When we look at all of his provision today, we can see that both the good and the bad enjoys of his mercy, and bask in his grace and provision, such is God.
Let us look at how this is carefully described in the scriptures;
15“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.
God will not forget us, he will take care of us.
How then does it work practically?
Hence, I will see mercy and grace, to all men. He is abounding in mercy & grace.
6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
8 So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. 9 Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”
Notice something immediately in Moses’ response, immediately, he said “pardon our iniquity and our sin”, and take us as Your inheritance.
This is quite important, that on seeing this, he knew, in God’s character, it is there for him to make a case for God to forgive the people. He was certain God would forgive.
13 When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities. 14 And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. 15 When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.”
16 But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
17 And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.”
18 He said, “Bring them here to Me.” 19 Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. 20 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. 21 Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
He had compassion for them, and healed their sick. It shows you that “healing” is because of the compassion of God. He will have compassion and heal us. Hence, I can always expect to be healed in my body, why? God is compassionate.
What will be a bad way to view this? Uncertainty in his will, or character to heal. I can be certain, I can be expectant, I can be assured that God is compassionate and he will heal.
Also, I can be assured that he will take care of me.
“They ate and were filled”. God will take care of you and me.
A practical response to the knowledge of God’s character is to act on it.
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
A practical response to knowing God is compassionate is I am assured to cast my cares on him.
Hence, I am not trying to overcome a reluctant God, I am assured of his character to care for me. To take care of me, to build me up continually.
In the face of contrary experience, life difficulty, I am seeing his mercy at work, him taking care of all that is in this world, I am certain he will care for me and for you.
GLORY TO GOD!!
Looking into Matthew 6:25-30
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
