Compassion of God is the Lord’s moved heart toward the miserable and the guilty.
The Lord, the Lord,
a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him.
While he was still a long way off,
his father saw him and felt compassion and ran.
When the Lord passed before Moses He named Himself. Merciful and gracious came first.
The word family in Hebrew is womb-language: a feeling that cannot look at ruin and stay still. He had compassion on Israel in Egypt. He had compassion after judgment and gathered them again. The psalms say His compassion is over all He has made, and that He does not deal with us according to our sins.
Jesus is that Name walking.
- He had compassion on crowds because they were harassed and helpless.
- He had compassion on a widow at a funeral and gave her son back.
- He had compassion
- on lepers,
- on the hungry,
- on two blind men who would not be quiet.
The father in Luke 15 does not wait for a finished speech. Compassion runs.
Paul says God is the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. He is rich in mercy. Because of the great love with which He loved us, He made us alive.
Compassion is not God lowering His holiness. It is holiness that refuses to abandon the wreck. Justice is not canceled. The Son is given. The moved heart spends itself.
- Compassion is who He said He is, not a rare mood.
- Slow to anger and abounding in love keep company with mercy.
- Father-to-children is the picture He chose. The prodigal’s father only retells it.
- Jesus’ gut-moved compassion is the same God in flesh.
- Crowds, widows, lepers, and rebels all stand inside that movement.
- Compassion runs while the sinner is still far off. It does not wait for polish.
- Comfort from the Father of mercies is meant to pass through you to others.
- His Name – Merciful and gracious, announced at Sinai.
- Fatherly Pity – He remembers we are dust.
- Moved in Christ – Crowds, sick, hungry, dead, lost.
- The Run – Compassion that does not stay on the porch.
- Rich in Mercy – Made us alive when we were dead.
- Over All He Has Made – Wider than one house.
- Through Us – Comfort received becomes comfort given.
- Exodus 34:6-7 – “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty…”
- Psalm 103:8-14 – “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love… As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”
- Psalm 145:8-9 – “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.”
- Isaiah 49:15 – “Can a woman forget her nursing child…? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.”
- Isaiah 54:7-8, 10 – “With everlasting love I will have compassion on you… my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.”
- Lamentations 3:22-23 – “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.”
- Micah 7:18-19 – “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity… He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us.”
- Jonah 4:2, 11 – Jonah knew God was gracious and merciful; “should not I pity Nineveh…?”
- Luke 15:20 – “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”
- Matthew 9:36 – “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
- Matthew 14:14 – He saw a great crowd and had compassion on them and healed their sick.
- Matthew 15:32 – “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.”
- Matthew 20:34 – Jesus in pity touched their eyes; immediately they recovered their sight.
- Mark 1:41 – Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand and touched the leper.
- Luke 7:13-15 – When the Lord saw the widow, He had compassion on her and said, “Do not weep.” He gave her son back.
- Luke 10:33 – A Samaritan, when he saw him, had compassion.
- 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction.”
- Ephesians 2:4-5 – “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.”
- James 5:11 – “You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”
- Colossians 3:12 – Put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility…
The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him. He remembers that we are dust.
While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran.
When He saw the crowds, He had compassion. They were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.
God, being rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ.
Do not freeze His name into a theory. He runs. He touches. He feeds. He raises. Put on compassionate hearts. Comfort others with the comfort you received.
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