09102022 Compassion and Mercy

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of the God of purposeful outcomes. God always has a plan, and He is always working toward that plan.

While giving a Bible study, a former student of mine once said, “It doesn’t make sense when you’re there; it only makes sense looking back.” (That’s from human perspective, not divine.) When things don’t make sense to us, we can have a tendency to think unhealthy thoughts about God and His treatment of us. We might even acknowledge that God has a good plan in the end, but we sometimes complain about the unpleasant methods in the present, methods that might suggest to our minds that God is unfeeling, insensitive, and utilitarian.

There’s a wonderful verse that refutes the possibility of God’s being callous or cruel. “Ye … have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy” (James 5:11).

“End” obviously doesn’t mean the end of God’s existence, but rather the end/conclusion of His actions in human interventions. We might better understand it to be the goal that is aimed for, the conclusion of a matter, the termination or result or outcome. “Outcome” is a good understanding in this context. We are talking about the outcomes of God’s interactions with people.

Two outcomes are mentioned. First, God is “very pitiful.” This is best understood as compassionate, when someone’s insides respond to the sad or troubling situation of someone else. In this verse, the compassion is intensified by a compound form to raise it to mean extremely (abundantly, plentifully) compassionate. When I think of God’s compassion, I think of two key verses. Psalm 103:13-14 says that God has compassion for us because He understands how frail and weak we are as vessels of dust. In Hebrews 4:15-16, this compassion leads to an invitation for us to come boldly to God for grace in our time of need. When Jesus experienced compassion in the Gospels, it was always accompanied by action – healing, resurrecting, teaching, feeding.

The second outcome is “tender mercy.” This is also in the realm of compassion, but mercy deals with misery, and it involves action to relieve that misery. The misery can be spiritual, as it is in regard to our need for salvation, forgiveness, and restoration. The misery can also be physical or circumstantial, independent of any wrong-doing by the sufferer. When the blind men called out to Jesus for mercy, He healed them. The Good Samaritan showed mercy by carefully treating and selflessly caring for the wounded man. The king had mercy by forgiving an impossible debt.

The context of James 5:11 is the account of Job’s suffering. It tells us to look at the end (outcome) of Job’s story. When we do, we vividly see the character of God: compassionate and merciful. God delivered Job from his horrible illness. God blessed Job with new children. God gave Job twice as much bounty as he had before. God sent Job’s friends and family to graciously and generously renew their relationships with him. God had compassion on Job’s broken state, his suffering without a cause. God responded to Job’s misery by relieving it and lifting Job far above it.

Question. Did God suddenly become compassionate and merciful in Job 42:10? Or was He compassionate and merciful continuously from Job 1:1 through 42:17? We can answer the question simply by recalling the truth that God never changes. God is always compassionate. God is always merciful. “And the LORD passed by before [Moses], and proclaimed, The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6). “For I, the LORD, do not change” (Malachi 3:6). We can also see hints of God’s compassion and mercy throughout Job’s story. In God’s interactions with Satan, it is clear that God cares about the unwarranted suffering of His dear child. “For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men” (Lamentations 3:33).

Just like life doesn’t always make sense until we are looking back, so also we do not always see the compassionate and merciful character of God until we look back. However, after we have passed through the trial, and when we do look back, we see that His compassion and mercy were there all the time. We often do see them poignantly and powerfully in the "end,” in the outcome, but they are also continuous ribbons of beautiful light that are woven all through the fabric of the entire experience. When we are in the middle of the trial and we don’t see them, all we need to do is wait. We will see them, because they are always there. Just as we will see His goodness, because it is always there. “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD” (Psalm 27:13-14).

What we do not currently see with our eyes, we must believe by faith. We can rest confidently in the knowledge that God always is who He always is. We may not see God’s abundant compassion and mercy break through in the fulness of their splendor until we reach the outcome, but they are most surely there all along. God does care deeply about our hurts and struggles, and He does respond by lifting us from our misery. Just wait, and we will see that He has been constantly doing it until the time that the deliverance reaches its apex.

May you be filled with the comforting knowledge of God’s mercy and abundant compassion.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt

member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA