A Compassionate God

God’s Gracious Response to Sin and Suffering

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him…” -Psalm 103:13, NIV

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(This post is part of a series on the character of God, based on Exodus 34:6-7).

When God revealed his character traits to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7, the first thing he said about himself was that he was a compassionate God. What comes to mind when you hear the word compassion? Does it match the picture of God you have in your mind—especially the God of the Old Testament?

“Compassion” in the Old Testament

The Hebrew word translated as compassionate in Exodus 34:6 is rachum. It refers to a person who shows love, mercy, or pity towards someone in distress. Interestingly enough, rachum is derived from the Hebrew word for a mother’s womb.

It’s not entirely clear why womb came to be associated with compassion, but one theory is that it refers to the brotherly (or sisterly) love shared by people who have come from the same womb. Another possibility is that a good picture of compassion is the tender, unconditional love that a mother feels for her children.

The Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament defines rachum (compassion) as “the special favor shown by God in the face of a situation of sin and affliction.” This brings up a good point about compassion: Compassion and suffering go hand-in-hand. That’s because compassion is a particular way of responding to the suffering or heartache of another person. So if you’re talking about someone’s compassion, there’s an assumption that something has already gone terribly wrong in someone else’s life.

When God describes himself as a compassionate God, he’s not promising that life will always be easy for us. He’s telling us in advance how he will respond in times of sorrow.

“Compassion” in the New Testament

In the New Testament, one common Greek word for compassion is splagchnon, which believe it or not originally referred to a person’s internal organs. The idea was that the love and compassion a person feels in response to someone else’s pain comes from deep within them — from their gut. Which is why I like to tell people that it takes guts to show compassion.

A great example of compassion in the Gospels is Matthew 14:31-21. Jesus has just learned of the death of John the Baptist, and he went out to a solitary place to process the news and presumable work through his grief. But then word got out about Jesus’ location, and a huge crowd of needy people came to him to be healed. Notice the compassionate way Jesus’ responded to their needs:

“When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.” -Matthew 14:14 (NIV)

We see the consistency of God’s character on display in the life of Jesus. God told us how compassionate he was in Exodus; Jesus shows us how compassionate he is in the Gospels. And that makes sense when you consider that Jesus is “the exact representation of [God’s] being” (Hebrews 1:3, NIV).

God is Like Our Mom and Dad

So God begins his self-revelation with an important theological truth: He is a compassionate God.

One of the things I love about God is the way he illustrates these deep spiritual principles with tangible examples and analogies from everyday life. Jesus does this frequently through the parables, but it’s actually something God does throughout the whole Bible.

God wants us to understand that he is a gracious and loving God, but he knows that we might struggle to understand what that looks like in practice. So he compares his compassion to something that is easier to wrap our minds around: the love that mothers and fathers have for their children.

In Psalm 103:13, God compares himself to a compassionate father:

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him…” (NIV)

And then in Isaiah 49:14-16, God compares his compassion for his children to the tender love that a nursing mother has for her children:

“But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…” (NIV)

God seems to understand that Zion (i.e. Jerusalem — the city of God) might wonder if God is truly there for them when they cry out in pain.

Similarly, God knows that we might wonder if God will really be there for us when we are overwhelmed with the worries of this world. God’s words in Psalm 103 and Isaiah 49 remind us that God is like a devoted father and a compassionate mother. He actually says that it would be easier for a nursing mother to forget all about her own child than for God to forget or neglect his people.

We are so close to God’s heart and so constantly on his mind that he says we are engraved on his hands. That tells us something about the depth of God’s love and faithfulness.

Let’s Turn to God in Times of Trouble

The compassionate nature of God invites us to turn to him in times of trouble. Everyone must face the valley of the shadow of death at some point, but no one has to face it alone. We have a compassionate God who cares about us deeply and shows us special favor when we are facing seasons of suffering.

And he is inviting us to cast all our anxieties on him because of how much he cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). I hope and pray we will all take advantage of that invitation!