Micah
7:18-19
A panda walks into a diner, sits down, and orders a
sandwich. He eats the sandwich, pulls out a gun, and shoots out the
restaurant's windows. As the panda
stands up to leave, the owner shouts, "Hey! Where are you going? You just
shot my windows out, and you didn't pay
for your sandwich!" The panda yells
back at the owner, "Hey man, I'm a PANDA! Look it up!" So, the owner opens his dictionary and sees
the following definition for "panda": "A tree dwelling marsupial
of Asian origin. Eats shoots and leaves."
Okay. I didn’t
know pandas had such a sharp temper.
It’s not the sort of characteristic
one associates with pandas.
Out of curiosity, what sort of characteristics do you
associate with God? I’m curious. What is God’s personality like? Do you imagine that He is angry all the
time? Do you think God is anxiously
waiting to punish us for an offence? Is
He the Divine Policeman who is just waiting to catch us breaking the law?
I think you might be surprised at how God is described
in the Bible.
There are several places in the Old
Testament where we discover God’s personality – His “Character.” David, an Old Testament King of Israel knew
God’s heart; he experienced God through times of love, grace, mercy, and
compassion. In Psalm 145:8-9 he wrote, 8 “The Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to
get angry and filled with unfailing love. 9 The Lord is good to
everyone. He showers compassion on all
his creation.” [1]
The Old Testament Prophet Micah also knew God’s
heart. He knew God was loving, gracious,
merciful, and compassionate. Micah asks,
18 “Where is another God
like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his
special people? You will not stay angry with your people forever, because you
delight in showing unfailing love. 19 Once
again you will have compassion on us. You
will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the
ocean!” [2]
(Micah 7:18-19).
To be sure, Micah admits people may receive the Lord’s
discipline, but it is intended to correct a behavior, not destroy; this is
God’s personality – His “Character.” As
Tim Keller points out, “…the God of the
Bible is not like the primitive deities who demanded our blood for their wrath
to be appeased. Rather, this is a God who becomes human and offers His own
lifeblood in order to honor moral justice and merciful love so that someday He
can destroy all evil without destroying us.”[3] God intends to do something about all the
evil and injustice in this world, but before that happens, He provided a way
for us to be spared. He saw our helpless
situation and offered to do something to help.
That’s compassion.
The compassion of God is mentioned over 100 times
throughout the Bible. Those who lived in
Old Testament times and those who lived in New Testament times spoke of God’s
promise of compassion. And since Jesus
is “the visible
image of the invisible God” [4]
(Colossians 1:15) - to know Jesus is to know God – we can easily see the
compassion of God through the actions of Jesus.
What does it look like when God is compassionate? It looks
like Jesus kneeling before a crowd of Pharisees
who are accusing a woman of adultery. It
looks like Jesus touching a leper, a dead
body, or the woman with the bleeding problem.
It looks like Jesus feeding a
great crowd of people, healing the blind, or loving the demon-possessed man who
lived in the tombs. It looks like Jesus seated next to a Samaritan
woman who has been divorced five times or weeping before the grave of
Lazarus. We see the compassion of God
through the compassion of Jesus.
Our Lord and our God not only
promises to forgive our sin, but He has compassion for us as we deal with the consequences of our sin.
Yes, you heard me correctly; the compassion of God is
something He extends to us even though
we sin. What did Micah say? “Where is another God like you, who pardons our guilt?” Or, to put it another way, when we commit a sin,
God doesn’t tear up the adoption papers; He doesn’t throw us out in the
street. Instead, He shows us
compassion. How do I know this? I know this
because Jesus demonstrated compassion toward those who had sinned and had fallen
out of favor with society: Judas, the political revolutionary, Matthew the
Tax-collector, Peter, who denied knowing Jesus, or Zacchaeus, the corrupt
public servant. I know God shows
compassion because He has been doing this from generation to generation.
It was compassion Jesus demonstrated toward Paul; even
though he was killing Christians, the Lord called Paul to take the message of
Jesus out into the world. It was God’s
compassion that pointed Peter to the home of Cornelius, a Roman soldier. It was with God’s compassion Paul and Silas were able to pray with their jailor in
Philippi.
On and on I could go,
pointing to people who had failed God over and over. Yet, in His compassion,
God, “Trampled their
sins under His feet.” And
since God’s character does not change - He is the same yesterday, today, and
tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8) – we can be convinced that He will be compassionate
toward us.
“I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show
compassion to anyone I choose,” [5] says
the LORD God (Exodus 33:19). Like the
father in the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-24), God has compassion as
he sees you struggling under the burden of sin.
You have done things and said things that dishonor God. You have turned your back to Him. But He has not turned His back to you. Living in this world is difficult enough, let alone trying to live a
life that honors God. We will sin from
time to time; we will fail to be perfect.
And our Lord knows this. He knows
what it is like to deal with all the temptations that assail us. He knows how sorrowful
life can be; He sees our sadness and our loneliness. But rather than turn His back to us, “The Lord helps the
fallen and lifts those bent beneath their loads. The Lord is near to everyone who prays to him, to every faithful
person who prays to him” (Psalm 145:14, 18). [6]
God’s compassion toward us is seen at the cross. Jesus offered to do for us what we could not
do for ourselves. On the cross, Jesus fully
demonstrated His compassion toward all who humbly recognize their
sinfulness. His death on the cross
becomes God’s greatest demonstration of compassion for all time. You see, I know God is compassionate because He offered His Son Jesus to die
in my place; in your place. God saw our
inability to stop sinning, and chose to “lift those bent beneath their load of sin.”
God is compassionate.
He sees the mistakes we have made in life. He sees us struggle to live a good and decent
life. But rather than point His finger
and condemn, God reaches down into our despair and offers us grace, mercy, and
love. Through the sacrifice of Jesus,
God demonstrates His compassionate heart.
I share this with you today because there was a time in
my life when I turned my back to God. I
had no love for the Lord. And when I
came wandering back to Him I expected to be punished for my past sins. But instead, I found grace and mercy; I did
not expect God to be so compassionate. I
did not expect Him to celebrate my return.
And according to the Bible, this is exactly what you will experience as
well. When you accept the sacrifice of
Jesus, God will trample your sins beneath His feet and throw them into the
depth of the ocean. He will make you
feel like a person once again; He will make you feel valuable.
This is a lesson everyone needs to hear; those who have
already accepted God’s act of compassion need to be reminded of this from time
to time. And to those who are still
trying to figure out God or are worried about being punished by God, hear this
Good News: God is compassionate; He is ready to pardon your guilt. He delights in showing unfailing love. Come to Him today and you will find compassion.
[1]
Tyndale House Publishers. (2013). Holy Bible: New Living
Translation (Ps 145:8–9). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale
House Publishers.
[2]
Tyndale House Publishers. (2013). Holy Bible: New Living
Translation (Mic 7:18–19). Carol Stream, IL:
Tyndale House Publishers.
[4]
Tyndale House Publishers. (2013). Holy Bible: New Living
Translation (Col 1:15). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale
House Publishers.
[5]
Tyndale House
Publishers. (2013). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Ex 33:19). Carol
Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.
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