"The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh. "
- Proverbs 11:17
" Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." - Matthew 5:7
"Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." - Luke 6:36
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After reading the verses for this week, and then the title, you may be thinking that we have lost our dictionaries --- what does compassion have to do with mercy?
Compassion is usually understood to be "of like passion", and hence, synonymous with words like sympathy, empathy, ". The kindness implied in the word, is due to the fact that, the person being kind, understands what the suffering person is experiencing.
Mercy, is usually understood in the sense of forgiveness, i.e. sparing a person from being justly punished.... his/her culpability is not in doubt, there is a sentence that can justly be pronounced, but, the Judge is merciful, and either commutes it, or acquits the accused completely!
Digging into this word led us on a thrilling detective journey across the language used in the Bible... the original texts, the translations, and definitely gave us a new perspective on the character of the LORD Himself, that we are very pleased to be able to bring to you!
Let us begin with the text in the book of Proverbs, as we resume our study.
The structure of the proverb is one of compare and contrast... merciful/cruel, doing good/troubling, soul/flesh.
The Merciful Man does good to his own soul/nephesh (Gen 2:7 Man became a chay nephesh, a living soul) and the Cruel man troubles his own Flesh/Kin (Sheh-ayr can mean body or figuratively, kinsmen).
Here is where our journey starts... -merciful and -cruel are not ---really ----opposites---- are they? Merciful and strict, or cruel and kind... might be more appropriate words to use to express the sentiment. Might there be a translation issue here? Let's look at the actual words used...
The word for Merciful in the text is the word "Che-sed"
Strongs Dictionary "Che-sed" (H2617) by implication (towards God) piety; rarely (by opprobrium) reproof, or (subjectively) beauty: - favour, good deed (-liness, -ness), kindly, (loving-) kindness, merciful (kindness), mercy, pity, reproach, wicked thing.
Whoops!!! ... Favor, Kindness, Pity, and Mercy are all listed here!
Where do we go to find a good definition of Merciful, as used in the Word? Searching the KJV, we first find the word in the story of Lot ...
"And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being --merciful-- unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city. " - Gen 19:16
Interesting, but it doesn't really help us... because the word there is "Chemlah" (H2551), derived from "Chamal" (H2550) .. A primitive root; to commiserate; by implication to spare: - have compassion, (have) pity, spare. --- Again, we see compassion, pity, and mercy mixed together!!! "Chamal" is first found in the KJV English Bible, when it speaks of Pharaoh's daughter having compassion on little baby Moses in the basket.... (Exo 2:6) ?
Let us go to the LORD Himself, to help us out... when He revealed Himself to Moses in Sinai, He spoke about His character....
Exodus 34:6,7 --- " And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, ---merciful { Rakh-oom } and gracious { Khan-noon } , longsuffering { arek } , and abundant in ---goodness { Chesed ! } and truth { ehmeth } , Keeping ---mercy { Chesed ! } for thousands, forgiving { nah-saw } iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. "
Oh wow .... lets stop and take stock of our collection of Hebrew words that are all translated as mercy, compassion, kindness etc. in the english versions of our Bible...
Rakhoom -- Merciful
Chesed -- Goodness, Mercy, Loving-kindness, favor
Khan-noon -- Gracious, stooping to bless -
Chamal -- Compassion/ pity - ....
What about the greek? Maybe the words of Christ himself might shed some further light on what it means to be merciful?
"Blessed are the merciful { el-eh-ay-mone } : for they shall obtain mercy {el-eh-eh'-o}. " This word "eleheho" is the word most used when we see people asking Christ to have mercy on them.
"Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made --like unto--- his brethren, that he might be a merciful {el-eh-ay-mone } and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. " - Heb 2:17 --- connects empathy to mercy and you can see the connection to el-eh-eh-o).
"Be ye therefore merciful { oiktirmon } , as your Father also is merciful {oiktirmone}." - Luke 6:36 -- New Word!!
"But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion { splagchnizomai } on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. " - Mat 9:36 Splagchnizomai is the word is the one most used in the all the senses where it talks of Christ having --compassion---.
So from the greek we get...
Eleheho --- Mercy/merciful
Oiktiromon, oikteiro -- Merciful
Spagchnizomai -- Compassion ( also... Sumpathes (1 Pe 3:8) , hileos (Heb 8:12), metriopatheo (Heb 5:2))
----- well that was helpful ? ---- is there one text that might connect Old and New Testaments? ... yes there is....
"For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy {el-eh-eh-o} on whom I will have mercy {el-eh-eh-o} , and I will have compassion {oikteiro} on whom I will have compassion {oikteiro}." (Rom 9:15) .... whoops... mercy and compassion interchangeably used/translated again!!! --- in Luke 6:36 the same word for mercy is used for compassion.
The actual words used in Exodus 33:19 ... which is what the Apostle is citing are...
" And he said, I will make all my goodness {toob} pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious {Chanan} to whom I will be gracious {Chanan} , and will shew mercy {Rakhoom} on whom I will shew mercy {Rakhoom}. "
If we do a 1:1. comparison OT Grace = NT mercy, OT Mercy = NT Compassion !
----------------- The bottom line -----
What is the point of all this, other than pointing out how difficult a job it is, to translate from one language to another?? ?
Read the three texts we opened with again now.
Text 1: Being Merciful is good for your soul.. it is spiritual health!
Text 2: If you are not merciful to other people, God will not be merciful to you!
You may say this is a negative view of the text... and it is.. but here, in the SAME SERMON... we find..
" For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. " Mat 6:14,15
So, if you want mercy from God, make it a practice to be merrciful to others!
Text 3: Be conformed to the nature of God Himself! We trust the text is self-explanatory!!!
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Loving-kindness, compassion, mercy, graciousness, pity, tenderness are so completely intertwined in our LORD's nature, we cannot seperate them from each other... much like trying to pick apart the Persons of the Trinity!
As we enter into the days of Rosh Hashanah this coming week, and Yom Kippur in the days ahead........, let us be mindful of the compassion and graciousness of God in Himself providing the atonement for our sins, ...........let us be reminded of His Mercy, and Loving Kindness... and let us mirror that behaviour in the coming year!
Hallelujah!!!