DIVINE COMPASSION AND PITY
Alan McSeveney
James 5: 11 (last clause); Luke 23: 39-43; Genesis 45: 25-28; Acts 15: 36-41;
I wish to say a word about the tender compassion and pity of divine Persons. In James we find the expression, “the Lord is full of tender compassion and pitiful”. The reference to the Lord is in keeping with the distinctively Jewish character of the epistle of James. In the Christian dispensation, we normally refer to Jesus as Lord although the Father and the Spirit can also be referred to in that way. However, whatever divine Person is being referred to, we need to remember that they are marked in their dealings with us by tender compassion and pity. In this scripture, the Holy Spirit through James refers to the experience of Job as a wonderful example of how God can operate in a man’s life and bring out His work. God can pass us through experience in our health, household, employment or amongst our brethren in order to bring out the quality of His work and to remind us of His tender compassion and pity. As we go through these experiences, there is a danger that we may think that God is austere and against us. However, we must realise that His government is always for us. In His sovereignty, He may allow certain things. He has sovereign rights and is entitled to do as He pleases. However, whatever we pass through, the Lord desires to show to us that in all our circumstance He is marked by tender compassion and pity.
I read in Luke 23, because we all began like the dying thief. If we have a link with the Lord Jesus at all, we began through the confession of our sins and faith in His Person and work. In this chapter, we see the end of the life of the Lord Jesus on earth. The Holy Spirit through Luke presents the Lord Jesus as Man – such a Man! It is wonderful to think of His life from the manger into boyhood and manhood. In all His movements, He brought pleasure to the heart of God. At about thirty years of age, He came out in public service. He came into service with the glory of God before Him as He went, “through all quarters doing good, and healing all that were under the power of the devil”, Acts 10: 38. Such was the life of Jesus. His whole life was dedicated to the service of God and the blessing of man. It did not matter whether the Lord Jesus was weary. Whatever circumstances He was in, He had the blessing of men in view. In Luke 23, He is at the end of His life and what is He doing? He is considering for a poor dying thief who is facing eternity without God and without hope. Is the Lord Jesus going to pass him by? No, He is going to take time, in the last moments of His life on earth, to show pity and compassion to the dying thief. Did the dying thief deserve it? No, he did not deserve it. None of us has deserved mercy. Each one of us has been in the same condition as this poor dying thief. We were sinners bound for judgment and God came into our lives and showed us tender compassion and pity. I wonder, dear brethren, whether we carry that forward in our experience. There is no question that we ought to grow and make progress. There is certainly far more to Christianity than knowing the Lord in this way. However, how often the glory of what He has done for us becomes dim in our souls and we allow other things to come into our lives. How often we forget the purging of our former sins. Are we still tender and soft in our affections towards this Man? Do we realise that we came into the world with nothing, and are going out of the world with nothing, and we deserve nothing? When the Lord Jesus first touched us, we would have done anything for Him. We would have spoken to anybody about Him. We would have gone any distance to hear His word and to visit His people. Alas, sometimes other things come in and the joy of our salvation becomes dim. Other things take the place that only He should have. Oh dear brethren, He would say to us, in a meeting like this, that He longs for our hearts. He has our souls if we are converted but He would say, “My son, give me thy heart”, Prov 23: 26. He wants you for Himself and the way that you will be kept near to Christ is by remembering that mercy was shown you. There are many things that may dim our appreciation of the tender compassion and pity of our Lord. However, in this address, I want to refer to at least three severe exercises we may pass through in our lives. The first is employment, the second is difficulties amongst brethren and the third is discipline in our bodies. In themselves, these things may overwhelm us, but as we face them with the Lord, we can get the benefit of them and rejoice in His tender compassion and pity.
I begin with exercises as to employment. It is well to remember that the pursuit of riches is continually alluded to as a snare to the soul – prosperity of the Christian. The brethren will recall that Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6 and charged him to beware of the love of riches and to lay hold of eternal life (see vv 6-12). In reading these verses you are struck with how plainly Paul expresses his concern for Timothy. Indeed, he touches on something in these verses that each one of us should feel the weight of. It would be right to say that a Christian who has looked after their body and mind is usually the best kind of employee that a business can have. In entering the workplace, because of your general wellbeing and your conscientiousness, you are able to be a model employee. Therefore, if anything comes up that is difficult it is referred to you. The danger in that is that it becomes a snare to you and you begin to focus your life on your business. Paul is very concerned for Timothy that business might not be the first thing in his life. He states very plainly and yet very tenderly the danger of pursuing riches and the things of this world. Paul tells Timothy to, “flee these things” (v 11). Paul does not advise Timothy to try to combat them but to flee them. The apostle wants this young man to judge any thought that the prime thing in life is to make money and look for a place in this world. Paul goes on to show Timothy that there is another kind of life that is better than business life, and that is eternal life. That is something that is not related to natural life at all. Eternal life is on the other side of death and involves the enjoyment of eternal relationships. Dear brethren, no amount of money can be compared with the knowledge of the Father’s love. No amount of success in business can be compared with being among the brethren of Christ. The purpose of God is such that He would have our hearts satisfied. He wants to satisfy the desire of every living thing. There is no satisfaction in the business world. There is no satisfaction in any other circle save in the Christian circle in the enjoyment of eternal life. It is for us to lay hold of that. It is not for us to lay hold of every opportunity that comes up in the business world. We are to lay hold of eternal life. Alas, dear brethren, we all would assent to these scriptures but we know that we do not always obey them. Yet our Lord is full of tender compassion and pity and never leaves us. In His grace, He allows exercises to free us from the snare of the pursuit of riches.
I turn to Jacob because this exercise is clearly set out in his history. All the patriarchs were successful businessmen. Abraham prospered in a pastoral way and Isaac prospered in an arable way. Jacob was no less successful. His skill as a farmer and particularly as a shepherd was unsurpassed. The difficulty in Jacob’s history was that the pursuit of these things took the place that only God should have had. I do not want you to think that God acted austerely towards Jacob because of that even though the circumstances in Jacob’s life were in order that he might be weaned away from having earthly things as the centre of his life. Firstly, Jacob had an unreasonable boss. That often happens. You see, you may be getting on very well at your employment, you may be coping with everything, nothing is too much of a problem for you. Then you get an unreasonable boss and you find you are getting more work to do than anybody else is in your workplace. Why is that? Is it just because you have an unreasonable boss? Or, is it not because of the Lord’s tender compassion and pity? He sees that you are becoming engrossed in the workplace and He would wean you away from that and set you in relation to Himself. Think of how unreasonable Laban was. Jacob had his wages changed ten times. He had to suffer the heat by day and the frost by night – dreadful conditions. Jacob had to go through all these things until he came to it that the supreme thing in his life ought to be God and the house of God. It is clear that God allowed things into Jacob’s circumstances that freed him from the control of Laban and set him towards Bethel. Of course, Jacob had a detour. We ought not to be too critical of him for that because we have all had detours and made mistakes. We have all made ourselves the centre, as Jacob did. However, eventually God altered Jacob’s circumstances in such a way that he arrived at the house of God and owned the supremacy of God.
Later on, God touched Jacob again. This time, He did it through a famine. You find that each of the patriarchs has to face a famine. With Abraham and Isaac, it seems that God would bring a state to light that needed to be judged. With Jacob, the great matter in the famine is that he might go to live with Joseph. You see, as you read the chapters in Genesis, that Jacob would have been happy to remain at a distance from where Joseph was and to receive everything that Joseph would give him. However, God had other ideas. Do you never think that the Lord is looking for your company? He wants to support you. He will sustain you and see you through but He will allow circumstance in your life, even in the business world, in order that He might have your company. What about the heart of the Lord Jesus? We may ask for things for our own gratification but what about His heart? Does He not want our company? He does. We may say, respectfully, that Christ wants our company. He is a real Man with a real heart. He longs for His own to be near Him. Dear brother, dear sister, He will allow things in your life (I am referring to the business life now, but He can use other things), until you are forced to go to Him. You cannot handle your circumstances any longer. You cannot face it on your own. It is too big for you. You need to go to Christ and having gone to Him, you find He supports you. You experience His embrace and the sweetness of His presence. There is nothing to be compared with the company of Christ. Perhaps, you are finding things difficult. We are all finding that to some extent, although some more than others. God would allow difficult circumstances to remind us that we are strangers and sojourners here. He would allow things in our histories to show us that there is something better than this world. Dear brother, dear sister, you are too great for this world. What is in your soul is too great for this world. God has another world. He wants you to be in the experience of that world now and He will allow famine conditions in your life in order that you might go to Christ where He is. He will also grant you the power of the Spirit. In Genesis 45, Jacob saw wagons. He saw there was power to transport Him to the presence of Joseph. How blessed that is! There are times when things may be so difficult in our lives that we cannot even kneel down and pray. We have known circumstances like that but we have also proved the power in the blessed Holy Spirit to intercede. How thankful we ought to be that when we cannot express ourselves, there is One who can express things for us. Dear brethren, would you not like to gratify the heart of Christ? Would you not like to bring pleasure to His heart? He will arrange things that are difficult, but it is only so that He can wean you away from this scene and have you dwell in His presence. In all such experiences, He will show that He is full of tender compassion and pity.
I turn now to Acts 15. Here we find how the Lord acts in relation to difficulties among brethren. The brethren may wonder what this scripture has to say about the Lord’s tender compassion and pity. Some might say that this incident with Paul and Barnabas was only an argument between two brothers. However, if you seek the Spirit’s help you will find that these verses are clear evidence of the tender compassion and pity of the Lord. At this juncture in the history of the testimony, Paul had still a great deal of service to undertake. He had much behind him in the way of history, but there was a lot for him yet to do. In fact, Paul’s greatest ministry was still to come. In view of that, it was important for the apostle that he should be entirely free from any influence that would hinder him in his service. It is clear from this scripture that the Lord would not have Paul hindered by one with Jewish tendencies who was governed by natural relationships. I take it that is why Paul passed through such a painful experience losing the active fellowship of Barnabas in service. If you read Galatians 2, you will find the history that underlies what we have in Acts 15. You will remember that there were happy conditions in Antioch until certain came from James and then the Jews would no longer eat with the Gentiles. Peter was involved in this and Barnabas was carried away with the dissimulation. In view of this, Paul spoke faithfully to Peter as to his defection. It was a faithful and necessary word. Yet, there is no record that Paul spoke to Barnabas. Of course, Peter was the most prominent person present. Yet Barnabas also had a prominent place in God’s testimony. If prominence was the reason that Paul spoke to Peter before all, why did he not speak to Barnabas? Alas, if it is a brother in another country or another continent, we may have a judgment and be prepared to express it. However, if it is someone close to us, we are perhaps prepared to overlook certain things that we would not in others. One is seeking to be careful and respectful in what is said but special friendships are a terrible thing. They come between our soul and Christ and His testimony. Yet if we are honest, we all know how easy it is to make a special friendship. One does not point at anybody else in saying such things but our only link must be in the truth. In saying this, one would be very careful before one said that Paul had a special friendship with Barnabas. Yet it is clear from Barnabas’ action in Antioch and his desire to take John Mark in service that he was declining in his communion with Christ. In view of the service before Paul, it was important that he be weaned away from such an influence. What is clear in all that was happening is that the Lord was working. Of course, it is important not to speak critically of Barnabas. He made a special contribution to the work of God. We find him initially in Acts 4, showing largeness of heart in selling his land and contributing the proceeds to the Christian circle. In Acts 9, Barnabas introduced Saul of Tarsus to the saints in Jerusalem when everyone was afraid of him. In Acts 11, Barnabas is given the wonderful testimony that he was a good man. This manifested itself in the way that he knew his own measure. Barnabas knew he could take the saints so far and then he went for Saul and served alongside him in the ministry in Antioch. Barnabas is not a small man. Barnabas is a great man and shows how anyone of us can be deflected in this way. Nor did the Lord write him off but acted towards him in tender compassion and pity. In Acts 15, we see that Barnabas took John Mark and went to Crete. In such isolated circumstances, Barnabas would have time to reflect and it seems that God brought him back into the current of service. It is interesting to see that Paul refers to Barnabas in 1 Corinthians 9 verse 6 and Colossians 4 verse 10. Would Paul have referred to Barnabas if he were not recovered? May we never get to the point where we are glad to get rid of persons. That will never do. We may be in difficult times but if we are with God, we will feel with Him when one of His dear children goes astray. It will not weaken our judgment or stop us considering for God but we will feel for the erring one. Barnabas helps us to see that there is room for recovery. May we never forget that. God never forgets our brightest days. In His grace, he can bring us back.
One would not put a premium on difficulties amongst the saints but it is important to see what the Lord is doing in such matters. Many will know that Mr Darby in 1847 was concerned that some brethren were so occupied with what the devil was doing that they failed to see what the Lord was doing. Dear brethren, we need to lay hold of what the Lord is doing. There is nothing that happens that the Lord does not allow. He is not the author of all, but we know that in what He allows He has an end to reach. We have to allow the Lord to work. Is there anything too hard for Him? In all such exercises, He will show His tender compassion and pity. He will act to preserve the purity of His testimony and save us from links that would spoil it. Do we value the light we have received? Most of the brethren present have had the privilege of being brought up in an area where there has been the greatest light. However, some here have known what it was to be in companies where not everyone was a real Christian. There are persons here who have known what it was to be in fellowship with those who held wrong doctrine as to the Person of Christ. There are brethren here who have felt their conscience and soul tortured as they tried to do what was right themselves while knowing they were in fellowship with persons who were clearly wrong and some of them not even converted. The Lord has come in and delivered them, sometimes through very painful circumstances. His tender compassion and pity has been in that. Our Lord will surely act to ensure that nothing spoils His testimony and encourage those who desire to do what is right. May we be helped to see what the Lord is doing in all such difficulties and be encouraged as to His tender compassion and pity.
I close with a reference to 2 Corinthians. In chapter 3 of this epistle, you see the greatness of new covenant ministry. We find there is such a thing as the glory of the Lord. If you have been sealed with the Spirit, you have seen that glory. Of course, we need to hold ourselves in the presence of Christ in order that we might be formed after Christ. However, if you have known God’s forgiveness in your life and have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, then you have known something of beholding the glory of the Lord. What flows out from that in chapter 4 deals largely with what may be taking place in our outward bodies while God’s work is progressing inwardly. It is very precious to see that working out practically. One can remember visiting an older sister who had lost her faculties but whose heart was clearly full of Christ. She was not able to express herself but it was obvious that God had access to her soul. God was forming something in her that was eternal in character and not limited to her present weak condition. In 2 Corinthians 5, the apostle shows us the condition that is able to encase such a wonderful work. You see, we are bound for heaven. That is where we are going. The Lord is coming too. May we never lose sight that His coming is imminent. Before we finish this meeting, He might come and take us all away. That is what we are looking for. We are looking for the One who is going to take us up. We are going to have glorified bodies. At the present time, the Lord is quietly taking down the tabernacle that is our present condition. He is doing that in a very tender way. In the accurate translation of Mr Darby, we have a reference in verse 1 to what is “destroyed”. That is an accurate translation but the thought that lies behind that is the loosing of the moorings of a ship when it leaves harbour. There is tenderness in that. There is tenderness in the way each tent peg would be lifted up and the tabernacle would be let down. Dear brother, dear sister, the Lord loves you and cares for you and He is full of tender compassion and pity in His dealings with you. He will take the tabernacle down and replace it with a house that is, “eternal in the heavens” (v 1). The work of God will no longer be encased in a weak condition, but in something that is fixed and eternal. The fact that you have the Spirit is a guarantee that you are going to have a body like this. “The earnest of the Spirit” is a wonderful expression. It is different from the “earnest of our inheritance”, Eph 1: 14. The Spirit viewed in that way is the pledge that we are going to be associated with Christ in His reign in the world to come. “The earnest of the Spirit” is the guarantee that we are going to have a body of glory. When we have that body we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and the things that we could not understand here, we will understand then. At that time, He will go through our history from our unconverted days. He will show us everything we have done. He will not judge us but He will show us how His tender compassion and pity entered into our lives. We will look back and see how the Lord truly helped us. He looked after us and cared for us. His dealings with us were never harsh. He was not austere. He was the One who was full of tender compassion and pity. Dear brethren, I leave the scripture with you. The Lord is “full of tender compassion and pitiful”. May He bless the word.
MALVERN
9 July 2005