Biblical Compassion- a Hebraic ViewMin Ellen M.An experience I had as a very young child is with me to this day. It was night and we were ridinghome from somewhere in our family's green,1950 Cadillac Fleetwood car. We passed asupermarket where we usually shopped, Star Market, and behind the supermarket the sky was litup by a raging housefire. Someone's home was burning. I may have been 8 or so at the time. Ilived it. I could see the family trying to escape. I could smell the smoke for days. But that wasnot the worst of it. My mother could not figure out why I cried and cried for 2 or 3 days.Every time she would ask me I would cry out "But what about the family? What will they do?Where will they go? What about all their things?" My parents could not understand why itimpacted me so much.Compassion, in Hebrew, is "racham". The Jewish Encyclopedia has this partial definition-"Sorrow and pity for one in distress, creating a desire to relieve, a feeling ascribed alike to manand G-d." The word racham is very close to the word in Hebrew for womb, "rechem" and is infact from the same word root. It is far more than a feeling of pity or sorrow for someone hurting.It is the exact feeling that a mother would have for her child to the point of even giving her ownlife if it need be. That is the compassion G-d has for us and the compassion He wants us to havefor our fellow man. Words that in English are abstract such as "love, mercy, faith, compassion"are not abstact in Hebrew- they are concrete pictures. And so the concept of compassion, rachamin Hebrew, connotates a feeling in action. If we have G-d's "racham"- compassion- in our heartsas in loving our neighbour as ourselves, we would have His heart in their welfare.I truly believe that a person who is unsaved can have compassion but not G-dly compassion. Wewho have the Ruach haKodesh, Holy Spirit, in our lives and beings can actually live Hiscompassion as He does. The unsaved world, the lost world, is watching us. Remember that theywill measure us by what Yeshua said- if we have love one toward another. Here are someexamples of true Biblical compassion.In Exodus 32:31 and 32 Moshe (Moses) showed the most extreme self-giving compassion whenhe prayed for erring children of Israel. " And Moses returned unto the L-RD, and said, Oh, thispeople have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if You will onlyforgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray You, out of Your book which You have written."He was sorrowful knowing the eternal repurcussions of their sin of idolatry to the point of beingwilling to give up his own position in G-d. This is the same kind of compassion Sha'ul (theapostle Paul) had in Romans 9. In verse 3 he says " For I could wish that myself were accursedfrom Messiah for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." Listen to his heart there! Dowe as believers today have that kind of compassion for those who are lost, to the point of gettingout of our comfort zone? In 1 Corinthians 9: 19- 22 Sha'ul goes on to say that he would doanything to bring someone to the Gospel. He became a servant not only to G-d but to his fellowman. Having G-d's heart of compassion involves being a servant.Another example is Nehemiah. Nehemiah 1:3 and 4 says "And they said unto me, The remnantthat are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of

Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates of it are burned with fire. And it came to pass,when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, andprayed before the G-d of heaven... " When was the last time we fasted and wept for the lost stateof some individual or our nation? When was the last time we wept and fasted for 'broken downwalls' of injustices in our nation? Fasting is so much more than going without food. It is intent,or kavanah in Hebrew- where we absolutely have to get HIS attention on a matter and are on ourfaces until He hears us. Do we really have compassion?David showed this same kind of heart "racham" when he wept and prayed in Psalm 35. Listen tohis words! Psalms 35:13 "But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: Ihumbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into my own bosom. Psalms 35:14 Ibehaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one thatmourns for his mother." When our friends, loved ones, fellow congregational members are sick do we show this kind of compassion? I am fascinated that David would fast regarding someone'sillness. I have a beloved great-niece with neuroblastoma at age 8. I have wept and prayed for hermuch but I have not fasted. Maybe I need to.In Jeremiah 13, The L-RD speaks to this prophet about the result of their pride and remaining inidolatry and a backslidden condition. Jeremiah hears this judgment and his heart cries out inverse 17 "But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and myeye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the L-RD's flock is carried away captive."Jeremiah certainly did much of this weeping and earned his nickname "the weeping prophet"because of it. He was no wimp! always mourning. He was powerful in warning and warning. Welive in nations largely steeped in idolatry. Even Christian believers are unwittingly (nor not) tiedup in the world's idolatry. Compassion is more than caring when someone is hungry and feedinghim, more than weeping when somoene is in pain or their house burns down, more than caringenough even to give them a Gospel tract with the plan of salvation. Compassion is WARNINGthem. No one likes the thought of being "pushy". But I for one would be grateful if you would bepushy when I am in danger of stepping off a precipice. With today's "information highway", theinternet, believers are especially prone to every kind of false doctrine there is. Along withwitnessing to those outside of Messiah's love and salvation we need to witness to them also withTruth- not arguments, but the pure Word of G-d. Therefore we have to KNOW it intimately.And we have to be on our knees and maybe even fast and weep.Jude 22 and 23 are verses which address the matter of compassion. " And of some havecompassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hatingeven the garment spotted by the flesh." There's the thing- having the wisdom of the Ruach, theHoly Spirit, in dealing with people. There is a soft side AND a hard side in compassion. Howcan we know the difference? We can't go preach hellfire and damnation to some folks- it won'twork. Neither can we preach all "God is love and would never send you to hell" as that is notScriptural either. We need to have a sensitivity to the heart condition of others to know when weneed to preach in soothing words that draw the heart, as a mother to her children, or in warningwords that provoke a fear of G-d.I love the compassion of our Holy and Righteous G-d! As a Father (and He has a mother aspect