How Do We See God’s Compassion in the Old Testament?
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When I was younger, many Christians held and expressed a certain perspective about the Bible. The God in the Old Testament was mean, angry, and vengeful. They pointed to passages describing his judgment over nations, especially Israel or Judah, and other accounts where God had his people wipe out whole kingdoms or cities.
Transitioning to the New Testament, especially through Christ, God becomes loving, forgiving, and kind. They point to famous Scriptures like John 3:16 and the compassion Jesus shows to the sick and the marginalized.
However, reading through the Bible in more depth, these views become limited and easily dismissed. The Old Testament continually reveals God as loving and compassionate. The New Testament expresses God’s wrath and judgment, as well.
Once we begin seeing it, the Old Testament loudly proclaims God’s compassionate nature.
What Is Biblical Compassion?
Compassion and love definitely overlap, but the former deals with seeing a need in others and actively meeting it. Love generally and universally seeks the eternal best for all people, while compassion recognizes pain and suffering in some way and seeks to bring healing and relief. Like love, biblical compassion isn’t a feeling, but intentionally putting love into action through mercy, kindness, and self-sacrifice. Biblical compassion desires to reflect God’s love and goodness.
Several Hebrew words in the Old Testament describe God’s compassion. Racham expresses deep, tender mercy, and the word is closely related to recham, which means “womb.” In context, Scripture uses racham to express God’s compassion for his people. “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him” (Psalm 103:13).
Scholars generally translate chesed to “lovingkindness” or “steadfast love,” but we can see the relation to compassion, especially when the writers use chesed with God’s covenant. This loyal love shows up in Lamentations 3:22. “Because of the Lord’s great love [chesed], we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.”
Finally, the word nichum means comfort and consolation, and Isaiah 49:13 uses this Hebrew word when sharing God’s compassion toward his people in need and under oppression.
These words throughout the Old Testament reflect God’s compassionate character. He loves like a father, with loyalty and faithfulness, seeing and meeting the needs of his people.
What Old Testament Verses Talk about God’s Compassion?
God names himself often throughout the Old Testament, always revealing different parts of his character. As the only being who self-exists, he is the only one who can then self-identify. When God engages Moses on Mount Sinai, beginning to give the Law, God says, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). Here, early in the Old Testament, in a foundational moment, God doesn’t define himself with anger or wrath but compassion, graciousness, and love. He does get angry (also seen in the New Testament), but his path to anger is slow and longsuffering because of his love. On the contrary, he abounds in love and faithfulness, not anger.
Forty years later, after failure and drama with Israel and leadership, Moses preaches a final sermon before his death. Despite Israel’s sin and rebellion at times, Moses says, “For the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which He confirmed to them by oath” (Deuteronomy 4:31). Moses defines God by his mercy, calling the people to follow the Lord for his blessings and compassion, not out of fear.
The prophet Jeremiah writes generations later during the fall of Judah. The northern kingdom of Israel had been exiled and conquered as a consequence of their idolatry, oppression, and perversions. God proved his longsuffering and kindness through sending prophet after prophet to call his people back, to repent and be blessed. Yet kings and the people rejected God over and over, and during the fall of Jerusalem, the “weeping prophet” Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations.
During the darkest time of Jewish history, when Judah suffers the consequence after centuries of warnings, Jeremiah writes in Lamentations 3:22-23, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”
While the Israelites deserved to be “consumed,” God’s compassion wouldn’t allow it. He still promised mercy and restoration while disciplining his people. His compassion gave them hope for an even better day in the future.
What Old Testament Narratives Show God’s Compassion?
Just like with his patience and longsuffering with Israel and Judah over generations, the Old Testament is full of stories revealing a God of love and compassion, extending mercy and love.
In Sarah and Abraham’s impatience, Abraham has a son (Ishmael) with Sarah’s servant, Hagar. Over time, especially after Sarah has Isaac with her husband, Sarah begins mistreating Hagar and Ishmael. Eventually, Hagar and her son are banished into the wilderness. God sees their distress, appears to Hagar, and promises her son will be a great nation (Genesis 16:13). When Ishmael is about to die from thirst, God provides water and reminds her he cares for them (Genesis 21:17-19). God has great concern for the rejected and hurting.
When God engages with Moses through the burning bush, the Lord reveals his motivation for sending a deliverer — his compassion. “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering” (Exodus 3:7). God’s compassion moved him to act. God delivered them from Egypt, and while in the wilderness, Israel complains and disobeys. Despite their rebellion and lack of thankfulness, God still provides food and water for them. After their rebellion at the edge of the Promised Land, the Lord doesn’t destroy them but waits and allows the next generation to enter (Numbers 14). His compassion overwhelms his anger.
God acts with compassion toward other nations besides his people. When Jonah preaches judgment and destruction to Nineveh (a disturbingly violent and evil pagan people), the people repent. Instead of destroying them, God forgives and doesn’t carry out his dire warning. Jonah becomes angry that God would have compassion for Israel’s enemy, but God says, “Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people?” (Jonah 4:11). Here, God shows concern for every nation, willing to forgive even the most wicked if they will repent.
Further, God shows his compassion by using non-Jews to further his redemptive plan. Ruth, a Moabite from a cursed nation (Deuteronomy 23:3), found an abundant life within the tribe of Judah because of her character and compassion toward her mother-in-law, Naomi. Rahab, a prostitute from a condemned city (Jericho), chose to help Israel’s spies, and God spared her, even bringing her into the people of God through marriage. God delivered these women, cursed and condemned, and brought them into the very lineage of Jesus.
How Do We See God’s Compassion in the Law?
Part of the reason people view the Old Testament as harsh or judgmental comes from the Mosaic Law. However, God gave the Law for a purpose — to live a heavenly reality on earth through a people. Yes, there were rules, but God’s love and compassion sat at the root of the Law.
God commands his people to care for the poor and provide for them. He doesn’t allow any exploitation. “If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need” (Deuteronomy 15:7-8). Within the command, God seeks their loving hearts toward each other, not being “hardhearted” or “tightfisted.” One amazing way God instructed them to care for the poor was to leave the edges of their land unharvested, leaving some gleanings for the poor, the hungry, and the foreigner, dignifying them with work while providing for them (Leviticus 19:9-10).
Humans are naturally nationalistic and self-protective in groups. God commanded his special, chosen people to act differently, treating foreigners and strangers with dignity and kindness, treating them like one of the group, or “native-born” (Leviticus 19:34). In part, God reminded them of their own mistreatment in a foreign land, Egypt, and he didn’t want them to repeat that evil, which he judged (Exodus 22:21).
God also built in protection for women and children under the law to keep them from being mistreated or abandoned. “Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry” (Exodus 22:22-23). God himself will defend the most vulnerable of a society. He takes responsibility for them, and as his people and representatives on the earth, the Lord expected the same from Israel. Or else he would judge his own people. This applied to the foreigner, as well, to not oppress anyone (Deuteronomy 24:17).
While getting a bad reputation, the Law actually revealed God’s compassion and love through the practical commands. God defends the weak, provides for those in need, and expects justice for all.
What Was Jesus’ Testimony about the Law?
Jesus rejected legalism, how the Jews applied the Law, but he affirmed the heart of the law: God’s love and compassion. He declared how he didn’t come to abolish the Law but fulfill it in a more powerful way (Matthew 5:17). Jesus didn’t see the Old Testament God as vengeful or angry. On the contrary, he taught his Father’s love through compassion and truth.
When the religious leaders asked Jesus about the greatest commandment, they hoped to catch him in an argument. If he said one law, they could say he didn’t care about another. Jesus answered with two laws (Matthew 22:36-40). First, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Deuteronomy 6:5). And the second, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). Jesus gave the heart of the Law, of the Old Testament, saying, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Even Christ’s detractors had to agree.
Jesus challenged the Pharisees for focusing on minor laws and observance while neglecting the heart of God within the rules, “justice, mercy, and faithfulness” (Matthew 23:23). Obedience is important, but the Law was meant to reveal God’s compassion and justice, and their hypocrisy taught the opposite about Christ’s Father.
For example, Jesus healed on the Sabbath, which the Gospels show several times (Mark 3:1-6, Luke 13:10-16). The Pharisees accused Christ of breaking the Sabbath law when he healed people on Saturday, but Jesus answered with, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” (Mark 3:4). Jesus taught how his Father meant the law to be a blessing, but they used it as a burden, to oppress. In Luke 13:16, after healing a crippled woman and knowing the religious criticism, he said, “Should not this woman … be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?” His actions and words showed how mercy and compassion are the central messages of the Law and the Old Testament.
As we engage the Old Testament, with Jesus’ Spirit within us, we can read and see many more examples of the Father’s compassion consistent with the New Testament.
Peace.
Related article: Is God More Violent in the Old Testament Than the New?
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