SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/4/2021 10:38 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Christ’s
Divine Compassion”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
9:36b
Message of the
verse: “36
Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them,”
I mentioned that what we are going
to find out about this Greek word that is translated as “felt compassion” may
be a big surprise for some of those who read this, but if you suffer with the
problems that I have suffered with then you man not think that this is a big surprise. I suffer with IBS and have for many, many
years. If you don’t know what that is
then please look it up on the internet.
The Greek word translated as “felt
compassion” is the word splanchna, “the
noun from of the verb behind ‘felt compassion,’ literally refers to the
intestines, or bowels. In Scripture it
is sometimes used literally, as when describing Judas’s death (Acts 1:8). More often, however, it is used figuratively
to represent the emotions, much in the way we use the term heart today. The Hebrews, like many other ancient peoples,
expressed attitudes and emotions in terms of physiological symptoms, not in
abstractions. As most of us know from
personal experience, many intense emotions—anxiety, fear, pity, remorse, and so
on—can directly, and often immediately, affect the stomach and the digestive
tract. Upset stomach, colitis, and
ulcers are a few of the common ailments frequently related to emotional
trauma. It is not strange, then, that
ancient people associated strong emotions with that region of the body. The heart, on the other hand, was associated
more with the mind and thinking (see Prov. 16:23; Matt 15:19; Rom. 10:10; Heb.
4:12). The heart was the source of
thought and action, whereas the bowels were the responder, the reactor.” (You probably get a good idea of what IBS is
now.)
What we can see here from this
partial verse is the feelings that Jesus had when He saw the crowds as He felt
it in His being because of His great love that He had for people. Personally I find this difficult for me to
understand this, but by faith I know that it is true that Jesus personally has
great feelings for me, even and perhaps especially when I struggle with
sin. Jesus certainly feels this kind of
emotion more than I ever will be able to feel it. Isaiah writes this about Jesus “Himself took
our infirmities, and carried away our diseases” and this is quoted by Matthew
in 8:17. MacArthur adds “It was not, of
course, that Jesus Himself contracted the diseases or infirmities, but that in
sympathy and compassion He physically as well as emotionally suffered with
those who came to Him for healing—just as a parent can become physically ill
from worry and concern over a child who is desperately sick or in trouble or
danger.”
I realize this is a short SD, but
being a holiday and it is late we will leave it as what I have written,
emotional as it is. Tomorrow we want to
give some more examples of what Jesus went through while here on earth when it
comes to great emotions.
7/4/2021 10:57
PM
Hope all had a
happy 4th of July.
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