“When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities. And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick…Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained.”
Matthew 14:13-14, 19-20 NKJV
In the modern English translation, compassion means to “suffer together.” But in the passage above, the meaning is far deeper: splanchnízomai: to have the bowels yearn, to feel sympathy, to pity; to be moved as to one’s bowels, (for the bowels were thought to be the seat of love and pity).
Have you ever been sick from grief? It’s that depth of feeling. Compassion in this sense is deeply complex and is a feeling that stirs us to act on someone’s behalf. It’s the same word used to describe Pharaoh’s daughter in Exodus 2:6 – she took Moses out of the water because she was “moved with compassion.”
Yeshua was grieving the loss of John the Baptist, yet He saw past His grief to act because of the needs of the people before Him. And, interestingly enough, out of this compassion came healing and provision. Not only were hundreds healed, but hundreds were fed with 12 baskets to spare. Brokenness birthed abundance. That’s a radical thought.
Whatever we face, we don’t face it alone. He sees and He feels our needs – and, in His time, He will be stirred to move on our behalf. His provision will come and what it does, it will be greater than we can ask, think, or imagine.
Father – thank You for Your Word and provision. You are good and You keep doing good. Your leadership in my life is perfect and You can be trusted. Amen.
Daily Reading: Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9:1-17
October 17, 2022