“This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’ Zechariah 7:9-10
“Another point of transformation lies in the exercise of compassion. This comes out in that same ninth verse of the seventh chapter: “Show mercy and compassions every man to his brother.” A great mark of a changed heart is when we become tender, pitiful, and kind. Some men have very little of the milk of human kindness about them. You may lay a case before them, and they will wonder why you should come to them; and when you see how little they do, you yourself wonder why you ever came to them.
Many there are whose hearts are locked up in an iron safe, and we cannot find the key! They have hidden the key themselves; there is no getting at their hearts. One such said to a minister who preached a sermon, after which there was to be a collection, “You should preach to our hearts, and then you would get some money.” The minister replied, “Yes, I think that is very likely, for that is where you keep your money.”
The answer was a very good one. That is just where a great many persons carry their treasure; but when the grace of God comes, and renews the miser’s heart, he begins to be generous, he has pity upon the poor, and compassion for the fallen: he loves to bless those who are round about him, and make them happy. It is a mark of wonderful transformation in the character of some men, when their heart begins to go a little outside their own ribs, and they can feel for the sorrows of other men.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon in “Sad Fasts Changed to Glad Feasts” Sermon 2248 on 20 March 1892.
Yesterday, I got up early to go hiking and fly fishing in the mountains with my son, Sammy, which was a lot of exercise. We landed 18 greenback cutthroat trout. It was special time together.
That change in routine meant I did my daily office last night. I decided to revisit this call to justice and compassion from Zechariah, so I read this sermon by Spurgeon and had to post this excerpt because I like the expression, “the exercise of compassion” to summarize this call. It illustrates pointedly that tenderness, compassion, kindness, and generosity only surface in our lives as the grace of God works in us.
And today is my sister’s birthday. Happy Birthday Heather. I pray her holiday in Florida is special and that God lavishes His grace on her this next year. I pray that for all of us.
Father, to respond to your exhortation through Zechariah, pour out your grace by the Holy Spirit on us and make us just, merciful, loving, kind, generous, and compassionate. Do this, I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.