His Compassion Never Fails

The compassion of Yahweh is something that we are thankful for but yet do not totally grasp. It is difficult for us because we can't fully understand our condition or situation in relation to our Creator. Most of us are not bent on death and destruction. We are fairly decent people, trying to be good to others, living a fair life. We don't see ourselves as evil or rebellious. We struggle to see that we were once the enemies of Yahweh. But we were.

Jesus once asked the question: Who would love most, the person forgiven a little or a person forgiven a lot? The answer of course was the person forgiven a lot because their wrong doing defined the quantity of the forgiveness, meaning, they owed more love to the forgiver. The darkness of our evil reveals the brilliance of Yahweh's compassion for us. Let's go back to the garden.

Yahweh had given Adam and Eve everything including his friendship. They had much joy just being with him. He also gave them only one simple rule: Don't eat from that one tree. There was only one way that they could mess this up, and that was by defying Yahweh by breaking the one rule. Of course that is what they did and as soon as they did it they became enemies of Yahweh. They had rebelled against him and brought chaos and destruction to all of creation. Because of their one act of rebellion, the brilliance of creation was suppressed and the relationship with the Creator was forever changed.

It is hard for us to relate to this because we never stood in that garden. We never walked with Yahweh in the cool of the evening. We never knew what it was to be innocent. It is hard for us to understand what was lost because we never knew what it was to be a friend of Yahweh. We cannot fully grasp how man's heart became redefined. That is why we need Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who put all these things in perspective and give us a glimpse of the conviction of our sinful rebellion. Why did Yahweh give us Jesus and Jesus the Spirit? Because of his great compassion.

There is something that stands out for me in the account of the Fall of man. We had become the enemy of Yahweh. He had passed sentence on Adam, Eve, and the serpent. He was removing us from his presence but not before he gave us a tiny glimpse of his wonderful compassion:

"Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them." (Genesis 3:21)

What? Why?

Yahweh, in his compassion, loved his enemy and clothed them before removing them. He didn't have to do that. He could have sent them out into the world naked and ashamed. He could have just turned his back and let them suffer their fate because of their hurtful rebellion. But despite the evil they had done; despite the hurt they had caused his heart; despite the fact they were his enemy, he took the time to care for them by clothing them. Look at this and realize the same heart that sent his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life, which is the opposite of the curse of their rebellious act. God is good, all the time. His compassion never fails.