Rush Hour
RushHour helps RushChurch members stay connected to each other, informs them about current RushChurch happenings, and also includes bible study/theology talk. We will speak about RushChurch specifics but also on current events, tough questions on faith, church and the Bible
Rush Hour
God's Character- Part 2: Compassion
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Welcome And Summer Storm Banter
SPEAKER_00Welcome everybody. This is Rush Hour Podcast brought to you by Rush Church. And uh we're back with another episode. We're glad you're here. We're always glad you listen. Tuning in to our ridiculous show. We have fun. We are okay. We're never ridiculous.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I didn't say the ridiculousness. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00We should I should put a montage together of all the stuff from all of our episodes so far. Just to play like a one-minute clip of just random stuff that we've said. Oh, that'd be a good one.
SPEAKER_02Your voice might not be in that clip. Just Ashley and I.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I'll just have to throw in there like how much I hate hummus again.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But we're glad you're glad you're listening to us. It's a beautiful August day here in WrestleMania, Ohio, wherever you're listening from. Uh it's been a really wet week here, hasn't it? It has.
SPEAKER_03This is storming like every nuts.
SPEAKER_00We've had storms every day since when did it start Sunday night? Monday morning? I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Years ago.
SPEAKER_00But there's some like my house was shit. I thought we were in a war zone at one point. The thunder was crazy.
SPEAKER_02Really?
SPEAKER_00They're shaking my walls. Brittany said you went to the basement.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. What night? What night was it really bad?
SPEAKER_00That was Monday night, I think. Yeah. Maybe.
SPEAKER_04No. Well, what was the night? What was the day that like the storms came through? Even Columbus, too. It flipped over a car.
SPEAKER_02Oh dang. It might have been that same night. Okay. And we just with the kids being upstairs. Yeah. We just go ahead and let them sleep in the basement. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's art. That's fine. I don't think it ever got too bad here. Just the loss of rain. Lots of light and the light.
SPEAKER_04That's a good thing. There was so much water though in that back part of the. I was like, man, we didn't have a slip and slide now. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Slide right into that big old pond of retention pond that we have back there by the like hardly the thing hardly ever gets water in it. And like, so when I looked out there, I was like, oh my gosh, it's raining a lot. Five inches in the last three days. Anyway, this isn't a weather report. This is a church potato. Breaking news from WrestleMania. It's raining. Five inches of rain here. Anyway.
SPEAKER_04I need the sunshine back.
SPEAKER_00It's looks pretty good today. I'm gonna go get some disc golf in later. So hopefully it'll probably be wet still. But yeah. The sun will be out. It'll be good.
Big Church Updates And Key Dates
SPEAKER_00Announcement time. What's going on at Rush Church coming up? We have one big Sunday on August 23rd. I'm gonna start with that. One service, 10 a.m. Make sure you're here. You know, if you come on normal time, you'll be a little bit early. If you come for 11 o'clock, you'll be really late. So 10 o'clock is the one service time. It is promo Sunday. We've got a lot of students moving up, switching classes. We have student Sunday. We have some students speaking, coming to share with us some things. And then it's also we're having church picnic that day. So stick around afterwards for lots of food. We're gonna set up games and stuff. We're gonna have lots of to-dos.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, we'll have a lot of the Rush 1.8 stuff out there. We're providing hamburgers, brats, hot dogs. You all provide sides or desserts. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you all bring the sides and desserts. All y'all, especially the desserts. So that's a big Sunday. Lots going on that day. Also, we're gonna be doing a little bit of a you know, looking back over the years of Rush Church. It's more like uh remembering how we got to where we already paid off all of our debt this year, so we are debt-free as a church, as far as like the building and all that good stuff. Yeah, so we're celebrating that a little bit that day also. It's a big day.
SPEAKER_04It is, it's cool because the worship team is doing throwback songs, and I'm like, I don't even know a lot of these songs. Yeah, I don't remember them.
SPEAKER_00You you just don't know about the hymns, do you?
SPEAKER_04I know about hymns, but like they're picking ones I don't know, so I have to practice them.
SPEAKER_00Yes, must practice, but I'm pretty excited about it. It'll be a good time, Brittany. Are you excited about the 23rd? Yeah, we have a really good time. Are you gonna be here? Are you gonna go all stuff?
SPEAKER_02I am gonna be here. No, I'll be here. I'm so excited I won't be here. No, I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_04Well, but you won't have to do breakfast that day.
SPEAKER_02No, no breakfast. And my kids have the best time. Yeah. Hours. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Trying to get them to leave is like, yeah. We're literally cleaning up the stuff. No, I want to still stay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. They will do that slip and slide until they can't go up the hill anymore. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Crawling back up the hill. Oh, I don't want to go.
SPEAKER_02And it's a great bath. We do use soap.
SPEAKER_00We just soap it up, water, the hose. No showers today. We already got the slip and slide bath. Yeah. Grass all over you. But that's a big day. Rush life has started back on Sunday nights for youth, seventh through twelfth grade. We meet every Sunday night. We have food. We play a lot of games and activities, and we get into the Bible. It's a good time. And what else is coming up?
SPEAKER_04Um, I have Russell Mania starting. Let's see here. That is September 16th. So first that's the third Wednesday of September. We're going to start back with that. If you're interested in volunteering, we need crew leaders, craft leader game. And I got my teachers covered in my kitchen covered, so that's good. But yes, if you're willing to help out, it's just like a mini kids' jam from 6 to 7:30 on those Wednesday nights. We will end the first Sunday in November. So you will have most of your November left before Thanksgiving and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00Yep. Eight Wednesdays. Yep. September, October, November there. And it'll be a good time.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Not as much as Kids Jam, but you can get that feel for it. Right. Yeah. 6 to 7 30. Alright. I don't know anything else. Maybe I do.
SPEAKER_04Kind of kind of a nice break.
SPEAKER_00We got we didn't get to do Rock the Lake. It got canceled.
SPEAKER_04I know. We didn't do Pineapple Palooza or Rock the Lake. We are gonna get ready geared up for Fifth Sundays. Not Fifth Sundays. Tailgate. Tailgates. Yeah, we do have tailgates.
SPEAKER_00Our first tailgate's quicker than I thought. Yeah. I didn't know I missed a game on the schedule, the first home game. The very first one. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Which is what day? Remember? 21st. In September. No, it's August 21st. Or August. That's what I meant.
SPEAKER_00It's uh two weeks. Oh my. Yep.
SPEAKER_04Get ready.
SPEAKER_00Football's coming.
SPEAKER_04Here we go.
SPEAKER_00I like football. You guys watch football?
SPEAKER_04Yes. When they're yes, I do.
SPEAKER_00In general. Not just Ben Logan. Were you gonna say when they're good? She was gonna say only when they're good.
SPEAKER_02Which teams are we talking about? Yeah. All of them. The good teams. The good teams. Yeah. You start watching a football game and one of the teams is losing, you're like, I don't want to watch it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I like I'm a Knowles fan and I'm a Cowboys fan. So hopefully both those teams are doing good.
SPEAKER_00A Knolls?
SPEAKER_04And I'm an Ohio State fan now.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_00Probably people listening don't even know what Knowles are. They're like, what is that? The Seminoles. The Seminoles. Florida State. Yes. All right. I don't care about Florida State. No one does. So like them all you want.
SPEAKER_04One year we were so close to Florida State and Ohio State going head to head in the championship game.
SPEAKER_00Didn't Jameis Winston play for FSE?
SPEAKER_04He did until he stole crab legs.
SPEAKER_00Oh stole. He didn't stole crab legs.
SPEAKER_04Yes, he did.
SPEAKER_00Jameis Winston loves Jesus now. He's talking about all the well he's saved now, but yes. I love his interviews.
SPEAKER_02Pre-Jesus life.
SPEAKER_00Stole stole crab legs. Can you imagine? Good times. I don't know why we're talking about weather and sports on this podcast, but your uh updates here. You never know.
SPEAKER_02That's true.
SPEAKER_00We're well-rounded. We're a well-rounded, well-rounded podcast.
SPEAKER_02Remember, no ridiculousness.
SPEAKER_00Oh, sorry. No ridiculousness. All right. Moving on. Let's talk about something else. Ashley, what do you got for us?
Jokes And Random Questions Warm-Up
SPEAKER_04All right. You want to joke or icebreaker first?
SPEAKER_00Joke it up.
SPEAKER_04All right. What do you call a two-dollar chicken?
SPEAKER_00Buck buck.
SPEAKER_04Yep. I knew it. All right. What do you call an American bee?
SPEAKER_00Liberty? Liber bee.
SPEAKER_04The pretty bee, like the mutual. No. No. What do you call an American bee?
SPEAKER_00Come on, Brittany, help me.
SPEAKER_02I I cannot.
SPEAKER_00Buzz honey bee.
SPEAKER_02No. What does that have to do with the man?
SPEAKER_00I don't know. I'm just thinking about bees.
SPEAKER_02I can't think of anything that's Liberty.
SPEAKER_00That's where I went first, but it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_04I mean, that's a good. Alright, I'm gonna give it to you. Tell us. It's a USB.
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_04USB. Like you look at the computer.
SPEAKER_00I'm not laughing at all at that.
SPEAKER_02Never.
SPEAKER_00Don't tell that joke to anybody.
SPEAKER_02Would my brain have gotten there?
SPEAKER_00USB.
SPEAKER_02USB.
SPEAKER_00If you would have delivered it like that, I might have laughed if you had the chant. Okay. Yeah, next time you tell it. You probably shouldn't tell that joke anymore, though, at all. So whatever. Good try.
SPEAKER_04All right. What is your flavor? What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
SPEAKER_00Oh, these aren't jokes. These are Rocky Road.
SPEAKER_02Sorry.
SPEAKER_00Got some uh I got I got confused. I was like, wait, what kind of joke is this? Do you like ice cream?
SPEAKER_02I do. I really enjoy coffee flavored ice cream.
SPEAKER_00Java chip.
SPEAKER_02That's mine. Is it? Whenever there's I know. Whenever there's coffee flavored coffee ice cream. You're out of the way now. Sorry, Jamie, you're out. Cody?
SPEAKER_00Oh, wait, that's it. You just oh yeah, coffee ice cream.
SPEAKER_02Do you want to be coffee flavored ice cream sisters? That's good.
SPEAKER_00I like ice cream. Well, thanks for the coffee sisterhood. Thanks for thinking of me, but I'll pass. Oh. I don't want to be any part of that, anywhere near that. Ice cream is good. I like milkshakes. Ice cream. Is there any bad flavors of ice cream? How about that?
SPEAKER_03I feel like. Cotton candy.
SPEAKER_00Yes, okay. You're right. Cotton candy, anything is gross.
SPEAKER_02I feel like hold on. Let me see if I can guess your favorite ice cream.
SPEAKER_03Banana ice cream?
SPEAKER_00I don't like bananas, but like if somebody liked bananas, it'd be good for them. So I don't know.
SPEAKER_04I don't like banana flavors or anything. I only like a real banana.
SPEAKER_00You're trying to guess my favorite flavor?
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You get one guess. Then it can't take six years because we're on a podcast here.
SPEAKER_02I think that it's mint chocolate chip.
SPEAKER_00No. Timmy loves mint chocolate chip. Oh, I must have been channeling Timmy.
SPEAKER_02Cookies and cream. Or is it cookie and chocolate? Cookies and cream. Yeah. Cookies and cream or cookie dough.
SPEAKER_00Cookies and cream and listening to him talk. I was thinking. Listen, those are those are two. You can't beat cookie dough or cookies and cream. They go back and forth on my favorite one. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Also Jerry's has a cookies and cream mix with a cook. No, I'm sorry. A cookie dough mixed with a brownie one. So you get cookie and brownie chunks. I'll tell you like a lot of things.
SPEAKER_00You guys know Blue Bunny ice cream? Yeah. Blue bunny. You get that kind of a brand. And they have a one that's terrific cheesecake. It's like a cherry cheesecake ice cream. That's good stuff. That would be my husband. Anything with cheesecake in it, I'm all about it. Okay. Oreo cheesecake ice cream.
SPEAKER_03I'm not sure if I've ever had cheesecake ice cream.
SPEAKER_00You should.
SPEAKER_04Easy there.
SPEAKER_00I'm just helping you out. Is that all you got?
SPEAKER_04All right. One last question. What sport that does not exist in the Olympics would you add to the Olympics?
SPEAKER_00Easy. Easy? Yeah. I know it's disc golf. It's disc golf. I'm just disc golf should be in the Olympics. People need to know about it. It's fun.
SPEAKER_04Actually, that would make sense. Disc golf. Yeah. Like out of everything that they do, adding that. I think you could add it and it'd be fine. It'd be normal.
SPEAKER_00What did they try to add last time? Breakdancing.
SPEAKER_04They did. And that's what I was wanting back in the day was breakdancing. When I used to break dance, I was like, why is this not an Olympic sport?
unknownWait.
SPEAKER_04And now it is.
SPEAKER_00I like y'all. I am so funny. I like how she just back in the day when I used to break dance. I was like, man, I should be in the Olympics.
SPEAKER_04Well, I didn't say it was good enough for the Olympics. I would just think that was my life in the Olympics.
SPEAKER_00I have no idea. Back in the day when I was a break dancer, you know, when I used to get down.
SPEAKER_02We used to sit around afterwards.
SPEAKER_00In between my paddle boarding and miming, I get some breaking down my dance moves.
SPEAKER_02I just feel like my life is so boring compared to a Florida life.
SPEAKER_00Actually, you can bring up anything. Yeah, I used to do that. Yeah, actually, I'm like top level of this. And you know, I could teach it. And so I'm certified.
SPEAKER_03Hold on, I'm not that conceited.
SPEAKER_00No, you're not. No. We're not saying you're no, it's just like it just comes up. You're like, oh yeah. I used to do that, or I know how to do this and get my puppets out and teach you how to paddleboard with my puppets.
SPEAKER_04And my puppets are talking. Breaking pose on a paddleboard with my hand up in the air with a puppet.
SPEAKER_00But you don't talk, you just mime it. All right. Here we go. Ashley's very talented, and we're lucky to have her here at Rush Church.
SPEAKER_02So I'm
Turning Back To Moses And Exodus
SPEAKER_02sorry, I'm not gonna be able to answer. I promise I'm not sure. I'm also a comedian. Obviously.
SPEAKER_00No. Okay. So I'm glad we got that all out of the way. What's your favorite ice cream flavor? Let us know. Next time you see us, just shout out your favorite ice cream flavor. You see? Us walking around, just yell it out. Don't even no context.
SPEAKER_04If you do yell it out, we will take you out for ice cream. No, we won't. Yes, we will. Why not?
SPEAKER_00All right. Ashley and Bright will take you out for ice cream.
SPEAKER_03Fine.
SPEAKER_00There you go. What are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_02Like 25 people show up to people on it. We'll bring the ice cream here.
SPEAKER_00I thought you meant every person that comes and shouts ice cream to us. We buy them ice cream. I was like, what the hell?
SPEAKER_04The first person we see and shouts out. I'm good with what ice cream you like.
SPEAKER_00I'm on board with that. Thank you. Remember, we did a contest with Super Bowl and I won.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That was annoying. We took you the coffee.
SPEAKER_00We should do that again. All right. That's back when we first started the podcast. Maybe more people listen now.
SPEAKER_04True.
SPEAKER_00That's true. We should try it again. More contests. If you want more contests from Rush Hour, let us know what kind. Let us know. Start giving out big prizes.
SPEAKER_04Rush Hour goes on the road to the coffee shops.
SPEAKER_00On the road. You know that song Dust on Your Bibles?
SPEAKER_04Yes. Yes.
SPEAKER_00How's it?
SPEAKER_04Dust on your Bibles.
SPEAKER_00That's it. Josiah Queen. I get in my head, I sing. I get that one in the old country song, A Little Dust on the Bot Bottle. Yeah. Mixed up. And so might be a little dust on your Bible. I made a whole song about it, but anyway.
SPEAKER_02I think it would be better like that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think it would be too.
SPEAKER_04Not that it's not a great song. Do you do that a lot with songs?
SPEAKER_00I do.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so does Darren. I just all the time.
SPEAKER_00My kids think certain songs are actually the ones that I sing instead of the act. They're like, wait, Dad, that song that you sing all the time. Somebody else has like, no, I took that one and added words to it.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00But it's so funny. All right. And let's talk about continuing our series. Last time we we brought up the idea of Moses and God on the mountain with Israelites, acting a fool down below, building a golden cow, worshiping it. That sounded really country, didn't it? Worshiping it. Worshiping. Worshiping that golden cow. Anyway. But we talked about that. We talked about how God, which somebody brought up a good point. They listened to our episode and they were like, we kind of glossed over the fact that, you know, God wanted to, God was angry about this. And then like we just went straight into like how oh he told Moses he was compassionate and loving all these things. There were consequences for what they did. I just wanted to go back and say that. It wasn't like God just was like, I'll overlook that, but they made the golden cow, and then there were some heavy consequences after that. There was a plague that came through. There was people that lost their lives, because you know, that's the consequences of making God angry and doing the things. But just wanted to go back and because it did sound like we were like, oh, God just forgot all about the golden cow and moved on. But if you go read the story, go read Exodus 32, 33, 34. You get the big picture.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But we might dig into that a little bit another time as we get through into the series. But today I just want to talk about the next thing. The first word that God uses to talk to him to describe himself, we talk about the word compassionate today. So my first question to you guys is what is compassion? What is it when you hear somebody's compassionate, or you think about the word compassion, what comes to your thoughts? If anything, like somebody says, I was really compassionate, or that person is full of compassion. Was what kind of thoughts does that trigger in your in your head?
SPEAKER_04For me, it's like somebody who's truly caring about the situation or caring about the person. And like they really are invested in helping out. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I would agree. Yep. Like an overly, I mean, as basic as nice. Yeah. Very I don't I don't know. Okay.
SPEAKER_00I mean, that's a good answer. Yeah. You're gonna be like what she said. So that's what we're talking about today, this idea of being compassionate. What does it mean for God to show compassion and be compassionate? So think about the last time you saw someone in like distress, a distressful situation. Maybe like I'm not talking like extreme. I'm talking like maybe you saw a child falling and scraping their knee, or you were next to somebody when they received really difficult news and it was like a distressing situation. And you know, you feel whenever you see something like that happen, or you watch somebody go through distress, and you see that, you get this like a pull in your gut, kind of like a physical feeling, like maybe a tightness in your chest or a drop in your stomach, and it's instinctive to do what? What do you want to do in those situations? Like help it better, make it better and help. And you see uh somebody falling, you want to catch them before they hurt their knee, or you see somebody receive really hard or difficult news, you you're most people you get that feeling of I need to help, I need to show care or do these things, and that is what compassion is at its core. This feeling that you get when you see something, you're like, I want to make that better. I want to help in some way. Does that make sense? Yeah, a little bit. It's kind of like pulls you to that person to protect them, comfort them, help them do something in that in that nature. So think about that as we could talk about compassion and how God is compassionate, how God must, you know, have compassion on us and what that looks like. And so last we looked at Exodus uh 34, 6 through 7. That's our main verses. This is the moment that God gives Moses his own self-portrait, tells us who he is, and he leads with compassion. It's the first one. In English language, we have compassion. It sounds like a really nice, polite word. We kind of talked about what we think it means. I think a sympathy is a good kind of synonym, maybe. Is that the right? I'm not really good with English. It's a synonym like compassionate and sympathy, kind of like right there. But the Hebrew word, the word God uses here, is is a little bit more intense, and it's more about it's more about this physical feeling. It's more about this deeply this deep feeling that we get. And so I took this whole thing, this whole series that I'm teaching on Sunday mornings and now telling you guys about on the podcast. I got it from the Bible Project, and so they have a whole series on these these words, and so I'm just gonna play a short clip of what their video about compassion says about the the Hebrew word, the original word, and kind of what they were thinking when they read it, if that's okay. So gonna read, let me play that real quick.
Rachum And The Womb Connection
SPEAKER_01If you tried to describe what God is like, it could be difficult or daunting. But when the people who wrote the Bible pondered the mystery of God, they consistently described God's character in this way: compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, overflowing with loyal love and faithfulness. The very first word used in this description of God is compassionate, or in Hebrew, rachum. This word also appears as a noun, rachamim, or compassion. And what's fascinating is that both of these words are related to the Hebrew word for womb, rechem. So compassion in the Hebrew Bible is centered in a person's core, and the word invites us to imagine a mother's tender feelings for her vulnerable infant.
SPEAKER_00Alright. So that kind of gives you a little bit of a background of this word. I love, well, for me, I like word studies. I like looking at words that we have because our Bibles that we have are translations from another language, and so it does its best to kind of tell us what the words mean, but some things you can't really one word you can't really tell what it fully means behind it. So I like to dig into the original languages sometimes and just pick words out and do studies. And so this one was interesting when I looked at and they talked about compassion, and it the root words coming like to womb was interesting for me. And then it's when somebody read this, the original audience who is reading this in ancient Israel would read it and think, instantly think compassion was that motherly or or parent desire to take care of their child. And you guys are moms, you guys probably can relate to this about a mother's desire to nurture and care for and protect and you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like when you first started explaining compassion. You know, when we first started talking about it, I almost looked at it from an outsider, you know, like what we were talking about. Like I see someone that's maybe close to me that's in distress that needs my help. But when now that you say womb, I'm like on a whole nother level of because to me that means connected. And it means that like when I see my kid hurt, I hurt. Yeah. Right. When so that's like a whole nother level of closeness that I wasn't connecting.
SPEAKER_00That's kind of like I I've done that before. Like you read a verse and you read a word, you're like, I know what that word means. But to go back and look at the original kind of where they got that word from or why they're using that word, to know that you know it goes a little bit deeper than that. And so the primary metaphor for God's compassion isn't, you know, a judge showing leniency or a ruler being kind. It's about a mother's love for her child. It's about a connection, this this absolute protection and nourishment and life-giving when something's vulnerable. Like a little vulnerable baby needs its mother. And so to for God to say, I'm compassionate like this, kind of changes the way, like Brittany said, it's kind of like instead of outside being compassionate, but feeling compassion, having compassion. When the mother carries a child, you know, you know that the mom is the life source for the baby. Her everything changes, everything's about that child. And so when the Bible says that God is compassionate, it's saying that God's response to human weakness in his in our suffering is like a mother looking at her child. It's emotional, it's an internal aching that compels him to act. He needs to take care of his creation, he needs to protect, he needs to be there for his people that he loves. And so I think it takes it to another level. That's why I wanted to play that and kind of get that out there for you guys. And you see this idea of compassion it pop up a few other places in scripture. And that's where I'll go to kind of finish this all out. This whole idea is the picture of a parent's bond, mother, father for their child. It's the foundation for how God interacts with humanity throughout the rest of the Bible. Sometimes we think of God as distant or he's king of all, he's all powerful. We call him father, but we have all these other things attached to it. But at the core of it, he says, I'm compassionate. I'm like a nurturing parent to my people. And that's the foundation for how God deals with humanity and the rest of scripture. And
Compassion Through Israel’s Story
SPEAKER_00this isn't the only time this metaphor is used. Old Testament writers lean into this parental image of God over and over again, especially when Israel's at their lowest points. So Israel gets into a lot of trouble. They act a fool a lot, as Brittany would say. We see this as a pattern, and God always shows up and he's still there with his people. Now, there might be consequences, there always are, for things that they do. God's not always happy, but he's always compassionate. He's always looking out for his people and wanting the best things for them. Isaiah 49, the people of Israel are in exile, they've been taken away, Jerusalem's been destroyed, they feel abandoned, and they say, The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me. And God responds in Isaiah 49, he says, Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born? Though she may forget, I will not forget you. See, I have engraved you on the palm of my hands. This is God's response to Israel asking, God, have you forgotten about us? Do you still care about us? Do you still see what we're going through? And God responds with, This really uses the word compassion again. He's like, I have, does does this mom have no compassion on her child? Does she not want to take care of it? Though she may forget, I will not forget. He says, even if it's possible for a human mother to forget their child, I am not like a human. I am God. It's impossible for me to forget you. He says, I have engraved you on the palm of my hands. I don't know what that means. I didn't get time to look into that, but sounds important. It sounds like God compares his love to a nursing mother. He says, You know, I cannot turn off this idea of compassion towards my people. It's not something I can do. I cannot forget my people. We also see the word show up when human beings show intense mercy or affection for each other. In the story of Genesis, Joseph, chapter 43. Joseph's been sold into slavery by his brothers years earlier, finally sees his younger brother Benjamin again, Benjamin again, and the text says his compassion was stirred, and he had to run out of the room to weep. And the idea of compassion throughout the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, is this deep feelings of care and emotions. And so it's a knot in your gut when you see someone you love deeply, especially when they're in trouble or when you have been separated for a long time, you get that feeling of whatever this compassion thing is that we're talking about. So I'm just trying to give examples of how the Bible uses the word in different situations, different things. And so if you now we fast forward to the New Testament a little bit, and we see how the word compassion is used to describe a few
Jesus’ Compassion And The Prodigal Father
SPEAKER_00things. Just want to give a couple examples from Jesus and the New Testament. So we see when Jesus steps into Galilee, the Gospels writers they use a specific Greek word to describe his reactions to people. I can't. But um kind of like it's the same word for compassion in the Hebrew, which was what was that? Rah. Rahum? Rahum.
SPEAKER_02I thought it was Rahim.
SPEAKER_00No, it's not Rahim.
SPEAKER_04Rahim.
SPEAKER_00No, there was some weird, anyways.
SPEAKER_04Well, there she did do two different words.
SPEAKER_00Well, there was root words that were behind the word for compassion.
SPEAKER_04Okay, so I could be right.
SPEAKER_02You're right.
SPEAKER_00Rahim might have been okay. I'm not a Hebrew scholar. I do enjoy looking at the original languages and stuff. And so you guys can't speak Hebrew, can you? No.
SPEAKER_02I I like to study the names of Jesus. Yes.
SPEAKER_00What can you say?
SPEAKER_02I had to learn it for this job. No, I'm just kidding. That was part of our interview. Can't wear the rest of it?
SPEAKER_00I gotta know Hebrew. I used to know like one sentence. I don't remember what it means, but say it. It was baruch atnai melech el hindu. And then I knew the rest of it, but I forgot. And I don't even know what it means.
SPEAKER_02Baruch. Baruch. Baruch.
SPEAKER_00You gotta get the Adni Malech. Anyway.
SPEAKER_02That actually sounded like a song that I know.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Good song. Anyway, this word in the Greek means to feel it in your organs or feel it in your gut internally. And so uh these feelings, it's how they describe things with their words. And so this same word kind of means compassion. They it's translated as compassion in our Bible. So we see these examples of Jesus, a couple of them. When he sees the crowds who are weary and scattered like sheep without a shepherd, he feels compassion in his gut. When a leopard approaches him begging to be made clean, Jesus is moved with compassion, reaches out his hand, and he touches him. When he stands outside the city of Jerusalem, weeping over it, he uses this parental or maternal language once again that we see rooted in the word compassion in the Hebrew. It says, he speaks and he says, How often have I longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you are not willing. And so once again, these are just examples of where the words used. We're not talking about these passages and by themselves, but that same word for compassion is used in all these ways. And once again, we see him use the idea of maternal instincts. A hen gathers her chicks under her wings, wanting to protect, wanting to be compassionate towards his people. And so the other one that I really wanted to bring up, one of my favorite stories that Jesus tells, the prodigal son story. You have the younger son come home after, you know. Well, at first he asks his dad for his inheritance early. His dad's like, okay. And then he takes it off and he wastes it all on crazy living, squanders the inheritance, finds himself starving to death, covered in pig manure and dirt and all these things, and he decides I gotta go back home to my dad. So he goes back home. The father sees him while he's a long way off, and the text says the father was moved with compassion and runs and throws his arms around his son's neck and kisses him and embraces him and welcomes him back home. That's compassion and action. That's the word that we use as compassion shown out and lived out. It doesn't wait for the child to clean themselves up first. The compassion comes before the cleanup. And I think this is a beautiful way to look at how God is compassionate with his people. You don't have to get everything right all the time. You don't, you know, we're gonna mess up, we're gonna make mistakes, and God isn't waiting for us to clean ourselves up to have compassion on us. No, his compassion is already there and it's been there the whole time. That I use the example of like a parent with their kids, you know. The kids grow up, and when they're young and they're little, they'll do whatever you tell them to do because they try they trust you. They want to do what you have to what you have to say, and they like mom and dad know best. You're my parents, and and so somewhere along the way, they grow up more and they become more like what? They say, I'm gonna do things my own way.
SPEAKER_05Right.
SPEAKER_00I don't need to listen to mom and dad. I don't need to have, but even when they kind of push themselves away or distance themselves, the parents still the compassion doesn't go anywhere. It's not like you stop having compassion for your kids, not like you stop having the need to protect them or be there for them, even if they're pushing back. And so that's what God is like. You see that in the whole story of the Bible, Israel's there, and from the very beginning, we've pushed back against God and we've said, I think I got this. I don't really need you. I'm gonna do it on my own. And God doesn't stop having compassion on us, he's it's what drives him to come after us is compassion for his people, wanting to protect, wanting to give life, even when we reject it. And he still has compassion throughout that whole thing. And so I think that's a a really cool way to look at the word and look at how what it means for God to be compassionate.
What God’s Compassion Means For Us
SPEAKER_00I think that's it.
SPEAKER_03I don't know if I'm I agree.
SPEAKER_00Any thoughts on that? What does it mean for us today that God Himself, the first word that he uses to describe himself is compassion? How does that make you feel? Is it comforting?
SPEAKER_04Very comforting. Yeah, because I when you were talking about earlier, just the whole mom, you know, if a mom leaves the child, the God will never forget about the child. It's just very comforting knowing like there's times in my life that I do feel distance from God, and I just don't I feel like he's, you know, maybe paying more attention to somebody else, or somebody else is growing closer, and I'm just kind of standing there. But he's like, No, I have not forgotten about you. Yeah. So that's really comforting.
SPEAKER_00Very comforting. I think it means that when we're suffering, we've made a mess of things ourselves, or when you can f when you feel vulnerable, you know, God's reaction towards you isn't, you know, oh, it's your own fault. Sorry about that. It's let me help you out, let me be there for you to make it better. That's what it means for God to be compassionate. And so when we live our lives and we do find ourselves in a mess that we made ourselves, or you know, life is difficult, God's reaction towards us, yeah, there's consequences. I don't want I don't want to forget that because it's not like God just makes everything better instantly, even when you mess up, because you still deal with the things that you brought upon yourself. You deal with the consequences of your actions. But God says doesn't define who we are. My compassion is still great for you, and I still want good things for you. His reaction is protective and loving, like a parent holding on to their child when they're sick or when they're needing something. And that's that's how you should picture God, I think, because that's how he describes himself first and foremost. So I don't know who's listening. Maybe I know a lot of people grew up feeling like you had to earn God's approval or keep God's approval, or that God is constantly, you know, waiting to catch you failing. But God says he's compassionate, and that should be how you see him in those different ways. Isn't something you have to draw out of him, he just is compassionate. You don't have to earn the compassion, you don't have to get him to be compassionate towards you. It's who he is.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_00And so I think that's a comforting, that'd be the best word that I would use too. It's very comforting, very uh good to know that that's how God is. And so um, next week we'll look at the next one. It's all about grace, the word for grace, and we'll discuss that. Any other comments or questions on compassion today from you guys? Hopefully that helps some people. Hopefully it was interesting.
SPEAKER_02I think that explained it really well. I think that we always talk about, you know, God, our father, but we do get that disconnect to where I mean, even being a parent, I know how much I love my children. I know how I feel with my children, and yet I still forget that God's
Next Week Grace And Prayer Requests
SPEAKER_02love is more than than that, which is just embarrassing, honestly, that we have to keep reminding ourselves.
SPEAKER_00But it's good though, yeah. There's always I don't know, you think at one point, you know, I went to Bible college, I've been a Christian for a long time, like I know God, and then I'll do something like this, I'll be like, Well, that's a new way to look at it, I did not think of before. Yeah, and I think don't, you know, let yourself grow, let yourself learn more about God and who he is by listening to stuff like this. And, you know, I'm not, I didn't create this, it's not my idea. This is like I said, you can go to the Bibleproject.com or get the Bible project app and watch these videos. I played that clip earlier, and that's from like a it's like a five-minute long video going deep into this kind of stuff. Some of the same themes, and you know, I drew some of those out and added our own stuff to them. But this is something I found that I just wanted to share to make that clear. I didn't come up with all this stuff on my own. But thanks for listening, though. Um prayer quest. If anybody's got anything that you want us to pray about for you, let us know. You can always request prayer at Rush Church. We have prayer cards and stuff, don't we? We've got prayer, yeah, prayer lists and stuff. But let's pray and then we'll
Prayer And Closing Goodbye
SPEAKER_00be done for the day. Lord, thank you so much for this podcast. Thank you for Brittany and Ashley letting us have these discussions and talk and really just continue to learn who you are, continue to want to be on a deeper level in our relationship with you and how you see us and how we can reflect that in our lives towards those around us. So thank you for all that. And be with those who are listening, whatever they have going on this week, I know that you know. And uh yeah, let's have a good rest of our summer. School starting back soon. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. All right. Thanks, guys, for listening, and we'll see you next time on Rush Hour.