Gracious, compassionate and abundant in loving-kindness. Here are
three descriptive words that seem nearly synonymous in the nature of positive
meaning when describing the character of God. The combination of the three is
used in many other places in the Bible (see Exo. 34:6; Psalm 86:5, 15; 
103:8;
145:8; Num. 14:18; Joel 2:13), and has been called an ancient liturgical
formula because of the fact (Lemke, 358). Although the positive nature of the
words seems to focus on the goal of one certain thing, they definitely all have
their own place.
Loving-kindness
Loving-kindness, Hebrew: ‘khesed’,
can be well understood by the translations that interpreters chose to use in
its place. Such as, “In its preference for ‘mercy’ the KJV was obviously
influenced by the Septuagint (lxx) which in 168 instances renders khesed as ‘mercy’ or ‘compassion’ (Gk.
eleos)” (Gammie, 581). By this, one can understand why one would label God as
having abundance in loving-kindness. For most of us know from experience that He
is full of mercy, and is compassionate.
As far as discerning the character of God through the study
of certain words, we can get a better idea by understanding the fact that “this
word is used chiefly, but not exclusively, of God. The ‘kindness’ the prophet
Micah enjoins humankind to love includes both its human and divine aspects
(Micah 6:1-6). It is thus a metonym for covenantal loyalty and performance”
(Gammie, 581). In other words, Gammie is saying loving-kindness is a figure of
speech that places emphasis on continuing or reassuring His promises. With all
of this, one should have a clear understanding on the character of God through
the definition of loving-kindness.
Compassionate
The Dictionary of Biblical Languages defines this word,
“rahum” or “rakhum”, as “Pertaining to showing favor and not punishment as is
often deserved, implying a forgiving relationship” (Swanson, 8157). As we can
see in Isaiah forty-nine verse fifteen, this word is used “of a mother’s love
toward her nursing baby. It can also refer to a father’s love according to
Psalm 103:13” (Harris, Archer and Waltke, 841). The fact that it can be shown
to mean love towards someone who is viewed as helpless, such as a nursing baby,
and from either parent, gives us an idea of how to correctly view the character
of God through the context of the word compassionate.
A verse comes to mind
when I think of the definition of this Hebrew word, “for he knows how we are
formed, he remembers that we are dust” (NIV, Psalm 103:14). Now that I see
verse thirteen and fourteen together in literary context, I can understand how
verse fourteen defines verse thirteen, as far as the Lord is compassionate because he knows our frame.
Gracious
Gracious, or in Hebrew, “Khannun”,
defines as “pertaining to being merciful to the needy and repentant” (Swanson,
2843). I believe the key word in this definition is ‘repentant’ mainly because
that is what it takes to receive favor. A lexicon shows us how this word is “only
used as an attribute of God, as hearing the cry of the vexed debtor Exo. 22:26”
(Brown, Driver and Briggs, 337). We can understand better if we read on to
verse twenty-seven which describes the Lord hearing the cry of the vexed
debtor, and why he is gracious to
that debtor.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we can see that the
nature of God that is developed in the book of Jonah chapter four, verse two is
one of showing love to the undeserved. Through this we can have a better
understanding about the many names that describe God our Heavenly Father, such
as “jireh”, Gen. 22:14, “nissi”, Exo. 17:15, and “shalom” Judges 6:24, which
are describing God as being the great provider, a banner, and finally, the Lord
of peace.
Written by Nace Howell through the grace of the Lord Jesus
© Nace Howell, 2022
Works Cited
Werner E. Lemke, Th.D.; Professor of Old Testament
Interpretation; Colgate Rochester Divinity School; Rochester, New York,
Publishers Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature, Harper's Bible
Dictionary, 1st ed. (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985).
John G. Gammie, Ph.D.; Emma A. Harwell Professor of Biblical
Literature; University of Tulsa; Tulsa, Oklahoma, Publishers Harper & Row
and Society of Biblical Literature, Harper's Bible Dictionary, 1st ed. (San
Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985).
James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic
Domains: Hebrew (Old Testament), electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Logos Research
Systems, Inc., 1997).
R. Laird Harris, Robert Laird Harris, Gleason Leonard Archer
and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, electronic ed.
(Chicago: Moody Press, 1999, c1980).
The Holy Bible: New International Version, electronic ed.
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984).
Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver and Charles Augustus
Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, electronic ed.
(Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 2000).
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