Moving to Helena in 2006, we noticed more people with dogs. Now, we have two dogs, a White Swiss Shepherd, L’Abri, and a Collie, Skye.
Montanans understand the first half of Proverbs 12:10: “Whoever is righteous has ‘regard for’ (Hebrew, ‘yada,’ ‘to care for/to know intimately’) the life of his beast…” Regard” is a helpful translation. “Re” intensifies “gard” – “to ‘really’ see” – “to ‘really’ guard.”
In Psalm 103, David discloses a deeper relationship: “As a father shows ‘compassion’ to his children, so the LORD shows ‘compassion’ to those who fear him. For he ‘knows’ (‘yada’) our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” (vv.13,14) “Dust!” Pretty humbling! Still, the LORD transformed dust by breathing life and his image into Adam.
And more: “The LORD’s ‘compassion’ is on all that he has made.” (Psalm 145:9) “Compassion” comes from the pregnant bonding noun, “womb.” Wow!
Such “bonding” comes alive in the story of two prostitutes. Once, a prostitute accidentally smothered her baby. She secretly exchanged her dead baby with a nearby prostitute’s living baby. Upon discovery, the horrified living baby’s mother appealed to King Solomon. He asked for a sword to cut the baby in two, proposing to give half to each mother.
The mother’s instantaneous response clarified everything. “Deeply moved out ‘of love’ (‘womb-like/bonding love’) for her son, the woman whose son was alive” pleaded, “‘Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!’ But the other said, ‘Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!’” Solomon awarded the baby to the real mother. “All Israel stood in awe of the king. God’s wisdom was in him to do justice.” (1 Kings 3:28)
God’s “compassion”/“tender mercies”/“womb-like love” is most often described by “great” (11x). In magnitude, extent, number and intensity, especially, in Christ, his mercies are “great.” Hallelujah!
Now, we proceed to Proverbs 12:10b: “But the ‘mercy’ of the wicked is cruel.” “Mercy” is actually “womb-like love!” What?! A “wicked” person can transform “womb-like love” into “cruelty?!” Yes!
This prayer summarizes the Bible’s description of the source of our cruelty: “Sin is my malady, my monster, my foe, my viper, born in my birth, alive in my life, strong in my character, dominating my faculties following me as a shadow, intermingling with my every thought, my chain that holds me captive in the empire of my soul.” (Valley of Vision, p. 75)
Still, much evil is masked. Our wicked self-preservation/self-promotion can render even those close to us non-persons. Truth becomes hate-speech. Tender-mercies become cruel.
Consider Montana’s 2023 Legislature approving a bill forbidding abortionists from dismembering a baby being aborted. During debate, those accustomed to promoting only women’s rights had to “regard” (“yada”) babies. Lacerating/hacking procedures are “cruel.”
Likewise, from the 1930s -1950s, hoodwinked “mental health advocates” mangled the brains of roughly 60,000 in the US and Europe through lobotomies. By 1950, Soviets(!) banned lobotomies as “contrary to the principles of humanity.”
Today, bullied/bulldozed/brutalized by so-called “best-practices-gender-affirming-care,” many approve maiming body parts. In debating a Montana bill opposing “gender affirming care,” some Senators were offended not by the reality of such amputations but by fellow Senators using “amputate” to describe transgender surgeries!
What’s going on? God is allowing more evil to be seen. Scripture reveals: “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)
Thus, even as we resist such powers, we can sorrow for instead of demonizing those caught up in these powers.
Those secluded from God harm themselves/others. Counter-intuitively, “A man who is ‘kind’ (‘hesed,’ God’s steadfast-lovingkindness to others) benefits ‘himself’ (‘his soul’), but a ‘cruel’ man hurts ‘himself’ (‘his flesh’).” (Prov 11:17)
For example, “night and day among the tombs and on the mountains” (the Gerasene) “was always crying out, ‘cutting’ (‘katakoptó’) himself with stones.” (Mark 5:5)
Kóptō” is drastic: “to cut; be struck, being cut off.” “Kata” intensifies our already severe word. “Katakoptó” is “I cut up, cut in pieces, mangle, wound.” More deadly!
Still, Jesus intentionally sought the demon-motivated-self-mutilating Gerasene. After relocating the Gerasene’s demons into a herd of cliff-jumping pigs, Jesus charged this restored man: “Go home to your friends. Tell them how much the Lord has done for you, how he has had ‘mercy’ on you.”
And, friend, what mercies will de-transitioned people declare?
Today, an elite approves those who have themselves cut to fulfill destructive transgender desires. Such “desecrations” treats a “sacred” person or place violently.
Eventually, some will awaken to their desecration.
Devasted by such vandalism/mayhem, who will they call to account as complicit, duplicitous accomplices? Certainly, some insurance companies, hospitals, and doctors will be liable. And perhaps even some churches, paraplegics of virtue, by furthering the deception, covering up wicked/cruel practices, will be liable for giving a veneer of respectability.
God, help us. Soon “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the ‘body,’ whether good or evil.” (2 Corinthians 5:10) Unrepented, wicked acts we have performed with or upon our bodies will be exposed and damned.
Peter admonishes those redeemed by Christ: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the ‘passions’ (‘epithumia’) of your former ‘ignorance’ (‘agnostic ways’), but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’ (1 Peter 1:14-16)
Friend, beware. “Epithumia/passions” inspired by our natural ungodliness usually mean trouble. “Epithumia” is used thirty-eight times in the New Testament. But only three uses positively advance God’s kingdom. Beware of false passions demanding others affirm such appetites. What you really need may be utterly foreign from what you want.
Nevertheless, faith, bought by Christ on the cross for many, transforms deep “epithumia” passions into the whole-hearted pursuit of loving God and neighbor as well as caring for creation.
“Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.” Aha.
