Psalm 119 is the longest verse-count passage (psalm or chapter) in God’s word. Interestingly, that particular psalm focuses upon one of God’s greatest gifts ever provided for mankind, His precious word. The second longest verse-count passage is Numbers chapter 7. Interestingly, God’s word focuses this chapter upon mankind giving gifts back to God. The passage could have been dramatically shortened had God chosen to give fewer of the details. However, the Lord chose to specifically delineate each of the gifts received from each tribe. Why? Maybe God wanted to emphasize the importance of every gift from every individual given to Him. No gift represented a lesser degree of importance to God Almighty. God does not need anything from man (Psalm 50:7-15) yet finds great pleasure in receiving gifts from those whom He loves.
One’s actions demonstrate true compassion. Five times the Bible uses the phrase moved with compassion (Matthew 9:36; Matthew 14:14; Matthew 18:27; Mark 1:41; Mark 6:34). Four of the five references refer to Christ’s compassion toward others. True compassion always moves people to do something for others. In Mark 6:34-44, the disciples wanted to send the crowd away hungry, but Christ refused to send them away empty. He would not allow the multitudes to leave His presence still in need. In this one example, Christ's compassion fed thousands when others would have sent them away faint and hungry. The Lord not only fed thousands with two small fishes and five loaves of bread, but also produced a miraculous amount of leftovers.
The journey of the Lord from Phoenicia (Tyre and Sidon) to Decapolis covered between 50 and 75 miles. No doubt much of the traveling might have taken place on foot. When He arrived at the Sea of Galilee, the Lord must have been drained physically. Yet, there was no time for rest because a man in need of healing was brought to Him. The man was deaf and had a speech impediment. The Lord separated from the multitude and healed the deaf and dumb man. He first put His fingers in the man’s ears, then spit and touched the man’s tongue. The Lord looked toward heaven and sighed, then commanded the man’s ears to be opened. Immediately, his eyes were opened and his tongue was loosed and he could both see and speak.
