Mitigating the Suffering of Others

“For if ye turn again unto the LORD, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land: for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him.” (2Ch 30:9 AV)

 

Hezekiah was king of Judah at the time that Israel went onto captivity to Assyria.  During Hezekiah’s reign, they cleaned out the temple which lay neglected and unused and reinstituted Temple worship.  Upon the first Passover Judah celebrated in some time, the king invited the remnant of Israel who was not taken captive.  The address went out to these tribes still left with a small number to come and join the celebration in accordance with the law handed down by Moses.  The promise is what we read above.  If they were to come down and participate in the Passover, repenting of their sin and rededicating themselves to the LORD, it could be that God would change the terms of the captivity of their brothers, children, and family.  What an amazing promise!  If they were to humble themselves, God would show more mercy to those whom they saw carried away.  Who wouldn’t?  According to our passage, the remnant lost someone close to them to the invaders.  Wives, children, parents, brothers, or sisters.  This invasion touched every home.  When we see what the LORD is promising here, it is quite amazing.

I haven't played all that much on sports teams.  I was never athletic or coordinated enough.  But the times I did, one of the disciplines of team building was corporate and mutual commitment.  I played baseball for a few years, track and field for about three years, and high school basketball for a bit less than a year.  One of the drills is always running.  Whether the basketball team is running suicides or the baseball team is running the outfield, the coach would often require the entire team to complete a goal – as a team.  For instance, there might be a time limit.  Run the entire outfield five times in under ten minutes.  If there were stragglers who didn’t care all that much, the coach would have the entire team run another five laps.  Doing this over and again until those who chose not to care would begin to care.  The more laps the team had to run, the more upset they became at those less committed.  It didn’t take long for the stragglers to pick up their pace.  They hated the running.  Most of the time they walked it.  That was never going to change.  What they could not endure was the anger of those whom they caused to suffer.  All they had to do was to run a little faster.  Until they grew a conscience, they would never run as they could from the start.  It took a bit to learn the coach meant business.  When they knew the coach would require extra laps, they ran as they should.  They simply did not want to be that person who caused the entire team to suffer more laps.

This got me thinking this morning.  I couldn’t help but wonder if my lack of repentance might be hindering someone else’s relief.  I had to wonder if I were to confess and forsake my sin, perhaps someone else might be eased by it.  Israel was in captivity for 188 years.  The Northern kingdom went into captivity in 723 BC and the south around 605 BC.  In other words, the Northern Kingdom spent an extra 120 years or so in captivity that their brothers in the south did not.  One has to wonder if the generation above would have repented and joined in temple worship if those taken would have returned at least until Judah was take 120 years later.  The point is obvious.  If we are reluctant to repent, we may be causing undue hardship on others.  We are not easing their burden.  Yes, they may be suffering for the choices they made.  But our lack of repentance could be causing them to suffer longer than God had hoped for.  One has to examine the recesses of the heart and determine whether our failure to forsake our sin is causing someone else’s pain to linger.  These Jewish citizens had the opportunity to ease the burden of their closest friend and relative, yet they declined.  That is pretty cold.  I have to ask myself.  Am I equally cold?