“Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry:” (Ps 106:44 AV)
This psalm is a record of the failures of Israel to trust the LORD from
the time they left Egypt until the end of Judges. Time and again, they bucked against the provision
and purpose of God for them. The
struggle in the wilderness was mostly a lack of faith. There was the time when they coupled with the
nation of Moab. God sent fiery serpents
among them and killed tens of thousands.
There was also the golden calf which Aaron made when Moses was on the mountain
receiving the law from God. However, for
the most part, it was a lack of faith and contentment that strained their relationship
with the LORD while they wandered in the wilderness. Once Joshua was dead, they people began to pursue
relationships with the nations around them.
This led to repeated moral and spiritual failures. The LORD allowed these new ‘friends’ to
conquer the Jewish people and subjugate them to taxation and vexation. They would cry to the LORD for relief. Time and again, the LORD brough them out by
the hand of a judge. The last was
Samuel. What amazes me is the patience and
love of God towards His wayward children.
He never gave up on Israel and He will never give up on us.
It’s kind of hard watching your child suffer. Even if it was self-inflicted, there comes a
time when Mom or Dad simply cannot watch their child in agony and does
something about it. The more severe the
circumstances, the quicker Mom or Dad act.
I know I have related this story before, but it bears repeating. My sister and I were walking through a department
store and she dared me to shoplift.
Being the idiot I was and wanting to impress my older sister, I
complied. It wasn’t even worth the effort.
I say a little whistle in the penny box and decided it wouldn’t be too
bad. Surely they wouldn’t care. Boy, was I wrong. No sooner did I put that whistle in my pocket
then the loss prevention officer scooped us up and hauled us to his
office. He called my father. We knew what that meant. Usually, it meant we would get a spanking
right outside the store before we even go into the car. The embarrassment of getting spanked in public
was horrible. So, we sat, waiting on my
father. And we sat and sat and sat. Our house was less than ten minutes from the
store. My father waited six hours before
he came. In the meantime, police
officers would come and go through this office.
This gave us the impression they would haul us off to jail at any moment
because we thought our Dad had given up on us.
After six hours, he arrived and we were excused from the office. My dad spent a moment with the store manager
and loss prevention officer. When he
came out he simply said one little sentence.
“Let’s go to the car.” He never said another word. On the ride home, not a word. When we got home, not a word. He figured he made us point by scaring us
half to death while we waited and waited and waited. My father showed great wisdom and compassion
that day. A lesson I never forgot.
We get ourselves in all sorts of trouble. Yet when the circumstances of those choices
come home to roost, the LORD is there to help us through them. He rarely completely takes them away. But the Spirit is there to comfort us as we
suffer for our wickedness. Like Mom who
rocks us and holds us after Dad spanks us, the Spirit is there to give us the
strength and share the love of God while we endure what we rightly
deserve. God hears our cry. He sees our affliction. This affliction came because we chose not to
obey or trust God. The cry comes because
we didn’t have the courage or discipline to follow Christ. These things come upon us because we are weak
and frail. The LORD knows our limitations. He knows how frail we are. He knows what we can and cannot do. So, there He is. Looking upon our self-inflicted affliction
and hearing the cries of agony because we are human, and shows compassion
beyond our wishes. He is faithful, longsuffering,
and full of compassions. His mercy fails
not!
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