Compassion With The Callous

“Then I came to them of the captivity at Telabib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.” (Eze 3:15 AV)

This is quite a remarkable gesture considering what the LORD told the prophet regarding his ministry.  To be astonished here means to be stunned.  The LORD sent Ezekiel to a congregation that would not listen to him.  He would not have one convert.  Not one.  The entire nation would reject his warning.  They would do worse than that.  They would throw his colleague, Jeremiah, into a prison of mud and slim.  They would bring him to the brink of starvation.  All the while, Ezekiel is in Babylon by the river Chebar preaching for their repentance.  Amid captivity wherein things could not possibly get any worse, they still turn a deaf ear.  Yet, he sits with them for seven days, empathizing with their condition even though there is nothing they will do to help themselves.  This is compassion.  This prophet loved God more than he did himself and whatever it was the LORD wanted him to do, he did it.  This includes keeping compassionate company with those who wanted nothing to do with him or what he said.

I appreciate what doctors do.  There aren’t a whole lot of patients that take the time to recognize the effort they take to make our lives a little bit better.  They practice a craft that will end in defeat.  No one lives on earth forever.  They practice their craft so that we might have a quality of life we wouldn’t have otherwise.  Most of the suggestions they share fall on deaf ears.  The patient’s priorities for quality of life are often different than the doctor’s recommendations.  He or she is working toward the longevity of life and we want a fullness of life.  We don’t care how long we live as long as we can eat that double-stack cheeseburger with cheese curds and a milkshake.  Carbs are the best!  Who wants to sacrifice a big cone of custard for a few extra hours on this planet?  They mean well, but our priorities are different.  Yet each day, they come into the office, put on their white lab coat, review charts, and begin to see one patient after another who will want nothing more than a script to ease some self-inflicted pain.  They do all this without judging or condemnation.  They are there to help even if we don’t want the help.  At least the help that is best for us.

This is our job as an ambassador for the LORD Jesus Christ.  We are sent to a lost and dying world of whom most want nothing to do with us.  It is even worse than that.  They hate us and persecute us.  The compassion does not stop with the lost.  Sometimes they are easier to love than the obstinate saint.  The fellow believer who seems to want nothing to do with holiness, sanctification, or brotherly love is often the one we tend to avoid.  But the LORD has called us to love our brothers and sisters in Christ no matter their reaction toward us.  What Ezekiel did is more than exemplary.  It is downright admirable.  For him to sit for seven days with people who hated him, would never listen to him, and wanted him gone is a level of compassion that is hard to grasp.  I can see how cleansing that would be.  All pretense is gone.  You know you are not getting any mileage out of it.  Yet, you sit, anyway.  They will never understand the gesture.  You will never be appreciated for it.  They will never thank you for it nor see why you did it.  But you did it for the LORD and them.  A pure and perfect motive.  May we learn to sit with our enemy and love them despite their reaction to our compassion!