They Don't Really Care

“For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest?” (Jer 15:5 AV)

The LORD asks an excellent question here.  When Judah suffers for the disobedience of many decades, who in the pagan world will show a depth of sympathy that only God can?  They will have their own problems.  Babylon came up against the entire region.  Not just Judah.  Edom and Moab were carried away.  Syria and Assyria were conquered and had their own problems.  Who is really going to care when God’s people are chastened of the LORD?  The world rejoices when God’s people compromise.  They believe they have defeated God because they have enticed God’s people.  Yet, when the hand of God comes, they too will not be spared.  They may have sympathy as much as they can, but the lost really cannot care as much for the problems of the saved as they do their own.  Their empathy is short-lived.  Sometimes it is hypocritical.  They empathize with the saved so they can stick a thumb in the eye of God.  But once their vindictive nature is satisfied, they will have no care for the sufferings of the saint.  That is the question posed above.

This reminds me of a story my brother told me.  One of the mischievous deeds we used to do was to squish pennies.  There were railroad tracks in the back of one church we attended.  Trains used those tracks regularly.  Someone figured out that if you place a penny on the track, the weight of the train would flatten it really thin.  Boys being boys, we had to check this out.  It was really cool to have a penny that was one forth the width and four times larger diameter.  It was a conversation piece.  Most of the boys tried to do this during our playground time.  Teachers would catch us very quickly and we never got the prized penny project off the ground.  However, some of us were industrious enough to sneak to the tracks in the evening hours.  This is what my brother did.  The problem with this practice is it was not the safest of things to do.  The penny could squirt out and become a very dangerous projectile.  Or, the boy placing the penny on the track could get caught in the tracks.  Unable to free himself, he could lose us life.  The penny had to be placed when a train was approaching.  One such evening, my brother and his few of his friends decided it was their turn to try such a dangerous excursion.  The police were very nearby.  When they arrived, my brother did not notice.  His friends did.  They took off.  My brother got a ride down to the station where my father had to collect him.  What did his friends do?  They laughed at him for a week.  Rather than sympathizing that he was caught, and they were not, they mocked him.

I find it fascinating when the truly saved backslide into the world and are shocked when the world doesn’t live up to their expectations.  The really unfortunate thing is this lesson often takes a life-time to learn.  The world may empathize for a time.  But they will only do so on their terms.  The backslidden saint has to trash God as much as they do.  The saint has to accept the values of the world.  He or she has to participate.  They cannot, like Lot, live among them, compromise, be like them, yet have a line in the sand.  That will not do.  Any attempt to be different is met with scorn and hatred.  Judah expected sympathy from the ones with whom they compromised.  It was never forthcoming.  Sympathy was never coming.  Moab, Edom, Assyria, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, etc., never showed sympathy for Judah as she was chastened of the LORD.  The only grace and mercy one can have is from the LORD.  He will forgive.  He will restore.