When God Weeps

When God Weeps

 

When I think of God’s emotions, I most often think of His love for me, and patience, and compassion. And I think also of His anger and wrath against those who choose of their own free will to not follow Him.  But I usually forget another emotion God exhibits. He reminded me of it as I am now reading again through the prophet Ezekiel. I found it in chapter 6. Here are two translations: (Ezekiel 6:9, NRSV) "Those of you who escape shall remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I was crushed by their wanton heart that turned away from me, and their wanton eyes that turned after their idols."

 

"And those of you that escape shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captive, how that I have been broken with their lewd heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which play the harlot after their idols." ASV)

 

Only rarely have I considered that God’s heart is broken, crushed, when those He loves so much – that being all 100% of humanity – how His heart is so terribly wounded when anyone turns away from Him, when they reject Him.

 

Nancy and I have been married going on 46 years. I love my wife. I know she also dearly me.  I cannot begin to fathom the deeply visceral pain that would devastate me if she were ever to walk out of our marriage. I cannot begin to comprehend the agony if she were ever unfaithful to me.  And I do not doubt she feels the same way about my fidelity toward her.

 

We also have three children. I cannot imagine what it would be like if any of them would turn their back on Nancy or me and never call, write, or visit.

 

Some of you reading this know from personal experience the agony of rejection by a spouse or a child. To this day, years, maybe decades later, the hurt still cuts.

 

Rejection. 

Many of you will remember a text you’ve read many times in the past. It’s in John’s gospel about Jesus – the Creator, the lover of His creation, especially of men and women.  Here is what the Holy Spirit tells us:

 

“There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. (John 1:9-11)

 

The text doesn’t say it, but I think it measures to the same poignancy as the text in Ezekiel: “How I was crushed by their wanton heart that turned away from me . . ..”

 

It is one thing – bad enough as it is – when those who never wanted to follow God reject God.  But how does it hurt Him when those who once followed Him turn from Him?

That’s what happened to an early Christian whose name was Demas. We first find him in Colossians 4 where Paul calls him a faithful servant of Jesus. The apostle mentions him once again as his ‘fellow worker’ for Christ in the book of Philemon.

 

But something happened to the once faithful servant of Christ. We read these words in 2 Timothy 4. Paul is in prison. He’s alone. And Paul writes to Timothy: Make every effort to come to me soon; for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica . . . .”  (verses 9-10). The word used here for ‘loved’ is agape. It means to love something or someone dearly, to be well pleased with, to decide no one and nothing else more valuable.

 

Demas, having become enamored by this present world, turned not only from Paul, but seems he also turned from God.

 

You and I should not wonder why the Holy Spirit urges us in 1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. Or why Jesus warned in Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Or why God tells us in the context of Ezekiel, God is crushed when we turn from Him to our own desires.

 

We all know such things happen. There are some who never come to the loving Creator and heavenly Father because they want to follow their own rules and not God’s. On the other hand, some come and stay for a while, but then fall away for any number of reasons, such as those enumerated in the Parable of the Sower. You can read it for yourself in Matthew 13.

 

But the critical question for us is this: When we are faithless, how does God ‘feel,’ when we turn from Him? It is NOT anger or wrath. It’s pain – the pain of rejection, the pain – on a much larger scale than WE can understand – of watching your beloved spouse – or your beloved CHILD – walk away from you.

 

What does God feel when we turn from Him? God’s heart broke over the nation that turned its back on Him (Ezekiel 6:9). He wept over Jerusalem when it turned its back on Him (Luke 19:41). And don’t think for a moment that God does not weep over you or me or those we love and who turn away from Him.

Here is what He said to His wayward sons and daughters through Ezekiel:

“Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus you have spoken, saying, “Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we are rotting away in them; how then can we survive?”’ Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’ Ezekiel 33:10-11 

And here is what He said again, this time through the prophet Hosea: “Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips. (Hosea 14:1-2)

Listen. This is important. If you’ve turned from Him, He weeps. His heart is broken. Even now, as you read this, His heart is broken. And that’s why you’ve read this far, because your inner spirit is hearing Him calling you: “Please. Come back. Please. I long for you to return.”

What will you do? He hopes it is this: Tell Him you’re sorry you strayed. Tell Him you want to come home. He will open His arms for you to come. Even now, as you read these words.

 

Never become so arrogant to think we cannot end up as Demas. Or Judas. We must each be ever watchful and alert to the danger of slipping away by degrees from our God and becoming enamored with the present world.

 

How do we keep alert and watchful?

 

1. Know therefore the condition of your heart. Focus on that condition every day. Evening is best, but morning is a good time, too. Focus on your heart’s bent toward God, and if you might detect a subtle coolness of heart entering your relationship toward Him.

 

As we just heard from Hosea: “Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips.” Say to God: “O Holy Spirit! Show me if I am falling asleep. And if I am, shake me awake.”

 

2. Keep short accounts with God. Don’t let sins – especially the sins we call minor, or venial sins – don’t let them slide without acknowledging them to God and to ourselves that we are wrong.

 

St. Augustine: While he is in the flesh, man cannot help but have at least some light sins. But do not despise these sins which we call "light": if you take them for light when you weigh them, tremble when you count them. A number of light objects makes a great mass; a number of drops fills a river; a number of grains makes a heap. What then is our hope? Above all, confession.

 

3. Keep doing the right things, even and especially if they seem to have grown tedious. Bible reading. Prayer – even monosyllable simple prayers, Congregational worship. And do not forget DAILY confession of sins.  There is not a person in this room who does not have something to confess each evening, even if only the small and minor sins.

 

Remember the warning of the Lord to the church at Ephesus: ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. (Revelation 2:2-5)

We need to know it hurts God when we willfully sin. But His open arms are always waiting. His compassion will always draw us in. We only need to acknowledge when we hurt Him, apologize, repent . . . and come to Him for reconciliation. In fact, if we want to know what makes Him happy – that’s it: Our willingness to return to Him in repentance, responsive to His call to a life of holiness.