Cry over them

Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer's inkhorn at his side; and the LORD said to him, "Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it." – Ezekiel 9.3-4

In this old world it is easy for us to get angry or haughty or arrogant or proud because things are so bad. We see the very public evil of the world and we can only think about how bad they are and how much we want to see them punished. It is cool to get on Facebook and call them names and condemn them and try to seem all spiritual about it.

But look what God says about how to respond to all this evil. God tells Ezekiel to ‘cry over all the abominations that are done.’

In our humanness we want to see people punished for their wickedness. Vile cults like Westboro Baptist openly condemn people had stand in the place of God with their condemnations. The poor folks there are trapped in a system that is its own kind of abomination.

I think about when Jesus looked back over the city of Jerusalem and His spirit was stirred within Him and he groaned as saw then as sheep having no shepherd. I think about where Paul writes that we no longer see people with the flesh, but the love of Christ constrains us and we see them with His eyes. Are we weeping over the broken world or are we standing back, condemning them, and resting on our laurels?  

Are we crying over the abominations of the world around us?