The Sweet Sound Of Someone Else’s Demise

 

It’s shocking, I know……the ugly part we all know is there, deep down and hiding till the right bit of news makes it pop to the surface. That part of our fallen, human nature that rejoices over the wrong things.

We try to keep it hidden. We rebuke it when we see it in ourselves. We cover it over with all kinds of “good”, but we know it is only a matter of time before the right set of circumstances stirs it up.

Why do we feel it? Why do our hearts want to rejoice at the demise of someone else, at the difficulty of their circumstances?

As I read and blog through the chronological Bible, I am struck with how age-old the problem really is. As I recall “nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9), I am reminded that although the context of this tendency changes throughout the years, the root of it in our hearts does not.

This is one of many reasons I value reading through the Bible. I do not commit to such an endeavor every year, because the pace is somewhat fixed and fast. But every other year or so, I feel the draw of reading through the most wonderful story there is- the story of God and His redeeming love for us, through His Son Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. To read it from beginning to end, without missing any nugget of the context tucked away in obscurity, has grown my faith and intimacy with the Lord like little else can compare.

So when I come across Ezekiel 25:1-17, reading of how the Ammonites as well as other nations, took pleasure in the downfall of one of it’s neighbors, I learn how God views such hidden emotions. Although these emotions are usually passive in nature, meaning that they do not necessarily transfer into actions that contribute toward the downfall of others, they are nevertheless just as wrong.

The prophet Ezekiel received such perspective in verse 3,

“…..Because you said ‘Aha!’ over my sanctuary when it was desecrated and over the land of Israel when it was laid waste and over the people of Judah when they went into exile, therefore I am going to give you to the people of the East as a possession.”

Then in verse 6 he expounds,

“For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet, rejoicing with all the malice of your heart against the land of Israel, therefore I will stretch out my hand against you and give you as plunder to the nations.”

It would be so easy to leave the lesson there, with the Ammonites……but how many of us have rejoiced inwardly over the demise or hardship of another. I know I can’t be the only one who has had my own “Aha!” moments at another’s expense.

Ashamedly, I have found the knowledge of a struggle or disappointment concerning someone else to somehow make me feel better, as I give way to feeling frustration or insecurity with my own life. But that is the profit from the Living Word of God- to read and understand our sin when it doesn’t feel so much like sin to us. 

How hopelss we would be if left to ourselves?! But thanks be to God through His Son Jesus Christ for saving us from the destructive path our own hearts insist on taking! I am reminded that the feelings from our struggle with our incessant sin nature are normal and all too common.

Paul in Romans 7:21-25 described such experiences, but he also reminds us who has victory over the worst of our emotions that seem so ugly and uncontrollable. Jesus lived and knew all our temptations, so He understands when the ugliness pops up from the deep recesses of our hearts.

As I have come to know Jesus as the Author and Perfecter of my faith, He is gentle yet firm in His conviction of when I rejoice over another’s “reaping what they sow” consequence or any other type of hardship. He traces the stubborn root back to my own sin. It is because of my own jealousy, greed, envy, pride or insecurity that I weigh in emotionally where I don’t belong.

Would I want others rejoicing over my consequences when they happen? Do I want others to feel superior about their life at the display of struggles in my own? No!

This is what the Lord brings to mind as I read about the Ammonites and God’s judgement upon them. The competitive nature in me that tempts me to compare myself to others, measuring my success agsinst the backdrop of their failure, is a deceptive and destructive scheme from the enemy of my faith.  I have fallen victim to it time and again but thankfully, I am coming to recognize my sin sooner and sooner, allowing me the opportunity to refuse the temptation of rejoicing over the wrong things.

It is to God’s glory as we repent and resist the all-to-easy pattern of relishing the “Aha!” moments in the lives of others. Instead, God reminds us in Romans 12:15,

Rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn.

My call is to celebrate the victories in the lives of others as well as cry over their struggles. It is then I am being most like my loving, beautiful Savior.

That is my conviction of late- to resist the temptation to compare and the resulting sin that easily flows afterward. When I rejoice with others as they succeed or mourn with them in their heartache, I am honoring God and seeking His light in the deepest places of insecurity in my own heart, while trusting in His plan for me.