The Eyes that Pitied Me
Judges 2:16 & 18b
Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. … For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.
The pity of God is a treasure too great to measure and too wondrous to fathom. The thought of gazing into that holiest face, that face that bellowed at Sinai through thunder and lightning, that called waters from the deep chasms of earth to baptize a corrupt world, that laughed at Pharaoh’s sorcerers and Og’s charioteers and Jericho’s walls and Canaan’s goliaths, and wreaked vengeance on all who stiffened their necks against His spiritual wind, has another quite different look—a more defining one—a more resonant one—of pity.
What did that blind beggar discover when he looked up at the Man Who’d touched and healed his eyes? What did that Samaritan woman at the well see reflecting back at her in the waters of her desperate and endless search for meaning? What did Mary and Martha witness in the tears that poured down from their Master’s eyes outside the gravesite of their brother, Lazarus? What did Peter discover when his resurrected Lord, even after that great betrayal, drew him near with an embrace of forgiveness? What do you and I see on that same marred, beaten, and bloodied face, when Christ whispers over our wickedness a resounding word, “Father, forgive them!”? What else but pity?
The difference between stiff-necked, prideful men and redeemed men is that one sees pity in God’s eyes and resents it, or rejects it, or doesn’t need it, and the other sees pity in God’s eyes and runs for
cover therein. Martin Luther’s last written words were a simple testament to this very fact when he wrote, “We are beggars, this is true.” And that’s the starting point on the journey of faith. That’s the very first step on the pilgrimage to Heaven’s promised land: groaning out in our weariness and waywardness and emptiness, “Oh LORD, have mercy on me!” And He hears that cry every time, and responds to our need, and delivers us from the evil within and the evil without.
Oh friend, we need much from our great God today, from nourishment to wisdom to encouragement to direction to sanctification, but we need His pity most of all.