THE CRY FOR SYMPATHY

LAMENTATIONS 1:1

A. "IS IT NOTHING TO YOU, ALL YE THAT PASS BY? BEHOLD, AND SEE IF THERE BE ANY SORROW LIKE UNTO MY SORROW"
  1. The book of Lamentations:
    1. Is a gook of five poems
    2. Five dirges of five lamentations of the suffering of the city of Jerusalem
  2. The first chapter gives the distress of the city after the siege by the Chaldeans:
    1. The city is pictured as a widow, a discrowned princess, widow bereft of her children
    2. The night comes and she is till without comfort, her children have been taken away from her B. THE CRY FOR HUMAN SYMPATHY
  3. "Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there by any sorrow like unto my sorrow":
    1. This is a very common feeling and a common cry
    2. How painful we feel the awful indifference of the world; Examples: See the Son of God hanging on the shameful cross on Calvary's height - bleeding and in agony; He heart must have yearned for human sympathy - but in vain - Luke 23:34-36
  4. But there is another thought involved in this cry for sympathy:
    1. The cry of someone else
    2. It is not our own cry against the cold world, but the cry of some against our own indifference to suffering - Ps. 142:4
    3. "I am forgotten as a dead man our of mind - Ps. 31:11-12
    4. "Lover and friend hast Thou put far away from me and mine acquaintance into darkness" - Ps. 88:8, 18
    5. "All my inward friends abhorred me and they whom I loved are turned against me" - Job 19:19
  5. The lesson is not far to seek:
    1. That we should do our part to comfort those in sorrow - Matt. 5:7
    2. Let us learn from the Lover of men and how He related Himself to human suffering - Is. 53:1-9 C. SOME OF THE BASIC REASONS FOR HUMAN INDIFFERENCE
  6. The spirit of Cain - "Am I my brother's keeper?" - Gen. 4:9
  7. Humanity is so engrossed with the cares of this world, that people seem to have neither time or the will to think of others in their sorrows - Luke 21:34-35
  8. Total preoccupation with the material things of this life is another contributory factor to human indifference - Luke 17:26-28
  9. But at the bottom of it all, we shall find:
    1. That human selfishness is the root of man's coldness and indifference to the need of other people; Examples: The parable of the rich man and Lazarus - Luke 16:19-21; Ahab and the vineyard of Naboth - I Kings 21:1-17; Lot and his uncle Abraham - Gen. 13:10-11
    2. Covetousness is still another cause for human indifference to the need of sympathy for others
  10. This brings this message home to us:
    1. We are Christ's professed representatives in this world - Acts 1:8; I Pet. 2:99-11
    2. We are essentially a very busy people we have so much to do and our time and energies are used to the very limit of our capacity
    3. Is it possible that we are guilty of not being sympathetic to the sorrows of others
    4. Your humble servant was in the hospital for several weeks, yet a very few of his fellow workers had any time to even come and have prayer for him
  11. Just how important is our attitude toward others in the sight of God?
    1. Let us ponder the words of Christ in Matthew 25:34-46
    2. The story of the priest, the Levite and the Samaritan - Luke 10:29-36
    3. The plea of blind Bartimaeus - Mark 10:46-52
    4. Compassion for others is a mark of the spirit of the Lord Jesus - Is. 63:9


Design © John Bryant 2011