Ruthless People

“And I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from the palm of the evil ones.” Jeremiah 15:21

Ruthless People

Evil Ones – Yesterday we discovered that the single word ra (evil) covered all kinds of unholy things.  So you might suspect that we would find the same word here, translated as “evil ones”.  But we don’t.  English fails us again.  The word we find here is ariyts.  It doesn’t belong under the umbrella of ra.  It comes from another idea: the idea of dread.  This word is about people who have no compassion for others.  It’s about people we dread.  It’s full of fear and foreboding.  It’s the word for tyrant, despot and oppressor.  And God says, “I will rescue you from these people”.

There is a deeper message found in this word.  It is the message about the character of God.  A ruthless person is someone who has no compassion.  Such a person is radically opposed to the character of God for God is first and foremost a God of compassion (Exodus 34:6).  Without compassion, ethical action is useless.  Without compassion, holiness only condemns.  Without compassion, all of us are subject to the tyrants that live inside us.  Compassion is the only hope we have.

Have you ever mediated on the compassion of God?  Have you ever really thought about what it means for God to care for you so much that He was willing to sacrifice Himself?  God is holy.  He doesn’t need to accommodate any of our ungodliness.  He is entitled to hold up the unreachable standard.  But He didn’t.  Jesus stooped down and became one of us.  He put himself under ruthless people who showed no compassion for him.  He subjected himself to their tyranny so that you and I could be rescued from dread.

Did you realize that “deliver us from evil” meant that Jesus had to die?  Did you understand that only through the agony of ruthless tyranny could he set us free?  No wonder “deliver us from evil” is a prayer.  We should whisper it with gratitude and thanksgiving.  Our subjection to tyranny is over.