There, stood One Whom John said of Him, “I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of His sandals” (Luke 3:16). John was not just a mere man; he was the one the prophets prophesized about, the one chosen to be the precursor of YAHSHUA, preparing the way for Him. “And you, little one, shall be called a prophet of the Most High; for you shall go on before the face of the Lord to make ready His ways, to bring and give the knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness and remission of their sins.” (Luke 1:76-77). YAHSHUA, our Lord, being God, did not consider His status of Son of God. When He came down to earth, He came to substantiate His love for sinners, lost and separated from Him, and that means men. In His sight, there is none righteous apart from Him. So, when we see a miserable person in his rags, dirty and forsaken, remember, that is the spiritual condition of all who rejects God. That’s the way He sees us, yet with compassion. He said, “The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). Next time we see a homeless man, let’s not turn away from him, but let our eyes meet his, to convey the love of our Lord and Savior, YAHSHUA. After all, that’s Whom we represent. Doing otherwise, we are misrepresenting Who He is; we are misleading others about Him, and leading others to abandon the faith. We are acting as Pharisees- hypocrites, an action YAHSHUA condemned.
Suffering comes to all in its appointed time; there is none who has been born that will escape the wrath of suffering. In everything that happens to man, there is the control of God’s timing. We suffer the results of bad decisions we make; we also suffer unjustly in the hands of those who hate God; man, also suffers the result of sin in his life. But when someone is found prostrated, it is up to us to give him a hand. This way, we are associating with him in the fact that we are also prone to suffering. In the case of Job, he clearly expressed his emotional pain toward his friends’ judgment against him by saying, “My friends scorn me, but my eye pours out tears to God. Oh, that there were one who might plead for a man with God and that he might maintain his right with Him, as a son of man pleads with or for his neighbor!” (Job 16:20-21).
When the conscience does not accuse us of wrong doing in the midst of our suffering, peace will lead us to the final day of our ordeal, we have extended our hand to the needy and poor, as the Bible says: those who have considered the weak and the poor, the Lord will deliver them from the time of evil and trouble. He will protect and keep them alive; they shall be called blessed in the land; and God will not deliver them to the will of the enemies. He will sustain, refresh, and strengthens them on their bed of languishing; all their bed, the Lord will turn, change and transform in their illness (Ps. 41:1-3) (Paraphrased). The Lord God has a special place in His heart for those who are suffering hopelessly, no matter the roots of their suffering; and He will reward those who will consider the poor and those who are suffering, as the verse above stated. When YAHSHUA saw the crowds, He was filled with compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matt. 9:36-37). YAHSHUA’S compassion compelled Him to carry our cross to be crucified on it, in order to save us. Paul wrote to the Galatians, “Carry one another’s burden, and this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal.6:12). Like sheep, we all went astray and we were doomed to eternal condemnation, separated from God. But it was in the love, and compassion and mercy of our Savior that we were saved from it. The world is getting ripe for God’s judgment to fall on it; let God’s love reach out through you and me before it turns to its way of no return.
Light from the Word 