Daily Devotion

July 17, 2006

Psalms 103:14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

In the recent movie “End of the Spear”, we are introduced to a young Waodani convert, Dayumae. At a young age, she took refuge with foreigners to flee the revenge killings that plagued her tribe. The Waodanis were a primitive people who lived in the Amazon forest of Ecuador. Their social mentality brought them into such a cycle of revenge and retaliation that spearing wars with neighboring tribes nearly brought them to a point of self-annihilation. Life expectancy was so low, no one had grandchildren; everyone had at least one close family member who had been speared. It is when they received the Gospel of the God who didn’t want them to kill that they were able to keep their first generation of grandfathers.

In the movie, we are shown how Dayumae was instrumental to this change of behavior. The message she brought was: “God has a Son. God’s Son came on earth to tell us that God doesn’t want us to kill. People speared Him because of His message, but He did not spear back. He did it so that those who speared Him could live well and in peace.” This God could understand the Waodanis; He also had a relative who was ‘speared’.

God’s empathy for our frame is not born out of false or emotional pity. He understands our losses; He also lost a Son, who was tortured and killed for the ransom price for our redemption. His Son voluntarily yielded Himself to everyday things we go through on earth as human beings, as well as to the cruel and painful death of the sinner so He could represent us to the Father--so He could be a worthy and empathic high-priest to us (Hebrews 4:15).

Yes, we have a God who is emotional like we are. He is capable of anger (Exodus 4:14); of repentance (Exodus 32:14); of wrath (Exodus 15:7); of pity (Psalms 103:13); of hate (Proverb 6:16); of empathy (Psalms 103:14); and of hurt (Jer 8:21).

Hebrews 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Patrick Lumbroso
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