Tag: malice

We now shift the scene back to Babylon. The prophecies here, for the most part, happened during the time of Jerusalem’s siege and fall.

In these passages, Ezekiel prophesies against some of the enemies around Judah: the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, Philistines, Tyrians, and the Sidonites.

These people basically had one thing in common. They had a lot of malice in their hearts toward the people of Judah.

And when Judah fell under attack by the Babylonians, these people rejoiced. In some cases, they even took advantage of the situation to enhance their prosperity or to exact revenge against Judah.

The result? God passed judgment on each of these nations, proclaiming each of their downfalls.

What can we learn from this?

What kind of heart do we have for the people around us? Do we have hearts of malice toward people?

Do we, for example, have hearts of unforgiveness?

Someone hurts us, and we refuse to forgive. And when something bad happens to them, we rejoice in it, saying, “They got what they deserved!”

Or do we see trouble in others’ lives and rather than thinking about how to help them, we think about how to take advantage of the situation?

These are attitudes that God despises. And as God’s people, there should be no room in our hearts for them.

I think of David’s life and the heart he had. When he heard that the man who had tried to kill him for years, King Saul, had died, he didn’t rejoice. He didn’t say, “Ha! You got what you deserved!”

Instead he wept for him, writing a song of lament for Saul and his son Jonathan.

When Ishbosheth, Saul’s son, was assassinated by his own men, David didn’t think, “Hey, this is my chance to unite the kingdom under me.”

Instead, his first thought was to exact justice on the assassins.

David wasn’t a perfect man by any means. But one reason God called him a man after his own heart was that he rejected a heart of malice and embraced a heart of mercy and compassion.

How about you? Is your heart full of compassion and mercy? Or is it filled with malice? Jesus said this:

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:43–45)