This weekend in church, we were asked what burdens us, what breaks our heart, what makes us angry, what do you care about?
My immediate response was child abuse. I truly cannot stand to read or hear about stories involving children and abuse. The most revolting story I heard recently is about a man who allegedly threw his four children over a bridge – children ranging in age from a few months to 3 years. Supposedly searchers have found one of the children’s bodies.
Unfortunately, in this case, I have a very vivid imagination and just picture myself on that bridge watching this man throw his children over. I feel myself taking on their feelings – their feelings of fear, uncertainty, ignorance. How does an infant know he’s being thrown off a bridge into murky waters as much as 55 feet deep. What happened to the children’s sense of security in their father’s care? It’s too painful for me to imagine without crying.
If I wasn’t a Christian, child abuse would be the one situation that would cause me to doubt God cared about anything. How could He allow young children to experience such brutality? Why? For what purpose?
But I am a Christian, a creation of God’s, and am not God and therefore do not understand His ways or His thoughts (Isaiah 55:8.) Yet I wonder how much child abuse can even He stand. When will it end?
I am reminded of Psalm 10, a psalm that was brought to my attention during a seminar on domestic violence and abuse. When reading through this psalm, I see a wicked man who is determined to destroy the innocent:
Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble? In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, and the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD. The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, “There is no God.” His ways prosper at all times; Your judgments are on high, out of his sight; As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them. He says to himself, “I will not be moved; Throughout all generations I will not be in adversity.” His mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression; Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness. He sits in the lurking places of the villages; In the hiding places he kills the innocent; His eyes stealthily watch for the unfortunate, He lurks in a hiding place as a lion in his lair; He lurks to catch the afflicted; He catches the afflicted when he draws him into his net. He crouches, he bows down, And the unfortunate fall by his mighty ones. He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it.” (Psalm 10:1-11)
Oh but our God has not forgotten. He is the King gallantly riding upon his horse ready for war, ready to judge the living and the dead. He is a Mighty God who will destroy all evil one day and the source of all evil. With this destruction will come an end to child abuse, to all kinds of abuse. And the only tears that will flow will be tears of relief, joy and hope because a Savior has returned for His people and is rescuing them:
Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up Your hand. Do not forget the afflicted. Why has the wicked spurned God? He has said to himself, “You will not require it.” You have seen it, for You have beheld mischief and vexation to take it into Your hand. The unfortunate commits himself to You; You have been the helper of the orphan. Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer, Seek out his wickedness until You find none. The LORD is King forever and ever; Nations have perished from His land. O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear to vindicate the orphan and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror. (Psalm 10:12-18)
