(Jeremiah 52;10,11) The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah. He put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in chains, and the king of Babylon took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.
O (Observation)
The last thing Zedekiah saw was the slaughter of his family and the "exceedingly unfaithful" officials of Judah. Then, in chains and in prison, he survived physically so his brain could continue to suffer by "digesting" the memories of what his decisions produced. Previously (which only increased his suffering), God had warned him and offered him a very different future (Jeremiah 38). For the rest of his life, he ate the fruit of having rejected God's infinitely better option.
A (Application, Psychological)
Psychiatrist Gerald May, found psychological help by studying the Christian classic, The Dark Night of the Soul. In his words, that study helped him explore the connection between darkness and spiritual growth. As Zedekiah's and Judah's stories eventually demonstrated, divine good was being recreated through the Hell that they had loosed into their world. May describes the process of God's healing this way: "Our individual stories are colored and textured by who we are as individuals and by God's unique ways of loving us--ways that can never be prescribed, only discovered" (p. 168). Not everyone chooses to remain in their darkness.
May provides hope for people in their own dark nights of the soul: "just as experiences of the night are dark because of their obscurity, experiences of the dawn are times of light, of seeing things more clearly." He noted that John (the 16th century priest who wrote the Dark Night) was quick to add that "[this] light, although divine, is not like the light of early morning or rising dawn. It continues to partake of some of the night's mystery" (p. 181). Nonetheless, "one of the developments that the morning light reveals is growing freedom, experienced as the energy of desire is liberated from the attachments that have kept it restrained. A second change is the classical transition from meditation to contemplation in prayer and the equivalent movement in the rest of life: a metamorphosis of the soul from autonomous self-determination to self-giving willingness to be led. A third change is the awakening itself: the dawning realization of our essential union with God and all creation" pp. 183-184). God made darkness His secret place; His pavilion round about Him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that was before Him, His thick clouds passed (Psalm 18:11,12).
A (Application, Personal)
Even poor parents (unless they're true psychopaths) suffer when their children suffer. Hell knows the depth of pain that toxic memories cause, and Hell then exploits that for our sustained misery. What were the Zedekiah's kids' final visions or memories? After death, what would they eternally recall of earth's justice and beauty and hope? Hell is determined to keep my eyes and heart blackened by the outlook of a godless future. How eternally shameful it would be for me to be complicit with that goal, to not challenge that perspective wherever I find it.
P (Prayer)
Jesus, You know this pain Yourself. Preceding Your murder, Your final sights of Your beloved creation were our sneers. Your final sounds of your creation were our murderous, contemptuous mockeries. Father, You will suffer the eternal goodbyes, the unending departures of souls that reject Your patience and grace. I cant comprehend Your pain. I want to deny it. I want to flee from it. Tell me, on this Good Friday, how should respond? May people's most recent memories of me be helpful to them.
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