“Therefore, I weep when the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh, for over your summer fruit and your harvest the shout has ceased.”
– Isaiah 16:9
This is very similar to what Isaiah 15:5 showed us with God weeping over Moab so here he’s weeping with the weeping of Jazer. Drenching them with tears. I mean the picture here is God, seeing people who are under his judgment and his heart yearning for their salvation.
God has compassion on sinners and desires their salvation.
Isaiah 16:9 Shows the Compassion in God
I just think about the New Testament picture we have of Jesus and Matthew 9 when he looks out on the crowds who are harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd and it says he had compassion on them. That’s the picture here in Isaiah 16:9. This is compassion in God. He loves sinners. Praise God, he loves sinners. We don’t deserve that love. That’s grace that he loves sinners. He has compassion on sinners, he wants to save sinners. He desires them to turn from their sin.
I’m provoked in so many ways by this picture, in Isaiah 15 and 16, by God’s love for, God’s compassion for sinners and one way I’m provoked is just to pray that God would give me that kind of compassion. And you that kind of compassion.
Isaiah 16:9 Calls Us to Weep Over Non-Believers
Let’s pray. God, help us to see the people around us who don’t know You, who are separated from You right now, who’ve not trusted in Christ. Help us to see them as You see them. That You weep over them, You drench them in a sense with tears like You love them. You desire their salvation. Jesus, You’ve shown us what it was like to have compassion on the lost … sheep without a shepherd, harassed and helpless. So God, help us to see those are lost. Those who are without Christ, without You, separated from You. Help us to see them like You do. Help us to love them like You do.
This Verse Helps Us Not to Be Cold Toward People Around Us
God, help us not to be cold toward the reality, toward the people around us, and the reality that they are right now under Your judgment and if nothing changes will spend an eternity under Your judgment. O God, give us Your compassion. Cause us to weep for those who don’t know You. And in the process, O God, give us boldness to share the Gospel with them.
We pray for boldness to share the Gospel today. This week, with somebody else who doesn’t know Christ. That they might draw to Christ. God, use us, we pray, to lead people to Christ, to show Your salvation. Give us Your heart, for them, and then God, by Your mercy, bring them to know You. We pray. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
