Have you seen the footage of human beings hanging onto the outside of military aircraft as they take off? Have you seen women, no more than skin and bone, placing their babies on aid trucks? People do extreme things in desperation. When you are homeless and need accommodation. When you are out of work and need food. When you cannot get answers to medical issues you face. When you’ve let your family down by spending your life savings on gambling. When your life is on the line and you have no ordinary answers you become desperate.
Some biblical characters experienced desperation. Job loathed his suffering and wanted to die (Job 3,4). Jacob wanted his family to survive so he sent his sons to Egypt for food (Genesis 42:1-3,43;2). A prophet’s wife wanted to keep her sons from becoming slaves to pay her dead husband’s debt—she followed Elisha’s call and poured the little oil she had into all the pots she could find (2 Kings 4:1-7).
Jesus saw desperation in His ministry. Blind men shouted their lungs out to get His attention for healing (Matthew 9:27). Lepers disregarded cultural norms and came right up to Jesus (Mark 1:40). A woman who bled for more than 12 years and spent all her money on doctors was willing to make Jesus unclean by touching Him so she might be healed (Mark 5:25-34).
Jeremiah felt dual desperation—that of the people of Israel and that of God:
“‘The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.’ Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me” (Jeremiah 8:20,21).
Jeremiah felt the pain of the people who were busy making political alliances and worshipping the gods of other nations but neglected the care of their own people with justice and mercy and true worship of God. They finally realise they made a wrong choice but it is too late. Jeremiah also felt the pain that God feels when people make such poor choices (Jeremiah 9:1-3).
There are people desperate for life and hope today. The world is a mess—but I must not focus on the world but the people who are caught in the trauma of life. Do you and I see the desperation in others? Do they know that we care? Do desperate people feel safe with us? They did with Jesus. May that become true for me.
