Ezekiel 35:15 - Homiletics

Rejoicing over the ruin of others.

I. THE UGLY FACT . Edom had rejoiced over the ruin of Israel. One would say that such a joy must be impossible. Regarding the world from the high ground of ideal speculation, one would suppose that sympathy for the suffering must spring forth as a natural instinct, or that, if the feelings were callous and selfishness hardened the heart, still there would be no room for joy under such circumstances. But the facts of history and observation show that Edom's joy was no monstrous, impossible experience. People do rejoice in the sufferings of others:

1. In national life . The downfall of rival nations is accepted by their more fortunate neighbors with delight.

2. In amusement . The old, fierce delights of the amphitheatre, which delicate ladies shared with bloodthirsty warriors, were just the joys of cruelty, pleasures got directly out of the sufferings of fellow-creatures. The Emperor Domitian is said to have taken a keen interest in watching the contortions of agony on the face of a dying gladiator. A similar spirit lurks in the present-day popular taste for amusements that involve great risk of life. A Christian spirit should discourage such amusements as feeding on cruelty.

3. In private life . Some People seem to take a spiteful pleasure in the disgrace and ruin of their neighbors. Is not this pleasure at the root of much idle gossip and fascinating scandal?

II. ITS EVIL CAUSES . How comes it that the misery of one man can cause pleasure to his brother, when by the influence of sympathy it should produce an opposite effect? The causes of this gross perversion of the appetite for pleasure are various.

1. Revenge . Israel had been an old enemy of Edom. The commonest pleasure of cruelty is m seeing a foe humiliated. There may be natural elements in this feeling:

Still, the joy is evil and hateful, for it exceeds self-regarding considerations, and it excludes pity; it denies the duty of loving our enemies.

2. Envy . Edom had formerly envied the prosperity of Israel. She afterwards rejoiced in her rival's downfall. This, again, is a sort of reaction from the pain of envy. It is the more powerful if the successful rival has shown scorn for her less fortunate neighbor. Now, the scorn is reversed.

3. A sense of contrast . Sitting at ease, the spectator compares his comforts with the agonies before him, and as all feeling arises from contrasted states, the sharpness of this contrast heightens the relish of a man's present comfort. This is brutally selfish.

4. Malignity . There does seem to be a direct pleasure in seeing others suffer. This is the glee of devils. It may be shared by diabolical men.

III. ITS FATAL EFFECTS . Edom is to be punished and made desolate. God will certainly punish cruelty as a great sin, because it is the direct opposite of man's first duty, which is to love all beings. The evil joy will work mischief in the heart of the man who cherishes it. It is a venom that will rankle in the breast that engenders it We need love and sympathy for our own soul's health. The pleasures of cruelty cut a man off from the bonds of fellowship, even with these who are not themselves its victims, because they destroy the elements on which the spirit of brotherhood lives. Thus a cruel person is inwardly lonely. Selfishness makes the heart desolate. The exclusion of love is the exclusion of the greatest joy of human fellowship. In seeking his own pleasure the man who admits evil passions of revenge or spite into his breast darkens his life with the gloom of spiritual solitude. On the other hand, the deepest joy is found in sacrificing one's self in order to save one's brother.