Rejoicing When Others Fall

 We get news almost every day about how those around us are doing in their lives. We get to hear the success stories. Hopefully, we will rejoice with others when good things happen in their lives. Then, we hear about the bad things that happen to those we know. Hopefully we grieve with them and pray for them. However, we do have to resist our flesh sometimes when we hear about these things. We can be jealous when people succeed, and we can sometimes rejoice when people fall. That displeases God every time.

The people of Tyre lived on the Mediterranean Sea. They had a huge fleet of ships that they sent to trade with many nations of the world. God gave Ezekiel a message for Tyre to explain to them why He was going to destroy them. (Ezekiel 26:2) "Son of man, Tyre has rejoiced over the fall of Jerusalem saying, "Ha! She who was the gateway to the rich trade routes to the east has been broken, and I am the heir. Because she has been made desolate, I will become wealthy." We all need to take this seriously.

When others succeed, we can be jealous and think that because of their success, there will be less opportunity for us to succeed. That is never the case. God can always make a way for us to succeed, too, if we will trust Him and not get angry with them. God dislikes it when we feel like we are competing with other people, and we don't love them enough to rejoice with them in their blessings. This is true for churches and for individuals.

Also, we should never be happy when someone around us encounters difficulties, so that they fall to a lower level in their life. We do that sometimes when it happens to someone we don't like. We rejoice in their fall because we feel like they are getting what they deserve. We also rejoice because their failure makes us look better, Either way, we are not loving them, and God intends for us to love everyone all the time. Therefore, God is liable to bring us down because of our lack of love and our jealousy.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 27-29.