They Helped Forward The Affliction
"And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction." (Zechariah 1:15) This life is filled with enough tragedy and sorrow. We don't need to go and "help forward the affliction", or, to put it another way, we don't need to make a bad situation worse. But that is what we do when we are at ease and kick back and do nothing when others are suffering. We each are granted precious moments of peace and stillness amidst the chaos and confusion, the trials and tribulations, the afflictions and adversities that seem to take up so much of our time and attention and strength and sanity. These are not merely well-deserved reprieves from battles well-fought. These are opportunities for us to take a break from our own cares and sorrows and notice that our brothers and sisters are going through hard times of their own, and that maybe we can do something about it. Maybe, instead of through our ease and inaction helping forward their affliction, we can help them out of their affliction. The man on the road to Jericho who was robbed and beaten and left for dead was already going through an impossible to bear affliction. But then the Priest and the Levite passed by on the other side, in their ease, and helped forward his affliction. Surely, with each person passing by and not helping, the man sunk deeper into his pain and despair and became more and more certain that he would surely die, alone and unloved. But another, who was perhaps just as at ease with life as the priest and the Levite, nevertheless chose not to help forward the broken man's affliction, but instead helped him out of his affliction and bandaged him up and paid for his recovery. We may think that when we choose our own comfort over comforting others, we are not doing any harm. But we have a choice. We can either help forward the afflictions of our brothers and sisters or we can help our brothers and sisters get out of their afflictions. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men [and women] to do nothing" (quote attributed to Edmund Burke).
