Benoni, Son of My sorrow

“And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni.” (Gen. 35:18). Son of my sorrow. It killed God to birth His Son on earth. A part of Him passed away when He lost the eternal, open, constant, perfect, infinite communication with His only begotten help-meet. Jesus was born bound—bound up in the Beloved, “bound in the bundle of life with” of His Father. (1Sam. 25:29).

Begotten of His Father from the days of eternity, the Son of God came forth a man of sorrow. Like King David and King Nebuchadnezzar, His heart was soft as gold. He didn’t have the rough exterior or even the inferior body of a creature. But the sympathies and pathos of His heart found a harmonious chord that echoed back to Him in the souls of these two kings.

Their consciences were clear and their faith was strong; thus repentance came from them in genuine humility and brokenness.
“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy loving-kindness: according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.…

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice.

Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and uphold me with Thy free spirit.” (Psa. 51:1-3,7-12).

“Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you.

I thought it good to shew the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me.

How great are His signs! and how mighty are His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation.…

The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?...
The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws....
And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation...
Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment: and those that walk in pride He is able to abase.” (Dan. 4:1-3,30,33,34,37).

The Son of God was also a man of repentance. “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart.” (Gen. 6:5,6).

“He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” (Isa. 53:3,4).

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2Pet. 3:9). He was a jealous Lord God, but if He lashed out at Israel’s fornicating trysts with Baal (His adversary, the devil), He only wounded to heal them.

And when He did these same to His church (Rev. 11:5,6), His plagues were for the same purpose. If the apostolic church needed to repent of losing its first love, it is because it had lost its first love to another god—the same god of this world, the devil. For the saints’ sake He threatened them that He would remove their candlestick and their light would go out. As many as He loved He rebuked and chastened. “For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” (Luk. 9:56).

His heart is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” (Heb. 4:15). Hear His sorrow for the desperate condition of His children. “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luk. 23:34). “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” (2Cor. 5:19).

The Godhead foresaw the Day of Judgment, the end of sin and necessarily the end of all who would cling to sin. At the Passover of the ages the Father and Son sorrowed on Calvary in mutual grief because so few listened to Their call of love.

The Father spoke through Jesus to the whole of humanity when Jesus said to Israel, “As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Eze. 33:11). “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matt. 23:37).

We see the grief of heavenly Father and Son in the mother who finally has no hope left for her wayward children and who, unburdening her sorrow for their self-destructive lifestyles, buries her face in the chest of her husband, weeping, “How did it all come to this? How did our family turn out this way? All of our hopes and dreams for them when they were young has not materialized. What will become of our children?”

The grief of the Gods, the eloquent vexation of Elohim, breaks through our thick walls of sin. Pride falleth before a love that loveth to the bitter end. Before the divine grief the stubborn resistance evaporates like the morning dew and leaves the heart open and clear and clean. Only as children hear the parent grieving will they soften and relent; and only when the rebel comes under the redeeming power of God’s sorrow can God be just to justify the sinner. Only now He can justly call him a saint; that is, only in godly sorrow which God must create in us.

During the final days before Jesus’ trial and death in Jerusalem, “when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” (Luk. 19:41-44).

How much He would have preferred to declare, “This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found,” “being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever,” “not of works, but of Him that calleth.” (Luk. 15:24;1Pet. 1:23;Rom. 9:11).

“Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” (1Tim. 1:5). “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:…because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Rom. 5:1,5). Justified by faith—by faith in His love. “The joy of the LORD is your strength.” (Neh. 8:10).

 

Amazing Grace shall always be my song of praise.

For it was grace that bought my liberty.

I do not know just how He came to love me so;

He looked beyond my faults and saw my need.

I shall forever lift mine eyes to Calvary

To view the cross where Jesus died for me.

How marvelous the grace that caught my falling soul;

He looked beyond my faults and saw my need.

If not for grace, my soul would be a drifting ship

With no safe harbor from the angry waves.

But Calvary’s cross shines brightly through the darkest storm

And just in time, His mercy rescues me!

I shall forever lift mine eyes to Calvary

To view the cross where Jesus died for me.

How marvelous the grace that caught my falling soul;

He looked beyond my faults and saw my need.