Providing comfort involves correctly identifying the need and applying the proper remedy. Solomon lived in oppressive times. In Eccl 4:1 he describes it by saying, “Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun and behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them.”
The scriptures are heavily weighted toward delivering the one who is under the unjust, oppressive rule of another. Yet, God’s magnanimity allows His mercy to extend to both the oppressed and the oppressor. Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 1-4), Manasseh (1Chron 33:1-20) and king David (2Sam 11-12:13) all experienced God’s mercy after they exercised authority to the detriment of those under their care.
In our desire to right a wrong— in our compassion for the oppressed, let’s not be unsympathetic to the source of injustice. Solomon saw that both the oppressed and the oppressor needed comfort. How far-sighted are you? See right, see well…
