Mother Earth and Enoch's Compassion

In reading Moses 7, I found the exchange of mother earth’s plaintive cry to God simply beautiful.   I also found it touching that Enoch was so moved as to weep and plead for her rest.

Here is the synopsis:

 

48 And it came to pass that Enoch looked upon the earth; and he heard a voice from the bowels thereof, saying: Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest, and be cleansed from the filthiness which is gone forth out of me? When will my Creator sanctify me, that I may rest, and righteousness for a season abide upon my face? 

 

49 And when Enoch heard the earth mourn, he wept, and cried unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, wilt thou not have compassion upon the earth? Wilt thou not bless the children of Noah? 

 

 58 And again Enoch wept and cried unto the Lord, saying: When shall the earth rest? 

 

60 And the Lord said unto Enoch: As I live, even so will I come in the last days, in the days of wickedness and vengeance, to fulfil the oath which I have made unto you concerning the children of Noah; 

 

64 And there shall be mine abode, and it shall be Zion, which shall come forth out of all the creations which I have made; and for the space of a thousand years the earth shall rest. 

Mother Earth is a living, sentient being that needs to be cared for. If mother earth was that “pained” and “weary” then, just imagine how she must feel now. Could this be the cause for all the turmoil the earth is undergoing now – she is sick, in pain, and weary of sin.

I long for the time when our Savior comes, when she can finally rest.

Jesus Wept

In John 11, the story of Lazarus, Jesus knew what was happening – Lazarus was gravely ill. When Mary and Martha sent for him, he said “This sickness is not unto death, but the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.”

Jesus knew Lazarus would die. 

He knew he would raise him from the dead to glorify God. 

But we see that even knowing this, he still groaned within himself and wept. This shows what a tender, kindhearted man Jesus was. He knew, but still had compassion and love for the situation at hand.

There are many times when we ‘know’ what is happening and pass things off in a logistical sort of way. It would have been totally appropriate for him to come up to Lazarus' tomb and just perform his miracle, knowing there was no need to mourn his death. 

Why mourn a death that was about to be undone? 

This teaches me that we can take time and have compassion for situations and circumstances that may seem to not really need it.