Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Ecclesiastes chapter 4, verse 1.

Again, I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun,

and behold the tears of the oppressed,

and they had no one to comfort them.

What a verse to meditate on,

and pray according to on this Easter Sunday. You say,

what's the connection here? Oppressions under the sun, tears of the oppressed with no one to comfort them. This is the state of a world of sin and suffering apart from the grace and the mercy of God. A world of oppression,

of war like we see in Ukraine, of refugees, of people enslaved, of all kinds of people

oppressed who have no one to comfort them. Good news of the Bible, the greatest news in all the world, is that God has not left us alone

in a world of sin and suffering and oppression and tears.

God has come to us and not only come to us, but has endured these things. Think about prophecy of Jesus.

Talking about the cross in Isaiah chapter 53, he was oppressed and he was afflicted by oppression

and judgment he was taken away. Jesus, God in the flesh, experienced this, oppressions. Why? Because he loves you,

and he loves me, and he was making a way for us, to use language from Isaiah 53,

all of us like sheep who've gone astray, each of us who's turned his own way, so that

the Lord might lay on him the iniquity of us all, so that he might pay the price for all

of our sins on a cross, and then he might rise from the dead, so that sin does not have

the last word, and oppression does not have the last word, and suffering does not have the last word and oppression does not have the last word

and suffering does not have the last word and tears don't have the last word not in this world because

Jesus has come he has conquered sin death suffering and the grave he is risen on high and for everyone

who trusts in him there is coming a day when he will personally wipe every tear from your eye and there will be no more sin and no more suffering and no more oppression.

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