"Pure Astonishment" -2

"Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that they say unto me, Aha, aha." (Psalms 40:15) Just in case you were unaware, this "Aha, aha" is used in glorying over an enemy's misfortune; much the same as would be the pouring of salt on an enemy's wounds, this is trigger pulled to shoot a man when he is down. Understanding the motivation of this kind of thinking, you can look at a couple different situations; the first might be what was going on in Nebuchadnezzar's head when he instructed the furnace to be heated seven times more than it would have otherwise been heated; he had already asked, "and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hand?", and he had already determined to that if they did not do what he asked, then they would be thrown into the fiery furnace; but now, his fury against them was out of control, and his compassion for them, if there ever was any, was totally gone. Another example might be the hearts of the Jewish Leaders, as they watched Jesus dying there on the cross, they mocked Him and made fun of Him, saying things like, "He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him." And, "He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if He will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God". (Matthew 27:41-43) The heart losses all sense of compassion, even to the point of making a person like a murderer who kills just for the joy of killing another person, or something along those lines. There really is no shame felt in what they do, so until they actually realize what they have done, they are totally numb to any compassion at all; but when faced with it later on, they become filled with remorse and appalled at their own doing. Paul was a really good example of one who was "desolate" over the many lives he was responsible for having persecuted for believing in Jesus; his was the case of "one to whom much had been given", for he had been forgiven much. Pure astonishment may actually fall short of what Paul had been feeling, as he referred to himself as the chiefest of sinners, knowing how his blood boiled for stopping the followers of Christ, even to the point of killing them, as peaceful as they were. Basically, the point I am trying to make has to do with the two sided coin we have in this verse; whereas, the one side you have "desolate" meaning horror and desolated, yet the other you have amazement and astonishment in God's great mercy and grace... "I am a debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." (Romans 1:14-17)