Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard and an official of the Babylonian king, arrived in Jerusalem. He burned down the Temple of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He destroyed all the important buildings in the city. (Jer. 52:12b-13).
The news in Sydney tonight (25/5/23) showed a 7 story building burning out of control and then dramatically falling into the street below. There were gasps from the onlookers as bricks and mortar flew through the air. It made me wonder about the blaze in Jerusalem when the Babylonians razed the Temple and the grand buildings.
My first thoughts about all of this are that nothing in this life is permanent. No matter how stable and indestructible a building may appear, they all, at some point, are vulnerable to collapse and disintegration.
It’s the same with relationships. Our friends and relatives today may not even know us in years to come.
Sin corrupted Eden’s perfection, destroying our pure communion with God and introducing disharmony and distress into the lives of all mankind. Since Adam’s sin, we have had to work hard to just survive.
The good news is that this isn’t the end of the story. We don’t go through the motions of living and struggling with problems merely to die and that is it. God sent His Son to demonstrate His love towards us and to provide a way for us to be redeemed from what would have been a shallow life on earth.
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners (Rom. 5:8).
Because bad things happen, therefore, doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love us. In fact, throughout all of our struggles God is working to develop in us a character that will draw us to Him. We can choose to be bitter and hard-hearted or we can choose to have soft, pliable hearts that depend totally on Him. Turning to God will be your only hope in a world that is full of trouble.
The comforting thing is that our troubles and trials will allow us to experience God’s faithfulness.
The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. (I Cor. 10:13).
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All quotations are from the NLT.
Photo by courtesy of Arman Tadi
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