August 26
Jeremiah 39:11-18, 40:1-6; 2 Kings 25:8-21; Jeremiah 52:12-27; 2 Chronicles 36:15-21; Lamentations 1:1-22
Our worldly treasures eventually become other people's junk. This might be a sad realization, but consider what a garage sale is. People spend countless hours choosing the perfect furniture, the best wall coverings, etc., only to one day move or eventually die and have all of their earthly possessions sold for pennies to the dollar to others who are often looking more for a bargain than any inherent beauty. My parents were beautiful and loving, and I loved growing up in our home. They both passed many years ago. What I have in my house from theirs, is a few framed photos and two large needlepoints that my mother made. When we pass form this scene the same will be for our possessions and what our children do with them. I say this not to be discouraging. What lasts, what is eternal, what is truly important, is the soul of the individual. Everything that we take so long to maintain, whether it be our things, our beauty, or anything else in this world will fade and become dust. But our souls move on. Unfortunately, many of those souls will move onto hell (Jesus' own words in Matthew 7:13-14), but for some they will move onto heaven where beauty will never fade, where God's things are truly beautiful and will last forever. This needs to be where our emphasis is on. Pastor Chuck Smith had it right when he said, "When I die, there will be many reports saying 'Pastor Chuck Smith died today at age 86 in Costa Mesa, California.' "When you hear about this...don't believe it! I have simply changed addresses!"
After close to twenty years of attack and sieges, we finally come to the destruction of Jerusalem. The temple and it's furnishings were intricately created with God's own design plan. We see under Moses, and later under Solomon how artisans carefully put to life the blueprints that God put forth. Once done, many looked on with fondness at what was ornately created. But, we see what was done with all of this in today's readings. We read in Jeremiah 52:12-14, "On August 17 of that year, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, 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. Then he supervised the entire Babylonian army as they tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side." We get a glimpse of the beauty that was confiscated in 52:22-23, "The bronze capital on top of each pillar was 7 1⁄2 feet high and was decorated with a network of bronze pomegranates all the way around. There were 96 pomegranates on the sides, and a total of 100 pomegranates on the network around the top." Jeremiah laments over what he sees in Lamentations 1:6, 10, "All the majesty of beautiful Jerusalem has been stripped away...The enemy has plundered her completely, taking every precious thing she owns. She has seen foreigners violate her sacred Temple, the place the Lord had forbidden them to enter."
This was the temple of Jerusalem. Such will be the fate of our abodes. This does not mean we should not care over the home we choose to create. This does not mean that we should not care about the shape we are in or our personal appearance. But this does mean that we should realize what it is that lasts. We should always keep in mind what is temporal and what is eternal. We should always consider that precious commodity, time, and consider what it is that we are doing with it. If we were all honest we all spend far too much time investing our precious time on the temporal and far too little time on that which is eternal. We are surrounded by living souls who will one day all come face to face with God to determine where they will spend eternity. Nothing will matter at that moment other than the decision they made as to whether or not they made a decision to accept and follow Jesus. Nothing else! So, may we take a moment to assess our lives and how we choose to spend it. May we move forward with the gospel message, the only power to save, and the only beauty which lasts.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: