The Future Starts With You

Last time we started our look at the book of Lamentations.  As a book that’s easy to skip over, I’ll refresh your memory and remind you that Lamentations was written as a response to the fall of Jerusalem.  It features lines like this:

All the splendor has departed
From the Daughter of Zion.
Her princes are like deer that find no pasture;
In weakness they have fled before the pursuer.
In the days of her affliction and wandering
Jerusalem remembers all the treasures
That were hers in days of old.
When her people fell into enemy hands,
There was no one to help her.
Her enemies looked at her
And laughed at her destruction (Lamentations 1:6-7).

Yeah, as its title would suggest, Lamentations is not the happiest part of the Bible.

History has a tendency to repeat itself, especially when its warnings go unheeded.  We’re told, “Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did” (1 Corinthians 10:6).  But here’s the thing- the fall of Jerusalem wasn’t even Israel’s first major defeat.  So with the Holy Spirit let’s take a look at another dark chapter for God’s people and see what there is to learn from it.

Israel’s first king was a man named Saul.  History notes,

They ran and brought him out, and as he stood among the people he was a head taller than any of the others.  Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the man the Lord has chosen?  There is no one like him among all the people.”
      Then the people shouted, “Long live the king!” (1 Samuel 10:23-24)

Saul certainly looked the part and for a while he seemed to be a good choice.  But by the end he had left Israel decimated.  We read,

So Saul and his three sons died, and all his house died together.
      When all the Israelites in the valley saw that the army had fled and Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their towns and fled.  And the Philistines came and occupied them (1 Chronicles 10:6-7).

Lamentations was written about the fall of Jerusalem, but it just as easily would have fit the death of Saul with lines like,

Jerusalem has sinned greatly
And so has become unclean.
All who honored her despise her,
For they have seen her nakedness;
She herself groans and turns away.
Her filthiness clung to her skirts;
She did not consider her future.
Her fall was astounding;
There was none to comfort her.
“Look, O Lord, on my affliction,
For the enemy has triumphed.”
The enemy laid hands on all her treasures;
She saw pagan nations enter her sanctuary-
Those you had forbidden to enter your assembly (Lamentations 1:8-10).

Saul lost his focus and doomed his nation.  We are told,

Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord; he did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the Lord.  So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse (1 Chronicles 10:13-14).

What happened?  Saul’s pride was a large part of his undoing.  Between following his own intuition above the Lord’s commands and being jealous of his most talented soldier, Saul lost sight of what he was doing.

Each one of us is an important piece in the puzzle of life, and I think it’s easier to see sin in others than ourselves- but our road to saving our nation from Israel’s fate starts at home.  Jesus taught,

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye (Matthew 7:3-5).

We need to take time every day to reflect on our own errors and seek the Lord’s forgiveness and guidance.  And, more importantly, we need to decide where our life is rooted.  After leading the people to the Promised Land Joshua famously proclaimed,

Now fear the Lord and serve him with faithfulness.  Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.  But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.  But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:14-15).

Who or what is the center of your life?  Saul thought he was a holy person- but ultimately he trusted himself above God and it led him (and Israel) to ruin.  Where does your faith lay?  The Bible notes, “You believe that there is one God.  Good!  Even the demons believe that – and shudder” (James 2:19).  Faith in Christ isn’t some vague thing.  Is Jesus truly your savior?  Will you follow the Lord even when it goes against your interests?  Are you truly a Christian or have you fallen into a form of idolatry or self-worship?  Reflect on such things, my friend, because before revival can happen and disaster averted, we need to make sure our own hearts are aligned with God.

We may be in dark times, but we can still turn this around.  In the midst of his sin, the Lord had a backup plan for Saul and Israel:

“You acted foolishly,” Samuel said.  “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.  But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command” (1 Samuel 13:13-14).

And so it came to be,

When all the elders of Israel had come to King David at Hebron, he made a compact with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel, as the Lord had promised through Samuel.
      David and all the Israelites marched to Jerusalem (that is, Jebus).  The Jebusites who lived there said to David, “You will not get in here.”  Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion, the City of David (1 Chronicles 11:3-5).

David wasn’t perfect, but he heart was rooted in the Lord.  May we all be able to make that same claim and may the Lord lead us through the darkness as we repent and trust in Jesus.