Sometimes something pops up that’s too good not to share…

A few days ago I heard from a young man I haven’t talked with in probably 15 years. (Probably not quite so young anymore!) He asked me if I had taught him a 5-step process for decision-making and suggested what several of the points might have been.

I responded that I didn’t remember that I had such a template, but I sent him some preliminary thoughts. The next day, I was continuing my reading in a marvelous book on prayer, and and an answer to his question popped out. I sent him a follow-on letter, most of which follows:

My brother,

I’ve come to a bit more clarity…

I was reading the excellent book: Lead with Prayer: The Praying Habits of World-Changing Leaders by Skoog, Greer, and Doolittle. In the chapter on “Leaders Listen,” there are these snippets. First from John Wesley:

John Wesley had his own tool for confirming God’s voice, later named the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. Wesley taught that there are four elements that together help confirm direction: 

• Scripture first and foremost 
• Christian experience 
• Wisdom of Christian tradition through the ages 
• Godly reason

The direction we receive in prayer—the impressions and nudges—must be tested against these four authorities, which provide guardrails for us as we listen for God’s voice. And even after the direction passes these tests, Scripture gives us another “runway light”: our Christian community. Page 104, bullets mine

The chapter closes with counsel from George Mueller:

As we seek to listen well, we’ve found these practical steps from George Müller instructive.

1. I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord’s will, whatever that may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.

2. Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or a simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.

3. I seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.

4. Next, I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God’s will in connection with His Word and Spirit.

5. I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me aright.

6. Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge; and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters, and in transactions involving the most important issues, I have found this method always effective. Page 106, 107

Thus, we have a 5-point, P-centered outline:

• Prayer (listening for the Holy Spirit)
• Precept (the scripture)
• People (the Christian community)
• Providential circumstances
• Peace

END OF LETTER

It’s a simple list, which in real life would take practice to do well, but it’s a good framework.

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. (Isaiah 30.21, ESV)

I like to read The Message from time to time. Its fresh approach often breathes life into a familiar text. If you’re a regular blog reader, you’ll notice it’s my primary text for this year’s readings. Every now and then I’m criticized in a workshop for suggesting it as a reading option, but my response is always the same: “If you don’t like The Message or any other translation I recommend, don’t read it. But be sure you read something. There are no ‘points’ for NOT reading a particular translation!”

I like The Message, but I think Eugene Peterson missed it in this paragraph in Hebrews. I like the beginning but not the end:

I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you’ve picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong. (Hebrews 5.11 – 14, MSG)

“You’ve picked up this bad habit of not listening” is way better than “dull of hearing.” But, the last sentence is not quite what the text says. According to the standard translations, it’s not “right from wrong,” it’s discerning between “good and evil.”

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5.14, ESV, emphasis mine)

I associate “right from wrong” with the folks who work hard at their “doctrine” – they want to get their theology just right. But “good from evil” sounds more like behavior and character, way more important values.

Decades ago when my daughter was a little girl, there was TV preacher holding forth. I don’t remember who he was nor why I had it on. I was listening to his content, making sure that what he said was “correct.” Melody listened to him for a few minutes, then looked up at me and said, “Daddy, why is he so angry?” A good observation that I had missed.

Often some of the most vitriolic behavior and all-around lack of love by believers is directed at other believers who disagree with them on some minor point of theology. We need our “powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer…You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required.” (Matthew 23.1 – 3, 23, MSG)

Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. (2 Timothy 2.23 – 26, ESV)

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13.34, 35, NIV)

We just noted that a main theme of Hebrews is “Stay with it,” and Sahil Bloom recommended a fantastic article that’s too good not to share: Repair and Remain: How to do the slow hard work of staying put by Kurt Armstrong. It’s long and worth the read in its entirety. Here are Sahil’s takeaways:

• Repair the small things before they become big things.
• Make the minor upgrades that keep your life feeling fresh.
• Work with what you’ve got, learn to appreciate what you’ve got, and don’t fall for the “shiny object” trap.

The following snippets jumped out at me:

…for twelve years now I’ve had a hybrid operation, juggling a one-man autodidact home-repair business and part-time lay ministry at a little Anglican church in Winnipeg. My basic MO in both roles is simple: repair and remain.

Note: home-repair business and part-time lay ministry. He juxtaposes these in the remainder of the essay.

…Odds are the house you’re in right now needs a few updates and minor upgrades, and I’d be happy to help with whatever you need done: add some new windows, open up some walls, replace the old basement stairs, tile the backsplash. Repair and remain.

Same with pastoring: no point thinking you need a brand-new life, but, well, let’s not kid around—you could use some serious updates and upgrades yourself.

Let’s say time comes to gut and renovate your bathroom: I can help you with that—demolition, framing, reworking the plumbing, moving some electrical, installing some mould-resistant drywall, maybe some nice tile for the floor and some classic glazed ceramic three-by-six subway tile for the tub surround. Should take a month or two, depending on what all’s involved. And as for you, hey, for the sake of your wife and kids, I think you better quit the flurry of furtive late-night texts to the sexy young co-worker and cut back a bit on your recreational drinking because wine is a mocker, so goes the proverb, as if those Facebook posts of you at the bar last week weren’t proof enough.

Repair and remain. Work with what you’ve got. Sit still for a moment, take stock, make some changes. Big changes, if necessary.

…

Over the past dozen years I have had hundreds of pastoral conversations, mostly with young men, about the challenges of family life. They tell me it’s exhausting, that there’s no more free time, that they’re having a hard time setting aside their dreams and wishes, that kids can be unbearably frustrating. I get it. They tell me that the marriage isn’t what it used to be, that they don’t really have anything in common anymore, that the passion’s gone, that she isn’t who she used to be, that the sex isn’t what it used to be, that they’re tired of all of it. I sip my coffee and nod in agreement with every word. I understand. I feel it too. It’s the same at my house. Marriage is hard.

But when they say, “I’m thinking of leaving,” I think, Now hang on a sec. You had me right up to that last bit. Fine: you’ve changed; she’s changed; life has changed. And the kids—well, they’ve disrupted, interrupted, confronted, confounded, and otherwise fundamentally altered everything. All very, very hard. And yes, sometimes it feels impossible. I know what it’s like to feel trapped, and my wife undoubtedly knows what it’s like to feel trapped, because she’s stuck with me, the more irritable and moody ingredient in our marriage. But you’re thinking of leaving? What is that going to fix?

We have, all of us and to varying degrees, been duped by the sales pitches, the flashing cascade of advertisements traipsing through the sidebar. That jam-packed flow of ads is full of shiny new things, new techniques, new experiences that promise to finally alleviate the so-far insatiable, burning, lonely, primordial ache. Bono laments, “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” Springsteen cries out, “Everybody’s got a hungry heart.” k.d. lang bemoans the “constant craving.” Augustine says, “Our hearts are restless.”

…

So it goes. I’ve said it more than once to some guy across the table who tells me he’s planning to leave his marriage: You should stay. Sit in the awful, agonizing sorrow of it all, and figure some things out. Your life is very hard. I know you’ve thought it through more than I can imagine; I know you’ve calculated the cost-benefit, weighed your options; and all that is fine and good. There is no way of knowing how this will play out in your very real life. Nobody can predict the future. Something has to give, yes. But it doesn’t need to be this. I think you should stay.

It’s a tough sell. I understand, because my undisciplined imagination, formed like everyone else’s by countless half-minute ads and building-sized billboards, frolics among fantastic, glamorous possibilities of something other than what I’ve already got. It’s a cornucopia of options, with countless cathedrals and priests promising salvation at the marketplace, be it a new app, new phone, new car, new house, new job, new city, or new spouse. The promise is always the same: this thing will make you happy. Never mind trying to fix what you’ve got. Just get a new one and start over.

Repair and remain sounds simple because it is. But simple is not the same as easy. “For better, for worse,” we say, and everyone likes to stay when it’s the better. But staying through the worse—that’s the whole point of the vow, for Christ’s sake.

Mostly they do what they’ve already decided to do, and they leave. My track record for counselling couples to stick it out is pretty poor. I still think the better part of wisdom says stay. Endure. Wrestle. Suffer. Struggle. Keep working. Your heart is restless, my heart is restless, all our hearts are restless, “until they find their rest in Thee”—a rest that may well be found in full only after our death. So be it. Until then: stay.

Repair and remain.

Repair and remain.

Repair and remain.

– End of article –

The author’s primary application to “repair and remain” is marriage. But remember, Sahil’s applications were broader than that. And if the marriage counsel is not for you right now, it might be for someone you know. I’ve had these conversations. About 30 years ago, a brother had a wife who was given (as he told it) to temper tantrums. She would throw things. He told me, “I can’t take it anymore.” I looked him in the eye and said, “Yes you can.” And he did. I’m happy to report they are happily together today.

So don’t throw it all away now. You were sure of yourselves then. It’s still a sure thing! But you need to stick it out, staying with God’s plan so you’ll be there for the promised completion. (Hebrews 10.35 – 36, MSG)

Yesterday, we observed the emphasis on intention in Hebrews. Intention is closely bound to another constant emphasis in Hebrews: perseverance:

“So let’s keep at it and eventually arrive at the place of rest, not drop out through some sort of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4.11)

This is a main theme of Hebrews:

Stay with it.

• The Israelites didn’t.
• The Southern Kingdom of Judah didn’t.
• The church at Ephesus didn’t.

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. (Revelation 2.4, 5, ESV)

Let’s not let it slip through our fingers.”(Hebrews 4.14, MSG)

“Until the end…”

And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. (Hebrews 6.11, 12, ESV)

PS I’ve just found a fantastic article on “stay with it,” that’s too good not to share. Stay tuned.

As we get into Hebrews, one theme is “avoid Jesus and…” But I’m seeing another in these first few chapters. What do you think?

• Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. (2.1)
• Now, if we can only keep a firm grip on this bold confidence, we’re the house! (3.6)
• So watch your step, friends. Make sure there’s no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God. (3.12)
• For as long, then, as that promise of resting in him pulls us on to God’s goal for us, we need to be careful that we’re not disqualified. (4.1)

Pay attention, lest we drift…keep a firm grip…watch your step…be careful. The Jews now in captivity in Babylon, that we’ve been reading about, didn’t set out to be idolatrous…but that’s what they became. How could France, a Christian country for centuries, builder of the Notre Dame Cathedral, be proud to produce an Olympics Opening Ceremony that mocked Christianity?

My son the stair racer won another race, Saturday, July 27. It was the Coors Field climb, 3,600 steps around the lower stands. I watched him do it. The runners run individually, a staggered start. His friend Christopher Baker shown with Mark after the race finished a minute slower than Mark.

Why am I highlighting Mark again? Because he doesn’t win these races by accident. He trains. And to get worse, to go from winning to being an also-ran, he wouldn’t have to do anything. Literally. Just stop training. The application is clear.

Stay alert; be in prayer so you don’t wander into temptation without even knowing you’re in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there’s another part that’s as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire. (Matthew 26.41, MSG)

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. (1 Corinthians 9.24, 25, NIV)

As we get into Hebrews, and as the political climate heats up, let’s remember that it was specifically written to counteract “Christianity and…” Eugene Peterson’s introduction to Hebrews in The Message contains this sentence:

In the letter, it is Jesus-and-angels, or Jesus-and-Moses, or Jesus-and-priesthood. In our time it is more likely to be Jesus-and-politics,…

C.S. Lewis said much the same thing, way back in 1942. In Screwtape Letters (highly recommend!), senior demon Screwtape is writing to junior demon Wormwood on how to get a new believer off track. In letter VII, Screwtape asks Wormwood to find out whether the new believer is a “Patriot” (in favor of the war against Germany) or a “Pacifist,” and Screwtape really doesn’t care which. Screwtape writes:

Whichever he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the ‘Cause,’ in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of the British war effort or of pacifism. – C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters

The application to our day is clear. I wrote on July 28, 2020: Where are our loyalties? that no political party has the five elements the early church had. Four years ago I made the point that we ought to be loving each other regardless of where we are on the political spectrum.

Our focus needs to be Jesus.

Regarding angels he says, The messengers are winds, the servants are tongues of fire. But he says to the Son, You’re God, and on the throne for good; your rule makes everything right. (Hebrews 1.7, 8, MSG)

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1.15 – 20, ESV)

Parts of this blog were originally published October 20, 2020.

Olympics are in full force, and I’ll probably do some lessons learned as I usually do. But this story can’t wait. It’s about the Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina after a successful ride on an epic wave:

According to What’s the story behind this insane, viral Olympic surf shot? by Laylan Connelly in the Orange County Register, Gabriel is not saying that he’s #1 or that the Brazilians are #1, he’s pointing to Jesus:

So what did the finger mean? Was Medina telling the world he’s No. 1? A premonition that the Brazilians will come in No. 1 spot at the Olympic games to win gold?

Medina, who is devoutly religious, days earlier had to cover an image of Jesus on his surfboard due to Olympic rules.

But his faith-based messaging came in a new form as Medina pointed toward the sky, the photo capturing his relaxed body floating above the saltwater in the air in a seemingly mystical image.

“I can do everything through him who strengthens,” Medina wrote on social media under the unbelievable shot shared around the world.

The article is worth the read in its entirety and includes this picture of him on the actual wave:

God has people everywhere, even if there are those in Paris trying to proclaim another message.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4.13, NKJV)

All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household. (Philippians 4.22, ESV)

P.S. There is doubt in some circles about whether what I wrote yesterday about the Opening Ceremony mocking Da Vinci’s Last Supper is accurate. Here’s an alternate view with some good lessons by a Christian art teacher: The Paris Olympics’ Altar to an Unknown God. And here’s another alternate view that explains that how art is perceived is as important a consideration as how it was intended to be perceived: The Lessons of the Paris Olympics Tableau.

P.P.S. Christianity Today published a beautiful article on this photo on August 9, 2024.

As we leave the Jews of Jerusalem in exile and begin our reading of Hebrews, we might need to pick up a lesson from chapter 13. Did you see the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris last Friday? I didn’t see much of it, and I missed the mockery of Da Vinci’s Last Supper put on by drag queens. Rod Dreher writes about the event and its significance.

Here’s the word from near the end of Hebrews:

Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. (Hebrews 13.13, 14, ESV)

“Outside the camp.” If you don’t think so, read the Dreher article. If you don’t believe that we’re in exile, read the Dreher article. If you’ve forgotten we’re in a spiritual battle… You get the idea. Paul’s challenge is clear:

This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. (Ephesians 6.12, MSG)

In the meantime, the instructions to the exiles apply and immediately follow the “outside the camp” observation:

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. (Hebrews 13.15 – 16, ESV)

P.S. There is doubt in some circles about whether the Opening Ceremony intended to mock Da Vinci’s Last Supper. Here’s an alternate view with some good lessons by a Christian art teacher: The Paris Olympics’ Altar to an Unknown God. And here’s another alternate view that explains that how art is perceived is as important a consideration as how it was intended to be perceived: The Lessons of the Paris Olympics Tableau. A friend of mine who reviews culture for a living observed that the director most likely vastly underestimates how many Christians might be offended and vastly overestimates the size of the LGBTQ… population.

We left Judah yesterday in Babylon:

Judah went into exile, orphaned from her land. (2 Kings 25.21, MSG)

Gedaliah is appointed governor, but he is assassinated. There is more detail on this period in Jeremiah, including this command:

This is the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to what was left of the elders among the exiles, to the priests and prophets and all the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon from Jerusalem, including King Jehoiachin, the queen mother, the government leaders, and all the skilled laborers and craftsmen. The letter was carried by Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah had sent to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. The letter said:

This is the Message from GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God, to all the exiles I’ve taken from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and make yourselves at home. Put in gardens and eat what grows in that country. Marry and have children. Encourage your children to marry and have children so that you’ll thrive in that country and not waste away. Make yourselves at home there and work for the country’s welfare. Pray for Babylon’s well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you.” (Jeremiah 29.1 – 7, MSG)

Judah was not scattered like the Northern Kingdom. They were intact in Babylon. And it wasn’t going to be a short stay. This is the present condition, and their instruction on how to live in this condition is simple: be normal:

• Build houses and make yourselves at home
• Put in gardens and eat the produce
• Marry and have children – you and your children
• Work for the country’s welfare and pray for Babylon’s well-being

Say what? But we want to return to Jerusalem now! We’ve learned our lesson. Trust us! Nope. We’ll read about their coming back when we get to Ezra and Nehemiah but that’s 70 years away.

This is GOD’s Word on the subject: “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. (Jeremiah 29.10, 11, MSG)

Many believe the application is for the church today. In the US we used to think we were the leading edge of God’s nation here in North America. If that were ever so, it is certainly not so anymore. The church is in exile. Work for the good of the city where you live. I like the tagline of First Presbyterian Church, Colorado Springs:

Light and Life for the City

firstprescos.org/what-we-believe

The Jews weren’t “home,” and neither are we:

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5.13 – 16, ESV)

Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night. (Philippians 2.15, MSG)

The Northern Kingdom was scattered in 2 Kings 17; the Southern Kingdom, Judah, is carted off to Babylon in 2 Kings 24 and 25. The downfall begins:

Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to rule; he was king for eleven years in Jerusalem…In GOD’s opinion he was an evil king, picking up on the evil ways of his ancestors. It was during his reign that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the country. Jehoiakim became his puppet. But after three years he had had enough and revolted. GOD dispatched a succession of raiding bands against him: Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite. The strategy was to destroy Judah. Through the preaching of his servants and prophets, GOD had said he would do this, and now he was doing it. None of this was by chance—it was GOD’s judgment as he turned his back on Judah because of the enormity of the sins of Manasseh—Manasseh, the killer-king, who made the Jerusalem streets flow with the innocent blood of his victims. GOD wasn’t about to overlook such crimes.  (2 Kings 23.36 – 24.4, MSG)

Jehoachin becomes king, and the judgment continues:

And Jehoiachin king of Judah, along with his mother, officers, advisors, and government leaders, surrendered. In the eighth year of his reign Jehoiachin was taken prisoner by the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar emptied the treasuries of both The Temple of GOD and the royal palace and confiscated all the gold furnishings that Solomon king of Israel had made for The Temple of GOD. This should have been no surprise—GOD had said it would happen. And then he emptied Jerusalem of people—all its leaders and soldiers, all its craftsmen and artisans. He took them into exile, something like ten thousand of them! The only ones he left were the very poor. He took Jehoiachin into exile to Babylon. With him he took the king’s mother, his wives, his chief officers, the community leaders, anyone who was anybody—in round numbers, seven thousand soldiers plus another thousand or so craftsmen and artisans, all herded off into exile in Babylon. (2 Kings 24.12 – 16, MSG)

All according to God’s prediction and plan. Then Jehoachin’s successor Zedekiah is the last:

The Babylonians took Zedekiah prisoner and marched him off to the king of Babylon at Riblah, then tried and sentenced him on the spot. Zedekiah’s sons were executed right before his eyes; the summary murder of his sons was the last thing he saw, for they then blinded him. Securely handcuffed, he was hauled off to Babylon. In the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, on the seventh day of the fifth month, Nebuzaradan, the king of Babylon’s chief deputy, arrived in Jerusalem. He burned The Temple of GOD to the ground, went on to the royal palace, and then finished off the city—burned the whole place down. He put the Babylonian troops he had with him to work knocking down the city walls. Finally, he rounded up everyone left in the city, including those who had earlier deserted to the king of Babylon, and took them off into exile. He left a few poor dirt farmers behind to tend the vineyards and what was left of the fields. (2 Kings 25.6 – 12, MSG)

Hard to believe this is the same kingdom that the Queen of Sheba visited. But nothing is permanent, especially when God promises exactly this outcome. Moses told them:

All the nations will ask, “Why did GOD do this to this country? What on earth could have made him this angry?” Your children will answer, “Because they abandoned the Covenant of the GOD of their ancestors that he made with them after he got them out of Egypt; they went off and worshiped other gods, submitted to gods they’d never heard of before, gods they had no business dealing with. So GOD’s anger erupted against that land and all the curses written in this book came down on it. GOD, furiously angry, pulled them, roots and all, out of their land and dumped them in another country, as you can see.” (Deuteronomy 29.24 – 28, MSG)

The narrative of 1 Samuel – 2 Kings ends with the people in Babylon. After the same story is told from another perspective in 1 and 2 Chronicles, The books of Ezra and Nehemiah will record their return from exile. What happened during exile? We’ll take a quick look from Jeremiah’s perspective tomorrow. In the meantime, a sad time.

¹  By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.
²  On the willows there we hung up our lyres.
³  For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
⁴  How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land? (Psalm 137.1 – 4, ESV)

How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave…Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude; she dwells now among the nations, but finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress. (Lamentations 1.1 – 3, ESV)