“It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”
Lamentations 3:22-23
Jerusalem, the city of Kings, it laid there in ruins…
Once a powerful seat of the mighty, now it was fallen, the shattered shadow of its past glory, the days of its greatness faded before the eyes of children Israel, as they were left with nothing but the rubble that littered the landscape and the devastating loss of their wrecked Capital. The Temple of Solomon, once glorious, once so mighty, would lie in waste. Once a beacon of hope and faith, it would be destroyed, the siege of destruction leaving nothing untouched, holding nothing to be sacred.
The lamentations, the mournful cries of the people, now captive to the foreign masters of the foreign lands of Babylon, they knew that their lives… their lives would never be the same again.
Yet, despite the sins of Judah, despite the iniquity that governed the hearts and the souls of men, God, the Lord God Almighty, the God of their Fathers, Abraham and Isaac, would not abandon them. Though they were marked by transgressions, dwelling amidst a sinful world, the God of deliverance, who had set free the slave nation of Israel under the hand of the Prophet Moses, would not forsake them through the trials they were to face. Though the symbols of faith and glory, power and might may have now faded, still the Lord God Almighty remained, ever vigilant, ever faithful to His children. Though Jerusalem may have laid in waste, though the Temple was in ruins, the Lord would still stand according to the great love He had, that He has for His children.
Though all the world around them may have been consumed by fire and by siege as their lives were in shattered estate and tattered ruins, still the He, according to His great compassion and His tender mercy, would never let them be consumed.
How great is the faithfulness of the Lord…
Though the destruction of Jerusalem may remain a far distant memory, nothing more than the pages of history passed down from one generation to another we still live in an age of desolation and destruction, a world of sin and sorrow, where agony and pain, anguish and hurt seem to be all around us
Yet never does God abandon, never does He fail or forsake, never does he desert His children, leaving them to the wiles of this world and the wicked ways of wicked men working their unrighteousness. Though the trials and the tribulations seek to destroy us, to consume us, to swallow us whole and to spit us out the fallen remains of the people who we once were, our Heavenly Father never disowns us or turns His back on us. By our side, through all the days of our lives He is there in compassion and goodness, in love and in kindness to contend with our cause even as the struggles persist all around us.
To the slaves toiling in the field, under the sting of the task masters whip He shall bring that long awaited freedom.
To the captives held in darkness and ransomed by evil men seeking to subjugate other men for their own profit and gain, He shall bring the blessed air of liberty.
To the prisoners of brutal tyranny and bitter oppression, He shall, by His hand bring justice to reign over them.
To the sex slaves, those victims of human trafficking, used as nothing more than the objects of pleasure as so much pain is afflicted on them, He shall bring emancipation and liberation.
By His power and His authority all things shall be made possible as He battles for the cause of righteousness in this world, contending with the cause of His beloved children, never letting them be consumed by the evil that seeks to assert itself, to afflict itself on this world. Though the forces of sin and iniquity may be great, though it may seem like it is all around us, ready to destroy and to lay waste amidst the chaos it can inflict, the virtue of the Lord is the love tha He has and the supremacy of His righteousness given unto His children in the deep and abiding love He has for them.
Remember the power of the Lord, a might that can and does set captivity captive. If the cause of the Lord, through the love of Christ, can stand against the harsh, hard grip that Satan has over this world as it clutches us in the force of the grave, if the course of the Lord, through the precious blood of the lamb, through that encompassing sacrifice at the Cross, can conquer the power that the grave has over us, setting us on a road to redemption even as we are held to ransom to sin, how much more can it do against the forces of wicked men who would believe that they have authority in this world?
Trust therefore in the Lord and in the power of His might, knowing that through all things, in all things it shall be a power that shall forever set the captives free and liberate even the most lost of souls, even as the world around us may seem consumed by the fire. By His hand, through His love, we shall forever be made to stand, never being swallowed, never being destroyed, no matter what the evil powers of sin and iniquity, hatred and pain may throw at us, for the mercy of the Lord, it endures forever, and great is His faithfulness to us.
What a glorious and blessed assurance is that.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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