Sin is So Regrettable

I was reading from Ezra in my bible reading this morning. In the book of Ezra, God's people have been disciplined strongly for their generations spent in rebellion to God and idolatry so they have been ravaged by many wicked nations and ultimately taken captive into a foreign nation: Babylon. Now eventually Babylon is conquered by Persia and Cyrus King of Persia is providentially moved by God to send the Jews back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple of God and to re-establish the worship of God in the temple. In Chapter 3 of the book of Ezra, the remnant of Jews who have returned to Jerusalem have just laid the foundation for the new Temple (as the temple of Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians). Scripture says:

Ezra 3:11 - 4:1 11 They sang, praising and giving thanks to the LORD, saying, "For He is good, for His lovingkindness is upon Israel forever." And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. 12 Yet many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' households, the old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, while many shouted aloud for joy, 13 so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard far away.

The old men who had seen the temple of Solomon wept when they laid the foundation for the new temple. These guys were really old: they had been in captivity for 70 years. They may have just been children when they were taken captive and deported to Babylon, but they remembered the glory of the temple. I think to myself also about how the temple had fallen into disrepair under the reign of wicked kings and though it would undergo renovations occassionally, it probably didn't ever look as wonderful and as glorious as it did in Solomon's day. I believe that the old men were weeping not just because this new temple could not compare to the old temple, but because the beauty of the old Temple was representative of God's blessing that He had placed upon it and His people in a time when they were following God with a whole heart. God's temple was glorious and wonderful and beautiful because God's presence was there. Remember when Solomon built the Temple and blessed it, God's glory filled the Temple and came to rest in the Holy of Holies. When the Temple was destroyed, the glory of God departed from Israel. And they had gone so far away from following God with a whole heart that they were now in much different circumstances then they had been in the time of Solomon. I think the old men were weeping because of sin and how it seperates us from God. I think they were weeping because of how far sin takes us away from the blessings of being in God's presence.

This passage causes me to pause and assess my own life. Are there areas of my life where I am not worshipping God with my whole heart? And do I realize it and repent of it consistently or do I make provision for my flesh to continue on in sin.

Sin may seem small to us sometimes: "it was a small lie and I didn't want to hurt their feelings" or "I'm not apologizing to him. He has to apologize to me first"or "it was just a few extra bites of food. That doesn't make me a glutton"... but it all adds up to whether or not we are worshipping God or worshipping idols. And the Israelites had to endure alot of discipline because of idolatry. May God give us grace to repent of sin before we have to look back weeping at how far we have come from the presence of God.

Sins of a Father

So the other day I was reading in 1 Samuel 30 and 31 about Saul & Jonathon, as well as David & the worthless men that hung around him. As I was reading about Saul and the end which he came to, it caused me to pause and meditate on how the choices we make really do have great effect on those around us, particularly our children. How sad it is to see Jonathon, who by all appearances was a godly man, die because of his father's sinful choices. In contrast though, I can also see how our choices for good pleasantly affect those around us. David is a man who is humble and seeks God. As a result, he is blessed by God and the Bible says that even the worthless men who followed him were blessed as well (at least temporarily while they were with David) (Chapter 30 of 1 Sam).

I wondered to myself: Why would God allow the actions of the proverbial righteous man and proverbial wicked man to affect so greatly those around them? Various thoughts proceeded from this.

Maybe the answer is to build into people an understanding of community, how we need others and they need us. Ultimately, being created in the image of God, who is three in one, and relating to Him perfectly and continually, perhaps we are made to reflect that through our relationships on earth and fail miserably because of the fall. That is, in our selfishness we want to be free to sin with impunity and very little consequences (or no consequences). In our pride we want to live a happy life without the influence of others and as a "lone wolf". But maybe God made this principle of our sin/obedience affecting others, because He wants us to see our need of Him and our need to work alongside the body of God-followers for the good of all and God's glory.

In my limited view of the story of Saul & Jonathon, I may look at a situation like theirs where a son (and entire lineage) suffers because of the sins of Saul their father, and focus on the kids, thus saying "THAT'S NOT FAIR!" However, if I take a few steps back, I may see that the point isn't the suffering kids. The bigger issue is that God is showing us the seriousness of our sin and causing it to adversely affect those around us so we'll see that we're a part of a body. Everyone is a part of some kind of body: As a Christian I'm a part of the body of my husband (Ryan), then of the Ryan Aldrich family (my kids), then of the greater Aldrich family, then of the local church body at TBC, then the greater universal church body and ultimately all of mankind. All of which I affect either for good or evil by either submitting to God or rebelling against Him. Even an unbeliever is at the very least a part of the greater body of mankind and his rejection of and rebellion to God affects mankind.

So then my thoughts go to our American society... which has endeavored to change this God ordained truth/principle of cause & effect. For example, if a father won't work, we'll feed his kids so they won't starve because of their father's laziness. As such, many men don't feel the need to get a job they can stay at home and get welfare and food stamps and energy assistance and even rent assistance. They can even get tax relief and nice sized tax returns for money they could have earned, though they didn't work (and as such didn't pay taxes) because they have lots of kids that they aren't able to support. That's just one of many examples that come to mind. I am sure that our government is (or was when they enacted so many of it's laws) trying to show compassion to the "underdog" and be helpful. But it seems that we have taken our eyes off the ball and so removed the consequences of sin, that we are in reality encouraging sin. I can also see a distinct lack of trust in God in so many of our laws and programs that seek to rescue the "underdog" by relieving the consequences of the person practicing the wickedness (not that I expect our government or society to trust God). Certainly Jonathon suffered because of Saul's sinful choices, but he had the same opportunity to either submit to God or rebel against God (even in his suffering). He chose (seemingly) to submit and though he suffered temporarily and even died in the process, ultimately (I believe) he was rewarded eternally; which is much to be preferred.

Mind you, I am not "preaching" government reform necessarily (I too have benefited in lean times from many of the helpful programs our government offers and understand that nothing is perfect), but I am trying to see beyond the immediate story of Jonathon & Saul & David, to the ways of God and it's effects and application in our daily lives, this age and our perception of things. I hope to see and understand God more as I read His word and these are my thoughts for the day from this particular passage.