How Deserted Lies the City

King David of the Bible placed his life in the hands of a personal, loving and faithful God. As happened many times in his life, when all seemed hopeless and lost he would kneel before his God: “In my anguish I cried to the Lord, and he answered by setting me free. The Lord is with me: I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The Lord is with me: he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies.” (Psalm 118:5-7)

Compare the abiding faith of David to the stupendous claims of so many of our modern leaders who insist on staking everything on the belief that they have been called to power to not only save the whole of mankind but the planet earth as well. These contemporary Caesars may give lip service to God, but their deepest faith rests on their own power to build castles in the sky while commanding the seas to recede. Who needs God when man can construct paradise here on earth? For many of our leaders, it would be too humbling to admit the need for God: such an admission might preclude the possibility of building temples to their own greatness.

When viewed from the sweep of Biblical history, we see that the modern Caesar represents nothing more than mankind’s ancient and persistent rebellion against the presence of God in the affairs of man:

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “’In the pride of your heart, you say, “I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas.” But you are not a god, though you think you are as wise as a god.” (Ezekiel 28:1-2)

Many of the national leaders of our time have fallen for the same old false promise that has tempted and diverted mankind from the very beginning of written history. Here is God’s judgment against the ruler of Tyre: “…your heart has grown proud.”(Ezekiel 28:5) The hearts of our political and business leaders have grown proud indeed. Perhaps a little more knowledge of the warnings of the ancient prophets of Israel might steer some of these self inflated potentates away from the dangerous consequences of their impossible dreams: “How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave.”(Lamentations 1:1)

The Last Mournful Note

Why are so many of us obsessed with money? On one level, gold does glitter, giving the appearance of prominence and power for those who possess it. Money can create the illusion that time has been expelled from the premises; the lavish parties of the rich cast a spell of beauty and splendor and the music plays on as the quests dance into the early hours of the morning.

For a moment, everything appears to be perfect, but soon enough, time ripples over the scene and all that remains in the end is a wrecked vestige of what was before. The band is now playing its last mournful note, the guests are departing, and the despoiled tables have lost their ordered elegance.

Money has the power to withhold the ravages of time for an instant, but before long it will exact its sweet revenge. If we stake everything on the deceptive power of money, we will live in fear that the cold breath of mortality will find a way back into the innermost rooms of the guarded palace. For despite our futile efforts, we sense in our hearts that “our days are like a fleeting shadow” (Psalm 144:4) that “vanish like smoke.” (Psalm 102:3) Thus wisdom says, “Though your riches increase, do not set your hearts on them.”(Psalm 62:10)

Who Do I Love?

Because the “heart is deceitful above all things,” (Jeremiah 17:9) it is important to undergo a thorough and frequent heart checkup. But this is hard and often inconvenient, so we often spend valuable time inventing excuses for avoiding what might be unpleasant news.

If we refuse to undergo a daily “heart exam,” we might consider wearing a sign around our neck similar to the one found on the side of cigarette packs: “Caution: This heart may kill you!”

Left untreated by God, the human heart is the center of great turmoil and raging conflict. Our affections shift like an altimeter in a storm; one moment we yearn to follow the right way, then the next we turn our back on the Lord just as Peter did three times immediately after claiming eternal allegiance to him. The battle we face every day is over the hidden constancy of our wavering hearts.

In the end, the question for each of us amounts to one thing: whom do I love with all my heart? We can fool ourselves into believing that we have been exempted from an ultimate pledge of allegiance, but when we fall into this common form of self-deception, we are implicitly admitting that the darker impulses of the heart have already prevailed and that, as a consequence, our troubled lives will continue to be “like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”(James 1:6)