Does Our External Reflect Our Internal?
At the end of the book of Jeremiah, we read of a heartbreaking moment… the kings of Judah continued to do evil in the sight of God and we’re told in Jeremiah 52:3, that “Because of the Lord’s anger, it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that He finally banished them from His presence.”
Can you imagine what it must have felt like to be without God’s presence? To hear silence? To feel nothing of His love, His protection, His thoughts or His instruction? As you might imagine, life quickly morphed into chaos, and the city of Jerusalem was soon under siege by Babylon’s army. For TWO YEARS, they were surrounded, with no way to escape. Nothing to eat. They were in the midst of a severe famine, and I would suggest it wasn’t just a physical famine they were experiencing but a spiritual one as well. It did not take long for the city to be captured, the once mighty kingdom torn apart, plundered and looted and destroyed piece by piece.
At the end of the chapter, the scripture goes into great detail of how the Lord’s temple was dismantled by Judah’s enemies – describing the beautiful intricate jewels and precious stones and detailed craftsmanship of the various parts of the temple, now being grabbed and hauled away in the same manner you might see with a frenzied crowd at a going out of business sale.
Just read the description in vs. 20-23.
“As for the two pillars, the one reservoir, and the 12 bronze bulls under the water carts that King Solomon had made for the Lord’s temple, the weight of the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. One pillar was 27 feet tall, had a circumference of 18 feet, was hollow—four fingers thick— and had a bronze capital on top of it. One capital, encircled by bronze latticework and pomegranates, stood 7½ feet high. The second pillar was the same, with pomegranates. Each capital had 96 pomegranates all around it. All the pomegranates around the latticework numbered 100.”
So much work, so much time invested for the beauty of God’s holy place. We can appear to have everything right on the outside, but if we’re missing a relationship with God on the inside, none of it means anything.
What about you? Are you more concerned with how many “friends” you have in your social media feeds than the friends you’ve actually talked to or prayed for this week?
Are you more worried about what people think about the clothes you wear or the car you drive or the way your house looks than the time you’re making to spend with your family this week?
Appearances are just that – appearances. We can convince many of what we want them to think – but God always knows our hearts. So let’s keep our hearts soft and yielded to Him. Let’s be willing to be changed by God from the inside out. And let’s never push Him away to the point He finally agrees, and leaves. A life without God is not a life I ever want to know.
