Good day brothers and sisters we have now entered the month of October and Wednesday is Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement when the Jewish and Samaritans pray and ask God to forgive them of their sins and desire to have a clean slate for the new year. We here in the USA are thinking of fall, the changing colors of the leaves, and pumpkin spice everything. We too should be concerned about our sins against God and our fellow man. Let’s see what the Smart Book has for us today;
An Experience of the Captivity.
137 By the rivers of Babylon,
There we [captives] sat down and wept,
When we remembered Zion [the city God imprinted on our hearts].
2
On the willow trees in the midst of Babylon
We hung our harps.
3
For there they who took us captive demanded of us a song with words,
And our tormentors [who made a mockery of us demanded] amusement, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”
4
How can we sing the LORD’S song
In a strange and foreign land?
5
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
Let my right hand forget [her skill with the harp].
6
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
If I do not remember you,
If I do not prefer Jerusalem
Above my chief joy.
7
Remember, O LORD, against the sons of Edom,
The day of [the fall of] Jerusalem,
Who said “Down, down [with her]
To her very foundation.”
8
O daughter of Babylon, you devastator,
How blessed will be the one
Who repays you [with destruction] as you have repaid us.
9
How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones
Against the rock.
Old Israel had been taken away to Babylon into captivity and their beautiful Temple and city of Jerusalem had been destroyed because of their mighty sins against God. They had been told that this would happen if they didn’t turn back to the Lord. They would be taken away for 400 years and all they would have of their old home and Temple was their memories.
Wow here in the USA it seems that all we have of is the memories of our former glory too. We had attempted to be the city on the hill. We had helped bring down the mighty Communist nation of the Soviet Union. Now everywhere you look Socialistic Communism is infiltrating our nation and its government as we were warned would happen by old Communist leaders of the USSR. Many here would be glad to have Christianity eradicated and to mock us by having us too sing our old hymns about the glory of the Lord. Can we not learn from old Israel? I pray that we turn back to God and love our neighbor as we do ourselves. May we atone for our sins against God so that we may be blessed instead of cursed? Can we make the USA great again and not a mockery to the nations? I pray that we can clean our own house before we are concerned about another’s. We must be a good example before we can help correct another. God is not pleased with what He sees coming from us at this moment in time, let’s lovingly correct that.
The Lord bless and keep you, His Face shine upon you,
Chaplain Loehne