The Bottom Line
Ponder: How does the bottom line look for your spiritual condition?
Scripture: “She did not consider her destiny; therefore her collapse was awesome” (Lamentations 1:9 NKJV).
Of all the lines on a Profit-and-Loss sheet, the bottom one interests us most. Are we in the red or the black? Is the figure large or small? How does the bottom line look?
For the people of Judah six centuries BC, the bottom line read: “Captivity in Babylon.” Despite urgent, prolonged prophetic warnings that continued sin would bring disaster, few listened. One or two kings led reforms, but for the most part the prophets were bitterly opposed. Finally, God audited the books. Judah failed the audit. God punished them, using the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Jerusalem with its splendid temple, kill most of the people, and carry off nearly all the survivors as captives to Babylon.
Why did this terrible fate befall Judah? As Jeremiah lamented, “she did not consider her destiny.” The people of Judah felt secure in their alliances with pagan nations. They laughed or became angry when the prophets rebuked them for their sins and warned of impending doom. Like credit card addicts, they forgot that one day the payments would come due.
Sometimes we may fail to consider our destiny. We ponder how a decision may affect us financially, socially, etc.; but do we consider its eternal effect? The foolish farmer (Luke 12) cared only about comfort and ease here and now. God reminded him of his destiny: “This night your soul will be required of you” (v. 20). Full barns would gain him nothing in judgment before God; his selfishness, however, would certainly condemn him. Like Judah of old, his collapse would be awesome.
Many scoff at the idea of Hell, that “lake that burns with fire and brimstone” (Revelation 21:8). Their collapse will be awesome. Happily, we can avoid that terrible end: “But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:22, 23).
Song: “Prepare to Meet thy God”
Prayer: Father in Heaven, we thank You for Your longsuffering, and plead that you will help us to take Your warnings seriously. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Joe Slater (Justin, TX)