THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

Who can separate us from the love of Christ?

Rom. 8:35

Distraught refugees flee the city looking back with dismay. Will they see these walls again?

Weeping children cling to their parents not knowing where they will spend the night or who will provide their next meal. It’s all too familiar.

But it’s not Ukraine or Afghanistan, it’s Jerusalem many centuries ago (2 Sam 15). King David and his family flee the rebellious forces of Absalom his son. The King’s head is bowed; he knows he is much to blame for his nation’s plight. David saves God’s people from the Philistines, but then he is conquered by unbridled lust for women and power, much the same thing in those days. Nathan the prophet predicts disaster and so it happens.

But where is God in this sad story? The clue lies in its situation. David’s entourage climb the track up to the Mount of Olives, where centuries later a descendent of David, Jesus, weeps over Jerusalem. It’s where Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus is arrested, destined for death on a cross. God is no idle bystander. In love, God sends Jesus to redeem His people from the powers of evil by His death and resurrection, so rewriting the course of history. Christians in the Ukraine pray knowing that in Christ alone they stand. The love that suffers saves.

David James.