Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Psalms 134-136
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Luke 13:2-5
Jesus: Do you think these Galileans were somehow being singled out for their sins, that they were worse than any other Galileans, because they suffered this terrible death? Of course not. But listen, if you do not consider God’s ways and truly change, then friends, you should prepare to face His judgment and eternal death.
Speaking of current events, you’ve all heard about the 18 people killed in that building accident when the tower in Siloam fell. Were they extraordinarily bad people, worse than anyone else in Jerusalem, so that they would deserve such an untimely death? Of course not. But all the buildings of Jerusalem will come crashing down on you if you don’t wake up and change direction now.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
I think from the time Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden as punishment for that first act of disobedience, we seem to lay the blame for every bad thing that happens at God’s feet. It must be God’s punishment for something that caused him to go through that terrible tragedy. It must be some sin in her life that brought on that awful disease. God is punishing him for actions in his past. That must be true, right? Wrong!
There are a couple of things we can learn from these words from Jesus, though. He makes it pretty clear not all the bad things that happen to us are because of sin in our lives. The Galileans killed by the Romans were killed as a demonstration that Rome was still in charge. No reason for their murder other than they came to Jerusalem to worship and perhaps didn’t have all the right permissions stamped on their papers. The Romans ruled with an iron fist and showed their ruthless power occasionally just to let people know who still ruled them and it wasn’t those temple priests.
Jesus let those around him know the Galileans that lost their lives did nothing more or less than any others around them yet lost their lives. It’s not their individual sins that caused those bad things to happen, it’s the fact that death entered the cosmos with that first sin Adam and Even committed and so bad things happen to everyone. Trouble in life is a universal issue for all of us. We all get sick. We all face taxes and bills and mortgages. We all find laws conflicting with other laws and have to make choices as to which we will bend to follow others. We all find difficult relationships with someone somewhere.
Face it. Bad things happen to us occasionally. We can’t get away from it. Expect it. And it comes just because we breathe air on this side of dirt. If you take that first breath out of your mother’s womb, you will have bad things happen to you. It’s a fact of life and you just can’t get away. Maybe it’s like James Dobson once said, it’s to keep us from getting too comfortable here and help us remember there is a better place awaiting us. If we never had problems here, we might not long for heaven the way we do. So maybe it’s okay for bad things to happen just because.
But Jesus also indicates that sometimes bad things do happen as a result of our wrong doing. That wasn’t true for those Galileans who were killed or the victims of the tower wall that fell in Siloam, but He warns those listening to Him that they better changed their ways or bad things will happen to them soon. He says the walls of Jerusalem will come crashing down on them if they don’t change.
Those are interesting words considering in forty years the Romans will destroy Jerusalem and the temple and the whole city will be reduced to rubble. I wonder how many of those in that crowd were caught under the falling stones as catapults and battering rams smashed the walls. Some of them didn’t change their ways. We know that from their behavior toward Jesus at the mock trial, calling for His crucifixion, mocking Him on the cross.
So some of the bad things that happen to us are a result of our wrong doing. Either natural consequences of our bad behavior, like the health problems that come from drug addiction, abuse of alcohol, and a host of other illicit behaviors. Or punishment from God for our disobedience to Him like He did with the Israelites and sent a plague among the community.
The bottom line for any individual is that you know your heart. Is there any unconfessed sin there? If so, ask God to forgive it and thank Him for His forgiveness. Then recognize that all of us will suffer in this world. Accept the suffering as identifying with our Lord. He suffered and died for us and was sinless. If He suffered and did no wrong, then we have nothing to complain about when we suffer for the wrong we do. Bad things will happen to us. Use them to remember Jesus faced bad things, too. He faced them so we can enjoy good things for all eternity.
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