Jeremiah 52:9 Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; where he gave judgment upon him.
What Do You Have That Can’t Be Taken Away?
I remember when I was a kid, a family down the highway had a house fire and lost pretty much everything. I remember a lot of us gathering our things together to help them out of a tight spot. I remember my parents asking me to give some of my toys away, and I can remember to this day exactly what I gave. But,whatever I gave, it wasn’t as much as my friend had lost.
Isaiah 52:9 speaks of the people of Jerusalem losing their king. Verse 13 says that they lost their homes and community. Verse 15 says that they were carried away captive. They also lost their gold and brass when the Babylonians looted their temple. They lost the moorings of their very identity. They were taken to another land with a different language.
The only thing more tragic than losing everything you have on earth is owning only what you have on earth. Israel had lost their gold, but they had left their God. In the grand scheme of things, they lost everything when they rejected their God, but they didn’t know it until they lost all their earthly belongings.
So, what do you have that life can’t give you and death can’t take from you? In the eyes of Heaven that is really all you have. The Bible tells us we’re to enjoy the blessings and pleasures that God gives. The Psalms tell us that God delights in the prosperity of His people. But silver and gold are not the sum of our prosperity. A person is blessed who loves God and who has God.
Regardless of what you have today, if you have the Lord, you have what you need. He owns all that we lack. He knows all that we cannot see. And in eternity He’ll be our greatest joy. It just makes sense, then, that we would enjoy the things that He gives, but also that we would enjoy Him in our life today.