Having a Thought Towards the Future

"Her uncleanness was in her skirts;

she took no thought of her future;

therefore her fall is terrible;

she has no comforter."           

Those words come from the opening chapter of Lamentations, as the author expresses his grief over the fall of Jerusalem and the carrying off of the people of Israel into captivity.  Last week I finished reading through Jeremiah, where the prophet makes repeated calls for the people of Israel to repent of their sin and turn to the Lord.  The call for repentance is accompanied by a word of warning of the dangers of persisting in their disregard for God.  Lamentations follows Jeremiah, with grief over the fact that God's chosen people got exactly what they were warned about.

As I read Lamentations that one phrase, "she took no thought of her future," hit me hard and stuck with me.  The people of Israel are God's chosen people, called by Him and set apart by Him as His witnesses in the world.  It is they to whom He has revealed His law and it is through them that He will work out His promised plan of redemption.  When it comes to sin, or willful disobedience of the will of God, they, of all people, should know better. 

They should know better, and they probably do know better, and yet they persist in following their own will rather than Gods.  Living in the present, with whatever temporary sense of pleasure, or escape or what have you, as they disobey and disregard God, with no thought of their future.

I don’t know about you, but those words are convicting to me when I look back at my sin.  It was something I did at the moment without any care for its effects in the future.

Ongoing sin, unfortunately, is part of the Christian life.  We can understand our weakness in one area, and deal with it accordingly, and then find that as soon as we turn from that one thing we fall into another. 

While I am convicted by the words of Lamentations, I am also comforted, knowing that in Christ Jesus there is a truly merciful Savior.  The fall into sin does not have to be a free fall into a bottomless pit, or a fall to a hard landing and no possible way out. 

My sin has consequences, affecting me, and, both selfishly and unfortunately, other people as well.  May God, in His grace, make me more mindful of that truth, as well as the grace that come through Christ, the next time I consider taking a step into the pit.  May I live with a thought towards the future in terms of the effects of my sin, and also a future where one day sin will be no more.  Amen.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.