WHEN TENTS AND TOWERS FALL ~ Part 1 ~ A Study in Jeremiah

Where were you on Tuesday, January 28, 1986 at 11:39 a.m. EST? Do you remember what you were doing? Maybe, maybe not. After 34 years, you might need a hint regarding why that day should be part of your history. I might ask you if you remember where you were on Thursday, May 3, 2001 at 9:10 p.m. EST? Probably not. Surely, you must know where you were and what you were doing on September 11, 2001 between the hours of 8:46 a.m. and 10:07 a.m. EST.

On January 28, 1986 at 11:39 a.m. I was sitting in my living room, having just put my daughter down for a mid-morning nap. I was going to enjoy my ‘shows’ and my lunch. Shortly after I had sat down, however, my anger at having ‘my time’ interrupted, soon turned to horror as I watched the Space Shuttle Challenger explode in mid-air just 73 seconds into its flight. My horror came from knowing that there were human beings inside, human beings that belonged to families who were also watching. Of course, it did not take long for me to realize that no one could have survived this catastrophe. Witnessing this incident with the masses by live television brought to my mind many questions. Why? Why did the previous nine flights go off without a hitch? Who was to blame for this catastrophe?

 

You may not remember where you were on May 3, 2001 at 9:10 p.m. EST, but there are probably a couple of dozen people who do. I am at the top of that list along with my husband and my three sons. In fact, we can recall details of that whole day. We re-play them on the tape recorders of our minds often. That is the night my beloved daughter was killed in an automobile wreck. Once again, the questions came. But so would the answers that would sustain and grow my faith.

 

Of course everyone knows where they were on that clear, sunny, late summer day when al Qaeda terrorists aboard three hijacked passenger planes carried out suicide attacks against the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., killing everyone on board the planes and nearly 3,000 people on the ground. The first two attacks took place between 8:46 a.m. – 9:03 a.m. as people watched in stunned horror. The questions were coming faster than we could process what was going on. I was talking to a pest control man outside our home. I knew absolutely nothing about this man, but at that moment our bond was two American citizens who were witnessing an historical event that was catastrophic, mind-boggling, and terrifying all at the same moment. I believe he left immediately to get home to his family. I went inside to call each of my family members and to continue to watch this unsettling day unfold. There would be more. While America was busy talking about what had begun happening only a little over an hour earlier, a fourth plan crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. I had no idea where ‘Shanksville’ was, but I was living in Pennsylvania, so the threat became all that more real to me. How big was this? How long would it continue? Was there more to come? It was kind of what I experienced going through my first sequence of earthquakes in southern California. What more was coming? All 40 passengers and crew aboard this plane that went down in Shanksville were killed. We later would hear of all the heroes of the day including those on board this plane who attempted to wrest control from the hijackers. I would also come to be shocked to learn the exact location of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Shanksville is in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. If one looks at a map of where our home stood in relation to the actual crash site, you can see that it is mapped out as an arrow flying in a straight path just 26 miles away from where I was standing when it hit. I remember standing outside in the sunshine thanking the Lord for the beautiful Fall day. I remember having that feeling that all was right in the world even though it wasn’t.

 

Imagine you could have seen all these attacks unfolding, coming one right after another beforehand. Worse, imagine you could see that you would be right in the middle of them along with your family and all your loved ones. I think of Job and all the catastrophic losses he faced coming upon him as attacks ‘out of the blue’ one right after the other. Thankfully, his thoughts and questions, along with the answers he received were recorded for us; and they are valuable for us to gain a right understanding of a doctrine of suffering in the life of a believer.

 

I remember when I was induced in my third full-term pregnancy. For hours nothing was happening, and the hospital doctors on call were thinking of sending me home. Thankfully, they decided to wait a little while longer because once the birth pangs came, they came with a frequency that was intense. I did not experience that type of pain with the births of my first two children. I remember asking the doctors if they could un-induce me so that I could have the baby naturally. That sounds funny, now, but back then I was totally serious because I did not think I would be able to handle the pain as the contractions increased in frequency, duration, and pain.

 

We looked at Isaiah 13:8 yesterday to relate the judgment Jeremiah saw coming upon his people with birth pangs. His anguish was likened to a woman writhing in painful labor. I could also have used Isaiah 21:3 to paint the picture with more color—For this reason, my loins are full of anguish; pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor. I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see. 1 Thessalonians 5:3 says—While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.

Disaster on disaster is proclaimed, for the whole land is devastated… (Jeremiah 4:20a) Disaster on disaster is proclaimed…Literally breach upon breach. This word disaster can mean breaking, fracture, shattering, crushing, crashing, or breaking of a dream. I get this, and I am thankful I could not see all the things that would happen to me and my family beforehand. My Melissa died in 2001; my father-in-law died of cancer in 2005; my husband was investigated in 2006 and arrested in 2009; my middle son went off to college in the midst of scandal; my mom died in 2010 of cancer; my oldest son and I were indicted in 2011; my youngest son went off to school to join my middle son on the west coast (very uneasy and unsettled, riddled with anxiety over what was happening to his family back home); my husband was sentenced to prison later in 2011; my oldest son and I endured a farcical trial and were found guilty a month later; and, my oldest son and I  were sentenced to prison in spring of 2012. During our trial, my oldest son turned to a pastor friend and said, “Our lives seem like one never-ending storm. I just don’t understand why.”

When I began to start thinking about the future for my family under investigation, negative thoughts would come pouring into my head…What if this, or what if that? What I constantly did to combat those thoughts was to focus on the future hope I have as a believer in Christ. So, while studying Jeremiah, I try to imagine the thoughts of hope he may have been thinking of even while giving hard messages of judgment. What Jeremiah saw was one affliction after another coming for his people. Just like Job, he would get visions of one calamity, and on the heels of that, he knew another one was coming. As one commentator wrote: Distress and troubles would come thick and fast, and there would be no end of them, until there was utter destruction. The whole land was going to be devastated or violently destroyed, spoiled, or wasted.

In Luke 13, Jesus taught on repentance giving two examples to help the people understand the answer to the question in their hearts of why bad things happen to good people. It is the question that is addressed in Job. In the first instance, Jesus warned that we must be careful when we see calamity strike others that we do not somehow view ourselves as morally superior to those who have suffered the catastrophes in question. Jesus connected human catastrophe with human evil because all affliction comes ultimately from humanity’s curse at the Fall. Some affliction is the direct consequence of personal iniquity, to be sure. However, all are called to repentance since we all sin and none of us knows when sudden destruction will come. There is no guaranteed time to prepare for death. Today is the day of repentance.

There was a disturbing question that came up many times over the years I taught Bible study. Inevitably, when a relative or friend of one of the ladies in the group had died suddenly, their somewhat timid question was this: “Do you think there was any possibility he or she could have been saved?” There is just no way for anyone to answer that question dogmatically except to say that ‘with God all things are possible.’ We can be assured that God will judge righteously. How awful for believing family members who are left to have to wonder about another loved one’s eternal destiny. In the end, however, we must embrace God’s sovereign will as good and perfect.

God is Sovereign. When tragedy hits, we want to blame someone. But can we blame God? Or can we pretend to know the hearts of every individual upon which calamity strikes? We must not assume victims of tragedies were judged for their great evil. Is this not what Job’s “friends” were doing to him? But this is the temptation because deep down we want to believe that we are basically good people and that though these things happen to others, they will not happen to us. Isn’t it also presuming upon God to automatically attribute all tragedy to the vengeance of God? It can be a man-made tragedy or a naturally caused tragedy, but it is always wrong to assume that the victims involved are somehow worse sinners than everyone else who deserved to die. What happened at the Tower of Siloam? “Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”  (Luke 13:4-5) Jesus spoke these words He was warning Israel of approaching judgment. They did not repent, and judgment came in 70 A.D. for all. No one could ever assume that there weren’t some in the Twin Towers who loved God and lived in faithful service to Him. All have an appointed time to die. The “moral of the story” is that we must all repent or we will perish. It is Jeremiah’s message to the people of Judah in his day. The message has not ever changed. We are not to focus on the sins of others but to focus on our own sin examining our own hearts daily. When towers fall, even in judgment, we can know that the righteous will be affected along with the unrighteous.

Suddenly my tents are devastated, my curtains in an instant. How long must I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet? (Jeremiah 4:20b-21)  

I was curious about Jeremiah’s use of the words tents and my curtains, so I did some digging. My mind instantly went to tents and tabernacles. Curtains were like the inside walls of the tents nomadic people lived in. In 2 Samuel 20:1, 1 Kings 12:16, 2 Samuel 18:17, Jeremiah 35:10 gave me some insight. The cry that signaled a revolt was, “Every man to his tents, O Israel!” It was a war cry. “Tents” meant home which was an archaic expression dating from the times of their desert wanderings.

As I began to think about the passages I was looking at, four things came to mind as I thought about what could have been in Jeremiah’s mind when he was pronouncing judgment to come. (1) A disobedient prophet, (2) An obedient prophet, (3) The Feast of Tabernacles/Booths/Sukkot, and (4) The hope of restoration for Israel in the future. I will pick up here next time and I cannot wait because this study has thoroughly intrigued me!