Eclipses And Protection

             I don’t have a passage to connect with today’s first idea. But the idea fits the day, so I’m going with it. An eclipse takes place whenever one planetary body passes between the sun and another planetary body. It “just so happens” that the sizes and distances of the sun, Earth, and the moon from each create total or near total eclipses. When the moon eclipses the sun (as will happen today), we can only see the corona of the sun. When the earth eclipses the sun, we have blood moons.

As I thought about this earlier and listened to the lecturer on the videotape in Sunday School talk about the judgments, the ideas merged. Eclipses are an illustration of what people will face. If we represent Christ as the Earth and us as the moon, either Christ stands between God and us (a lunar eclipse), or we stand between God and Christ (a solar eclipse). Either He can take (or block) God’s judgment on us in full, or we can take it God’s judgment ourselves, which might be said to cast a tiny shadow of “protection” on Christ where the path happens to go.

Like any analogy, it’s not perfect, but it’s interesting as far as it goes. Now, onto the regular entry

 

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore. The scepter of the wicked will not remain over the land allotted to the righteous, for then the righteous might use their hands to do evil. Lord, do good to those who are good, to those who are upright in heart. But those who turn to crooked ways the Lord will banish with the evildoers. (Psalm 125)

 

I’ve noted before that Jerusalem is built within a circle of mountains. That’s the reason for these songs that were sung on the way up to the temple. It also means that it has a natural fortress. The people who lived there were protected by walls they didn’t build, but it meant having to trudge up to get to the city. It wasn’t convenient even if it was safe. How often do we complain about the things meant to protect us? No extra-marital sex, no drugs, alcohol only in moderation, eating only in moderation, not wanting what doesn’t belong to us, no pornography, etc.? It takes all the “fun” out of life. It’s not convenient, but it does provide safety.

Now, if we use “the land” as an analogy for our lives, the passage also promises that evil will not be allowed to reign in our lives for long because if it did, the righteous might use their hands to do evil. I think this is a verse we need to be bringing before God in our society today, because it certainly seems as if the righteous are being tempted to use their hand to do evil following the example of the wicked who live in the land.