READING: Deuteronomy 16-18, Mark 13:1-20
“Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!”
Mark 13:1
I’ve seen some impressive man-made sights over the years. The Statue of Liberty. The Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia. The Eifel Tower. The St. Louis Arch. The Shwedagon Pagoda in Myanmar. Westminster Abbey in London. The Great Wall of China. The Washington Monument. The Houston Astrodome. The Seattle Space Needle. The Golden Gate Bridge. The plane-shaped city of Brasilia, Brazil. Even the airplanes that transported me to these sites were products of human ingenuity.
All of it is remarkable . . . and all of it is fleeting. Whether we believe it or not, all of it will disappear someday.
In Jesus’ day, it must have been difficult for His disciples to consider a day when each block of the massive temple in Jerusalem would no longer be in place. After all, it really was quite magnificent:
At the time of Jesus’ ministry, the temple was one of the most impressive structures in the world, made of massive blocks of stone bedecked with gold ornamentation. Some of the stones in the temple complex measured 40x12x12 feet and were expertly quarried to fit perfectly against one another. The temple buildings were made of gleaming white marble, and the whole eastern wall of the large main structure was covered with gold plates that reflected the morning sun, making a spectacle that was visible for miles.*
Within four decades after Jesus warned His disciples, “There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down” (Mark 13:2), that temple would be destroyed by an invading army. Its magnificence may have sustained it for years, but it could not sustain it forever. The “spectacle that was visible for miles” would be visible for only a while; it would not last. Indeed, its collapse would be a fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy.
It was also a reminder that all the “stuff” we build in this world won’t last. The present-tense magnificence of all the things I mentioned at the beginning of this devotion doesn’t make any of them any less temporary. I say it again, “all of it will disappear someday.” Thus, living for anything less than God – the eternal Creator and Redeemer – makes little sense.
ACTION STEPS:
- Think about the most amazing man-made thing you’ve ever seen. Consider how much more magnificent God is.
- Be careful about living for things that do not last.
PRAYER: “God, keep me focused on eternal things that matter.”
TOMORROW'S READING: Deuteronomy 19-21, Mark 13:21-37
*(2010-08-10). The MacArthur Study Bible (Kindle Locations 237731-237734). Crossway. Kindle Edition.