Monday In Holy Week, Morning Prayer
Psalm 51 Lamentations 1:1-2, 6-12 Mark 11: 12-25 In the Lamentations passage begins the Babylonian Exile of Israel. Jerusalem is a city sitting empty of its people, taken away to a far-off land. They disregarded God and his statutes and set themselves to their own pursuits, devoting themselves to idols, false gods. Israel ceased bearing fruit for God's kingdom and a curse was set on them to wither to the hand of Babylon for seventy years. The lesson from Mark captures a similar image with the fig tree and the temple cleansing. The fig tree that Jesus curses is found withered away as the Israelites were in Jeremiah's time, same as the money-changers in the temple, exchanging Roman currency for Jewish currency; to me that is symbolic of exchanging God's provision for worldliness. Those who place personal ambition over before the will of the Lord will be driven away. That is not to say personal ambition is inherently a bad thing it is when personal ambition takes us aw