13 ‘Thus My anger will be spent and I will [h]satisfy My wrath on them, and I will be [i]appeased; then they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in My zeal when I have spent My wrath upon them. 14 Moreover, I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations which surround you, in the sight of all who pass by. 15 So [j]it will be a reproach, a reviling, a warning and an object of horror to the nations who surround you when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath and raging rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken. 16 When I send against them the [k]deadly arrows of famine which [l]were for the destruction of those whom I will send to destroy you, then I will also intensify the famine upon you and break the staff of bread. 17 Moreover, I will send on you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you of children; plague and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’”
As God sums up the judgments that He will send on Israel, there’s something important that is repeated: “I, the Lord, have spoken…” He states this at the beginning, and again at the end, and it is given as part of the reason for all this calamity. It was not just because God had spoken, but so that His people would know that it was His doing, rather than random bad fortune.
Everything that God does is for a reason, He is not capricious in anything that He does. We are often tempted to think such things are mere happenstance, whether they be good or bad. Yet there is meaning even when we do not see it. And this is an odd contrast with what Solomon said after he had indulged in anything and everything you could think of. He called it all “meaningless”… well, everything that is except one thing, “to fear God and keep His commandments.”
See, God has given everything we do meaning, but too often we rob things of their meaning. We may think some things are only for our pleasure, but Solomon found no purpose in pleasure itself. Take sex for example, it is not without purpose, it is for procreation and to forge the bonds of relationship between a man and wife. Yet the world would rob it of any meaning, and make it all for pleasing the flesh.
Or take food, which is for sustenance and nourishment to our bodies. Yet when we gorge ourselves and eat too much, what value does it have? None at all, and indeed it may then work against us. Sleep is of great value, but sleep the day away and sloth will rob you of what you might have had, or what you do have (if indulged too long and too often).
God did not create anything to be meaningless, it is only we who belittle His gifts and rob them of their value. Let God restore the value in your life, for you yourself have meaning and purpose. This world would like to tell you otherwise–that you are the descendant of apes or amoeba, nothing more than natural selection.
It brings to mind the old chorus that says, “restore unto me, the joy of Your salvation, and renew a right spirit within me.” Now that I think of it, that’s probably one of David’s Psalms. Make that your prayer today, that He would renew a right spirit in you, one that values the experiences, the joy, and even the sorrow, for the meaning that they bring. God does nothing on accident, He created you “to do good works” and in Him we find our true purpose and joy.