Hamilton, the Temple, and Hagia Sophia
There’s a famous cartoon. In this cartoon two people are looking at a number written on the floor. For the first person, it looks like a six. But, to the other person, who is standing on the other side of the room, it looks like a 9. Whether it’s a 6 or a 9 depends on our perspective. We all have our own rose colored glasses when we look at the world and assign meaning to it. The key, however, is being able to see how scripture looks at the world—and Hamilton can help us understand how scripture does this. Only then can we see as God sees and walk according to his Way.
Bottom Line: Scripture reorients our perspective so that we can see God at work in the world.
Scripture Verses:
“In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month … a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He burned the house of the Lord, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. All the army … broke down the walls around Jerusalem …[and] carried into exile the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon—all the rest of the population. But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to be vinedressers and tillers of the soil.” (2 Kings 25:8-12 edited)
“For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.” (Jeremiah 7:5-7)
“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: … I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and mighty arm, in anger, in fury, and in great wrath. And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both human beings and animals; they shall die of a great pestilence. Afterward, says the Lord, I will give … the people in this city—those who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine—into the hands of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, into the hands of their enemies, into the hands of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword; he shall not pity them, or spare them, or have compassion.” (Jeremiah 21: 3, 5-7 edited)
“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. … But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:31, 33)
Scripture Verses:
“In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month … a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He burned the house of the Lord, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. All the army … broke down the walls around Jerusalem …[and] carried into exile the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon—all the rest of the population. But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to be vinedressers and tillers of the soil.” (2 Kings 25:8-12 edited)
“For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.” (Jeremiah 7:5-7)
“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: … I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and mighty arm, in anger, in fury, and in great wrath. And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both human beings and animals; they shall die of a great pestilence. Afterward, says the Lord, I will give … the people in this city—those who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine—into the hands of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, into the hands of their enemies, into the hands of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword; he shall not pity them, or spare them, or have compassion.” (Jeremiah 21: 3, 5-7 edited)
“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. … But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:31, 33)