So in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it. The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. – 2 Kings 25:1-2

Today's Scripture Reading (May 19, 2020): 2 Kings 25

Darren Shan, in his book, Living Nightmare, the first book in his young adult book series "Vampire Blood Trilogy" or the "Cirque Du Freak" series writes;

The thing about real life is, when you do something stupid, it normally costs you. In books the heroes can make as many mistakes as they like. It doesn't matter what they do, because everything works out in the end. They'll beat the bad guys and put things right and everything ends up cool.

In real life, vacuum cleaners kill spiders. If you cross a busy road without looking, you get whacked by a car. If you fall from a tree, you break some bones.

Real life's nasty. It's cruel. It doesn't care about heroes and happy endings and the way things should be. In real life, bad things happen. People die. Fights are lost. Evil often wins.

I just wanted to make that clear before I begun.

And Darren is right. Real-life often works differently than fiction. In real life, the cavalry is not waiting on just the other side of the hill, ready to ride in and free us. Salvation often comes too late, second chances are rare, and doing stupid things can really cost us. We often seem to live with the misconception that says that if we got away with doing something wrong once, we would always get away with it. But that is a childish idea. Things eventually catch up with us. It is the way that the real-world works. Of course, Darren Shan has a specific story that he wants to tell.

I have a different story, but Darren's words work as well for my account as they do for his. After all of the warnings, words, models molded out in clay, and the drama's enacted before the people. After all of the words of the prophets, both the ones that have been written down and those which are lost in antiquity, had been heard or read. When all of the jokes had been old and all of the laughs had been had. After all of the tears that had been shed over the city, the day finally arrived when Babylon surrounded Jerusalem with their armies and siege works. I don't know if it surprised some people that this day had finally arrived, or if some still believed that their salvation was hiding just over the hill. For the next two years, Babylon would wait, and no one would come to Jerusalem's rescue.

Actions have consequences, and stupid actions often have stupid consequences. At this moment, Jerusalem was about to suffer the result that they should have been expecting. The consequences being served on them was according to the deeds that they had committed. Although, I am sure that they were holding onto the dream that somehow the Babylonian army would go away just like the Assyrians had disappeared during the days of Hezekiah

But Babylon wasn't going anywhere.   

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 21