Awe-Inspiring

Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars! Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled! The sound of the wail of the shepherds, for their glory is ruined! The sound of the roar of the lions, for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!
Zechariah 11:1–3
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Awe-Inspiring 
There are many great and awe-inspiring creations of man. The pyramids of Egypt, the skyscrapers of New York City. But none of them compares to what God creates in us with His Word. Lebanon was a great and powerful country know for their mighty cedars. Yet, like a general at the enemies’ gates, the Lord commanded Lebanon to open its doors to devastation. Judgment was inevitable and could not be stopped. Lebanon’s famous majestic cedar trees, symbols of strength, would be laid asunder. They could not withstand the Lord’s fiery destruction. The shepherds living out in the countryside, upon seeing the ruin of something so stately as the cedars of Lebanon were led to lament. The whole create was called to lament the coming judgement of God. But another Shepherd would come. He too would lament. He would weep for a wicked and adulterous people who turned from God. And then He would lay His life down so that all could be reconciled to the Father. Christ Jesus, our Good Shepherd, has sought us out and returned us to His flock. And it is there, guarded by His Word and Sacraments, fed on His body and blood, and watered by living waters of Holy Baptism, that we rest secured.