Treasure on Fire

[Steve Myers] You've probably been following the news on the events that have been happening in Egypt. Of course, the leader Mubarak was ousted a number of months ago, and now the military has taken over. And many of the citizens are not happy. There's been rioting in the streets most recently. And I ran across an interesting article that really focused on some of the tragic events that are going on.  Not only are people being killed, rioters being beaten, but there was an interesting article that focused on a tragic event on one of the buildings over there in Cairo. And it's called The Institute of Egypt. And that particular building housed hundreds and hundreds of valuable documents, books, books that are hundreds of years old. And one of the amazing things is one of the workers there said, "The burning of such a rich building means a large part of Egyptian history has ended." You talk about a tragedy. What's most important to us? Are books most important to us? Learning, being educated, being able to understand what's most important or military, might, power, ruling?

[Darris McNeely] You know what this story reminds me of, Steve, is the old thing we draw up at times for a conversation piece and that is "If your house was on fire, what would be the most important thing that you would take out of it?" That's what this story reminds me about. I was actually in a hotel one time that had a bomb threat on it. And you know we were wakened in the middle of the night. "Get out, there's a bomb threat." I was with a companion, and we each took different things out. He took his cameras, I took my passport. We were in a foreign country and I wanted to be able to get out the next day. So, you grab something that's going to be important to you. When you come to a moment like this, and you see buildings being trashed and, especially the historical aspect of Egypt and it's rich history, just being burned and disregarded by the authorities, the people who are supposed to be protecting it, it is a real tragedy. And it really reminds me of the Scripture where Christ said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:21) And when you come to a moment like this, and you see what's happening in Cairo and it's treasures being burned, and then you consider the things that are really important to us, that Scripture comes home to me.

[Steve Myers] Boy, no kidding, when you think of what's most important, the end of this article really was startling to me when I read it. One of the quotes from the volunteers, they said, "When the government wants to protect something, they do. Try to reach the interior ministry or defense ministry buildings. You won't be able to." That is just totally upside down from God's way. You know, is military might the most important thing or are other things more important? God says they are. He says there's coming a time when those swords will be beaten into plowshares (Isaiah 2:4). That's where our treasure needs to be. It needs to be our hope in God, our trust in Him, our faith in Him—not military might.

[Darris McNeely] Today's headlines make you think of these very important Scriptural principles. That's BT Daily. Join us next time.