It is no longer news that the suspected bombers of the Boston Marathon have been apprehended by the Boston Police. Two brothers, one dead and the other, in intensive care  after being seriously wounded with gunshot wounds.

Over the last week or so, I have seen the way human beings respond to turn of events.  On the day of the Marathon, people were lined up, cheering the runners oblivious of the danger lurking by. As the runners approached the finishing line, the first bomb exploded. Cheering and laughter turned into terror and fear. Then the second bomb brought more fear. Afterwards, came sorrow as the losses were accounted for. Men, women and children dead. Over a hundred in hospital, many of them with limbs amputated to save their lives.



For several days, people stayed at home in fear, not knowing where it was safe to go. Several days later, news filtered out that the suspects had been apprehended. One dead, the other injured. Sorrow turned to jubilation. People trooped to the streets and rejoiced.

I could not but feel a sense of déjà vu. I had seen it all before, we have all seen it before. Remember 911,  Norweigian Anders Breivik and the Sandy Hook shooter who killed innocent and defenceless children? It is sad that man is capable of so much evil and the acts keep getting more daring as time  goes by.

 

For students of scripture, this should not come as a surprise. Jeremiah, a Prophet who was called into the prophetic ministry in 626BC lamented, 'The human heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? (Jeremiah 17:9, NLT)

As early as about 4900B God looked down the earth and we read the following, "The observed the extent of human wickedness on earth, and He saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry that He had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke His heart" (Genesis 6:5-6, NLT)

It makes sense when you watch the news and see the fatal and destructive outcome of  the actions of one or a few persons and your heart breaks.  God knows exactly how you feel! Imagine how it must have felt looking down on earth and seeing the masterpiece of His creation doing things that are in total contrast to what He created them to be.

I wish I could say that the Boston bombing would be the last we would see but sadly, that is never going to happen. As long as we have people whose minds can be toyed with, who can be brainwashed into an ideology of  death and destruction to others as well as those with a manic and depressive spirit, there will be more of these type of events happening in our world.

Does this point of view make me a pessimistic person? No. On the contrary, I believe that events like this confirm to us what scripture had clearly declared thousands of years ago.

The human mind is sick and the only one that can heal it is our Maker, that is, if we surrender our hearts to Him for regeneration. He promised, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26)

There are many questions emanating from the actions of suspects, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev at the Boston Marathon bombings.  Why did they do it? What did they have against America? Did they know they would be killing innocent men, women and children?  Why would they attack the very country that welcomed them with open arms when they left their war-thorn homeland of Chechnya?

I felt pity for the mother of these brothers as she confidently and stoutly defended her sons’ innocence. She believed they they would never hurt people and that they were set up. Did she really think she knew everything about her sons who were far away from home?

When these boys left Chechnya in 2002, did they know that 11 years later they would play a major role in a terrorist attack that would kill and injure many people? If not, what happened along the line?  What influenced their minds?  These are questions begging for answers which may never come to light.

Now that  Dzhokhar is now able to communicate to the security agents in writing, some of these questions would be answered but I am sure his answers will create more unanswered questions.

In the midst of all the jubilation after the apprehension of the Tsarnaev brothers,  there are families in sorrow. There would definitely not be any jubilation, only mourning, pain and grief.

As we pray for the families of  8-year old Martin Richard who died along with others as well as Jeff Bauman who has lost the use of both legs, one among the many, let us be aware that these events are part of what has been foretold as the visible signs of the second coming of Christ.  The Spirit of the anti-Christ is already wrecking havoc and destruction with the intent of claiming human lives, using human agents as tools.

What can we do? We can offer ourselves as agents of God’s love and goodness.  We can offer hope and encouragement to the suffering and spread the good news of the gospel far and wide.

Evil will not stop happening, but rather than despair, we will confront evil with good, combat hate with love and serve as agents of hope in a world that is in despair.

 

Steve Popoola is the editor of Biblepraise Newsletter and the founder of  the Biblepraise Fellowship Online at http://www.biblepraise.org. He lives in Kent, United Kingdom, where he works as an IT Professional. He currently as a Worship Leader in his local church and on occasion, speaks at invited events. He is the founder of the Biblepraise Fellowship Online Ministry and Moderator/Editor of the  Biblepraise Newsletter. He can be reached through His email address, steve@biblepraise.org