As we walked through an area of hills and valleys, we came upon the ruins of a City sitting atop the very highest hill. There was a ghost of a path leading up the slope to the ruins. We turned away from the road and walked up the path.
As we wandered among the ruins my friend described to me the former splendor of the City. He spoke of the great walls and towers that defended the City. He told me of the beauty of a temple made from imported granite and the bustle of a busy marketplace filled with vendors calling out their wares. He pointed out the location of the wealthy housing district in a standing grove of fruit trees, and he described the hovels of the poor that sat against the perimeter walls adjacent to the barracks where the City’s defenders slept. Then we quenched our thirst amidst the ruins of a great fountain that was built above the spring that supplied the City with water.
Back outside the gate, my friend explained to me the disposition of the army of besiegers who destroyed the City. He pointed out the location of the command tent. Hundreds of campfires from the troops became visible as he described how the army would have looked at night to the residents of the City. He spoke of battering rams, and siege towers, and the catapults that were used to reduce the once great walls to rubble. All the details of the battle came clear as we looked out over the valley below the hilltop.
Finally he asked me to turn once again to the gate. He described the scene after the battle, and I could envision oxen led carts filled with the wealth of the City emerging from the gate. And even more disturbing, I saw the survivors of the City being led through the gate in chains, bound for slavery in the home country of the attackers.
And then he told me this:
“The City is a man. And the attacking army is the same man. Each act of sinfulness on the part of the man is like a catapult launched at the walls or a blow from the battering ram on the face of the gate.
The young man besieges himself with sin until his defenses are destroyed.
And then the devil enters the heart of the man unopposed, and he binds the man in slavery to sin, and he carries him off to do his bidding for all eternity.”
I asked in reply, “Is there no hope for the man to return from his exile and rebuild the City, and thus to free himself from the slavery of sin?”
And my friend answered, “There is always hope. There is even great assistance available to the man to help him gain his freedom. But before he is able to call on that assistance, he must recognize his circumstance. All too often, the man never realizes or refuses to accept that he has been captured, so he never desires his freedom.”
And then my friend rose, and I followed him down the ghost of a path to the main road, and we continued on our journey.