The Moody Blues: "Cities"

This is one song which appeared on a forty-five RPM record but not on an album. Often times back then, bands would put extra songs on the B side of singles. Listen to this one here:

As in today's cities, the ones mentioned in the Bible weren't righteous places to live. We read how God judged the wicked city dwellers in 2 Peter 2:6-8 (Bible in Basic English), "And sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah, burning them up with fire as an example to those whose way of life might in the future be unpleasing to him; And kept safe Lot, the upright man, who was deeply troubled by the unclean life of the evil-doers (Because the soul of that upright man living among them was pained from day to day by seeing and hearing their crimes):"

When the Israelites foolishly brought the Ark of the Covenant to the battle and lost it to the Philistines, God punished the five cities it went to. As 1 Samuel 5:6 (BBE) tells of one city, "But the hand of the Lord was hard on the people of Ashdod and he sent disease on them through all the country of Ashdod."

Though people lived in walled cities for their protection, armies besieged  them and broke through their defences. Isaiah 14:31 (BBE) shows how God punished the philistines for their oppression of Israel. "Send out a cry, O door! Make sounds of sorrow, O town! All your land has come to nothing, O Philistia; for there comes a smoke out of the north, and everyone keeps his place in the line."

But God did favour Jerusalem and also punished that city when they turned from worshipping him. As Isaiah 40:1 and 2 (BBE) reads, "'Give comfort, give comfort, to my people,' says your God. Say kind words to the heart of Jerusalem, crying out to her that her time of trouble is ended, that her punishment is complete; that she has been rewarded by the Lord's hand twice over for all her sins."

There is  one city, of which we are part of, which will never be destroyed. As Revelation 21:2 (BBE) predicts, "And I saw the holy town, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, like a bride made beautiful for her husband."

If our Master hasn't brought that about by Thursday, I hope I can post about a song which was decades ahead of its time.