Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is Isaiah 58-63:14.
I found SO much that spoke to me in today's passage. Like we read previously in Ecclesiastes, there really is nothing new under the sun. In the first two chapters of today's reading, Isaiah could have been describing our world today.
We start off today's reading with Isaiah 58: "True and False Worship". It's always easy to say "Oh, look at so-and-so. See how they fold their hands and bow their heads in church, and tomorrow they'll be lying or gossiping or cheating or fornicating. What a hypocrite!" All the while forgetting that our sin is no less evil than is theirs. We don't truly know the state of anyone else's heart or their relationship with God, and we are not fit or equipped to judge someone else. I think we need to take stock of our own attitudes and Isaiah 58 can shed some light on how we're doing in that area.
On to chapter 59: I often hear Christians lamenting about how much worse things are in the world now than they were several decades ago. I think mainly the things that used to be more hidden are much more out in the open now. We see it more and hear about it more because of the advancements in technology and the vast amounts of information and media available to us in the blink of an eye today. For example, certainly years ago there was a lot less bad language and nudity in the media. People didn't expose as much of their flesh in public as they do now. Things like homosexuality were taboo and so people pretended not to be gay, married someone of the opposite sex and even had children, and kept their "extracurricular activities" behind closed doors. But the attitudes, the sin, the darkness of heart, the rebellion against what we know we should do as opposed to what we want to do... that is the human condition and I don't believe that has changed one iota since Adam & Eve got kicked out of paradise. You can disagree with me if you want; it's just my opinion. I wonder sometimes if we didn't have access to worldwide media and just got our worldview from the people and communities in our vicinity whether that perception of how much worse things are would still hold true.
Be that as it may, today's reading sounds a lot like the world today, as did the readings regarding the state of the world before the Flood and when God destroyed Sodom & Gomorrah. From Isaiah 59:
No one cares about being fair and honest. The people’s lawsuits are based on lies.
They conceive evil deeds and then give birth to sin.
All their activity is filled with sin, and violence is their trademark.
Their feet run to do evil, and they rush to commit murder.
They think only about sinning. Misery and destruction always follow them.
They don’t know where to find peace or what it means to be just and good.
The next two chapters, 60 & 61, are about hope. Originally these promises were for the nation of Israel, as God's chosen people. Ephesians 1 & 2 talk about how Gentiles, upon receiving God's gift of salvation through Christ's death on the cross, are "adopted as sons"..."fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household" and therefore heirs to the kingdom together with Israel.
Ephesians 2:14-16 ~ For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
Isaiah 60:18-22 ~ Violence will disappear from your land;
the desolation and destruction of war will end.
Salvation will surround you like city walls,
and praise will be on the lips of all who enter there.
“No longer will you need the sun to shine by day,
nor the moon to give its light by night,
for the Lord your God will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your glory.
Your sun will never set;
your moon will not go down.
For the Lord will be your everlasting light.
Your days of mourning will come to an end.
All your people will be righteous.
They will possess their land forever,
for I will plant them there with my own hands
in order to bring myself glory.
The smallest family will become a thousand people,
and the tiniest group will become a mighty nation.
At the right time, I, the Lord, will make it happen.”
What a promise! When comparing those verses to what we see in our world today, I can hardly wait for that day to come. And yet, there is that hesitation about the unknown - that uncertainty. I love my husband and my children. I love my parents, my siblings and their families, my husband's family, my friends, my church, and my home. I love our incredibly beautiful, gorgeous, amazing-beyond-description Earth. I know that what is to come will be more, better, greater, awesome... more than I can possibly hope for or imagine (which is probably part of the problem) and yet there is still that part of me that likes the familiar that is afraid to really embrace and look forward to that day.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. Sorry I'm late - last night's thunderstorm and consequent brief power outage tampered with my plans.
Tomorrow's passage: Isaiah 63:15-66:24; 2 Kings 20:20-21; 2 Chronicles 32:32-33.
2 comments:
I agree with you in that the sin is just more out in the open now instead of hidden. I remember how my mom said she would never watch Friends because of all the sex talk and yet MASH and Three's Company were among the shows she watched and it had the same problems. Unfortunately, the public display of sin, because of technology, can blur the lines of acceptable and not acceptable. I worry about my kids and when they are constantly exposed to things that go against God's word that they may begin to see things as ok.
I worry about the same thing for my children. The only solution I see at this point is to monitor what they are exposed to in our home, talk to them about what they do see and hear when we are elsewhere, and hope and pray, pray, pray that as they get older they will learn to sort the grain from the chaff for themselves.
My mom wouldn't let me watch 90210 (original series) and yet when we were younger she watched Y&R many afternoons. We just weren't allowed to be in the room. I think after a while she realized the double standard and quit watching it. I don't remember her watching anymore as we got older.
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