Isaiah

Wednesday is Bible study day at church. We have two sessions: morning and evening. We’ve been studying Isaiah since October 2008 and we’re 50 chapters deep…wow and praise be to God! I have been reading and rereading Isaiah 24. Here are some excerpts using Eugene Peterson’s translation, The Message. “Danger ahead! God’s about to ravish the earth and leave it in ruins, rip everything out by the roots and send everyone scurrying: priests and laypeople alike, owners and workers alike, celebrities and nobodies alike, buyers and sellers alike, bankers and beggars alike, the haves and have-nots alike.” Plain talk huh? Peterson speaks and writes frankly and honestly.

How about this from chapter 24? “Earth is polluted by its very own people, who have broken its laws, disrupted its order, violated the sacred and eternal covenant.” Environmental terror groups might malappropriate this interpretation of Isaiah. We need to pay close attention to what we have been given dominion over and therefore responsibility for.

Hey Washington this one is for you and those who pant breathlessly in worship of the state, “That’s when God will call on the carpet rebel powers in the skies and rebel kings on earth. They’ll be rounded up like prisoners in a jail, Corralled and locked up in a jail, and then sentenced and put to hard labor. Shamefaced moon will cower, humiliated, red-faced sun will skulk, disgraced, because God-of-the-Angel-Armies will take over, ruling from Mount Zion and Jerusalem, splendid and glorious before all his leaders.” It is also a warning to those of us who believe that God will take care of the problems and all we have to do is sit idly by while the world falls into disarray, despair and dissolution. The truth is that the guilt falls to us as well as those who willfully destroy God’s Creation. What we fail to condemn we in silence approve.

Prayer: Merciful God thank you for loving us and sending your Son for us. We have failed to be a faithful people. We have failed to be good stewards of all that you have given us dominion over. Help us get back on the right path with you, our neighbor and our duties in stewardship. You made Yourself flesh and dwelled among us so that we may see and learn your Way. Clear our brains and beings of this willful, stiff-necked and self-righteous behavior of ours. In Jesus Name we pray. AMEN!