May the mumbling commence!
In the context of Isaiah, chapters
thirteen to twenty-three have warnings and promises to the enemies of
Jerusalem. It would make anyone feel
comfortable when they hear of their enemies’ eventual demise. In the midst of that, in chapter twenty-two,
there is a warning for Jerusalem. Now
there’s an eye-opener, for sure. Read
from chapter twenty-two:
This message came to me concerning Jerusalem: What is
happening? Why is everyone running to the rooftops? The whole city is in a terrible uproar. What
do I see in this reveling city? Bodies
are lying everywhere, killed by famine and disease. All your leaders flee. They surrender without
resistance. The people try to slip away, but they are captured, too. Leave
me alone to weep; do not try to comfort me. Let me cry for my people as I watch
them being destroyed.
Oh, what a day of
crushing trouble! What a day of confusion and terror the Lord, the Lord Almighty, has brought upon the Valley
of Vision! The walls of Jerusalem have been broken, and cries of death
echo from the mountainsides. Elamites
are the archers; Arameans drive the chariots. The men of Kir hold up the
shields. They fill your beautiful
valleys and crowd against your gates. Judah's
defenses have been stripped away.
You run to the armory for your
weapons. You inspect the walls of
Jerusalem to see what needs to be repaired. You store up water in the lower
pool. You check the houses and tear some down to get stone to fix the
walls. Between the city walls, you
build a reservoir for water from the old pool. But all your feverish plans are to no avail because you never
ask God for help. He is the one who planned this long ago.
The Lord, the Lord
Almighty, called you to weep and mourn. He told you to shave your heads in
sorrow for your sins and to wear clothes of sackcloth to show your remorse. But instead, you
dance and play; you slaughter
sacrificial animals, feast on meat, and drink wine. "Let's eat, drink, and be merry," you say. "What's the difference, for tomorrow
we die." The Lord Almighty has revealed to me that
this sin will never be forgiven you until
the day you die. That is the judgment of the Lord, the Lord Almighty. (Verses 1-14)
It’s no wonder that Isaiah wants to
weep. We join him in his misery. The vision of the people is grossly
skewed. It’s crushed and broken…
stripped away… torn down.
Why? It happens because we forget to ask the Lord
for help. We seek help from other
places. And we are disappointed every
time.
When the time comes for weeping and
mourning, let’s not ignore it. Let’s not
dance and play… continue our lives as usual like nothing is wrong. Let’s not get fatalistic. There is hope. There is hope for those who seek the Lord in
sackcloth and ashes.
It hurts for the spotlight to be on
us. But that pain is necessary for
healing. It’s a pain that heals… the
pain that comes from the Lord.
Let’s take and eat of the Word of
the Lord. It’s sweet to the mouth and bitter
to our stomachs. Let’s proclaim that
message of repentance and salvation through Jesus our Lord. Read from Revelation chapter ten:
Then the voice from heaven called to me again: "Go and take the unrolled scroll from
the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land."
So I approached him and asked him to give me the little
scroll. "Yes, take it and eat it," he
said. "At
first it will taste like honey, but
when you swallow it, it will make your stomach
sour!" So I took the little scroll from the hands of the angel,
and I ate it! It was sweet in my mouth, but it made my stomach sour.
Then he said to me, "You must prophesy
again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings."
(Verses 8-11)
In the face of defeat, let’s never
give up. We are faithful if we bring the
message that God has given us to proclaim.
The message is sweet to our taste, but the rejection that we see turns
our stomachs sour.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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