Just when I think I have said enough, even too much, I am made aware once more of how little I understand the awesomeness of God. A Creator, who sits over a Universe some 14 Billion light years across, yet was willing to take on the flesh of humanity for eternity, identifying with our “falleness” and in fact establishing a kingdom among us, so that we as creatures might participate in His glory.
What brought on this return to the keyboard? I was stirred afresh this a.m. by a dear brother from Uganda, who shared with us from Isaiah 6…”In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord…”.
Isaiah goes on to describe the beings that surround the throne and their humility; yet when they spoke the name…”Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty…” unlike the powerless and often vain usage of The Name by American Christians, through whom the greatest story ever told has now slipped to simple folklore among the growing number of religious,… “the doorpost and the thresholds shook!”
We have become a calloused people, whose revelation is shallow and whose God because of that, is now mocked by a generation often raised in church and now blessed with an abundance of knowledge, invention and technology, though impoverished spiritually. In their own ignorance they see the people of God as ignorant; void of real truth, God is mocked by a culture made possible only by the grace and the blessings of God. Did God error with these blessings, or does the goodwill of the Creator toward the creature now justify the judgment come to our nation?
Isaiah goes on to write:
9 He said, “Go and tell this people:
” ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
10 Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “For how long, O Lord?”
And he answered:
“Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged,
12 until the LORD has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.
13 And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”
9 He said, “Go and tell this people:
” ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
10 Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes. [a]
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “For how long, O Lord?”
And he answered:
“Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged,
12 until the LORD has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.
13 And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”*
So goes our nation and the future of our children unless the church repents, turns and yes, loves others as He has loved us!
*NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica