Readings for today: Isaiah 2-3, Galatians 2
We live in a fallen world. A world full of pain and suffering. A world full of anxiety and fear. A world full of tragedy and heartbreak. Humanity is a fallen creature. Driven by passions it cannot control. Enslaved by desires it cannot constrain. We are our own worst enemies. Over the years, I’ve had lots of conversations with people from all different walks of life. All different backgrounds and culture. Because I am a pastor, they often ask me questions about the meaning of life. Why things are the way they are? Why the world is the way that it is? Why is humanity seemingly so hell-bent on self-destruction? The Bible has an answer. A diagnosis. It’s not an easy one to hear. It’s called sin. Human beings - made in God’s own image and given dominion over all He has made - wanted to play god, wanted to be their own gods, and the results have been horrifying. We’ve made a huge mess of things. We can’t get out of our own way. No matter how hard we try. No matter how many plans we put together. No matter how much we strive and toil and struggle and fight. We tend to relapse into the same evil behaviors. Violence. Greed. Selfishness. Outrage. Hate. This is the fruit of a corrupt nature. We are rotten to the core. And if you doubt the veracity of this statement, go spend time in the slums of our world. Stand at the mass graves of the victims of genocide. Listen closely to the overheated rhetoric of politicians across the world and across the political spectrum. We are as helpless as we are hopeless.
Thankfully, God knows we are poor and powerless. He knows we are weak and feeble and desperately anxious and afraid. So He makes a way where there is no way. He lifts high the deep valleys. He lays low the tall mountains. He makes smooth the rough places and straightens the winding roads. He tears down every dividing wall of hostility and eliminates every barrier that keeps us from His presence. His promise is sure. Our future secure. His vision for this world will come to pass. Listen to how the prophet Isaiah describes it, “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” (Isaiah 2:2-5)
It’s beautiful, is it not? A world full of peace. A world full of righteousness and justice. A world full of grace and mercy. A world where there is no need for self-promotion, self-protection, or self-preservation for God is the inexhaustible source for all we need. And He is more than enough. It’s a world where the nations seek God. The nations serve God. The nations obey God. A world where God’s name is lifted up. God’s house is the center of all of life. And the worship of God becomes humanity’s highest end once again. All things are made new. All things are restored. All things are full of light and life and love. This is God’s vision for His world. God’s vision for humanity. God’s vision for our future.
I love that last line. Verse five. “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” To put it another way, “Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We pray this prayer with great regularity. Some traditions even pray it every Sunday. It’s the prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray and it reflects His heart for our world. Jesus wants His people to walk in the light of the Lord. To live as heavenly creatures in this earthly realm. To be a community of life in a culture of death. He wants us to embody our future in the present. He wants us to live as if we were already there in those “latter days.” We are to give people a foretaste of heaven. A glimpse of God’s Kingdom. In our worship. In our fellowship. In our relationships with each other and in our service to the lost and least of these in our world.
What does this practically mean for our day to day? It means we allow no human divisions or distinctions to separate us from our brothers and sisters in Christ. Not politics. Not ethnicity. Not economics. It means we practice forgiveness and pursue reconciliation when we’ve been hurt or wounded. It means the strong lay down their lives for the weak. The powerful seek to serve the powerless. Those in authority exercise it with grace and mercy and compassion. It means we cling to the truth and reject all lies. It means we refuse to let the ends justify the means, especially when those means require ungodly compromise. It means we humble ourselves continually under God’s mighty hand, trusting Him to lift us up in His time and according to His will. And these are just the outskirts of His ways.
Friends, each day presents a new opportunity for God’s mercies are new every morning and His faithfulness is great! Today can be the day of salvation! Today is yet another chance for the Kingdom in your life and in your world! Hear the Word of the Lord! Walk in the light of the Lord! Surrender yourself to His purposes! Let Him use you for His glory!
Readings for tomorrow: Isaiah 4-6, Galatians 3