Devotional on Isaiah

Lost Maples State Park, TX – 2006

Preaching a message people don’t want to hear
Isaiah 22: Don’t tell me it’s going to be all right. These people are doomed. It’s not all right.
Have you ever been to a hurricane party? The tamer version of it is that, with the storm knocking out all power, people dig into their freezers and have a feast of all the ice cream, etc. that won’t survive the power outage. A few years ago, when we fled a hurricane supposedly aimed for our area we took steaks we’d been saving and had a big cookout as we awaited the bad weather. We might as well enjoy the food; otherwise it’ll be lost when the electricity goes off. I wonder if that’s the thinking in this portion of Isaiah. The nation is in trouble, and no victory has been won, but Isaiah complains about the party atmosphere he sees. Apparently, someone has told him to lighten up, that things will be all right. His response is that things aren’t going to be all right. They live in a doomed nation and everything’s about to fall apart. Sometimes our message to our society isn’t the message it wants to hear. Sometimes, it isn’t going to be all right. In fact, when we look at things from the largest point of view we know that the world isn’t going to just go on and on as it is. A day’s coming with everything we know is going to melt away. While we can’t just live there, in doom and gloom, we Christians need to take a good look at the people around us. Outside of Christ, to use Isaiah’s words, “these people are doomed.” Ours is a message of hope, but it’s also the only hope of a world that’s doomed.
Take Away: Our message is one of hope, but we need to remember it’s the only hope of an otherwise doomed humanity.

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