Ever since the apple incident in Genesis, tough times have always existed. Perhaps the only difference today is that with all the advanced technology, we see trouble on a global scale, not just locally. Genesis scriptures describe a future darkness that pretty much shadows the globe. Because of that, I put today’s troubles in a basket labeled ‘uncomfortable but not surprising.’ I think it’s always been true that the further cultures move away from Christ, the more they resemble the chaos predicted in early biblical texts. Chaos is the default, comes with the territory, when the world’s heart attitude is ‘crucify Him.’ Today, crucify Him is heard all around the world.
Knowledge of that darkness is, for believers, stressful, but it’s to be mixed with Jesus’ counsel- ‘These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’ (John 16:33) I started thinking about that scripture when I first heard Jason Gray’s song: “Order, Disorder, Reorder.” That song was written by Jason and is a real life story about his and actually most people’s lives.
The written Gospel’s purpose is to reveal the Father to us. Much of the book of Isaiah is largely about Christ/Messiah and today’s Church. His words focus on a time when believers will need to live out of their hearts to serve and experience God’s (what I’ll call) manifestations, (maybe blessings works as well). In Chapter 28, Isaiah suggests there’s an order to God’s manifestations and Wisdom. If we follow God’s order, we’re blessed; when we do not follow His Wisdom, we stumble backwards, we get taken captive, and our brokenness accelerates (verse 13). (I think that’s true for both people and for countries.) Even in our attempt to live a ‘good life,’ even a life of religious traditions, if not married to a Christ-centered life, the results are chaotic (Chapter 29: 13-14). There, the Hebrew word translated as marvelous describes a people without God’s Wisdom. That scripture confirms God will do a ‘marvelous thing,’ that is: ‘the wisdom of their wise men (leaders, protectors) perishes and the discernment of the discerning men shall be concealed. (Sound familiar today?) That kind of chaos is not because the Father is holding out on us, that’s caused by us rejecting and opposing the Wisdom God sent in His ‘only begotten Son.’
Isaiah’s Chapter 58:6 obligates believers to fast, but a New Testament fast, a fast from ourselves; a breaking away from our own interest and preservation by serving others, loosening their bonds, removing their yokes and setting them free. If we do that, we can expect to see the results suggested in 58:8: ‘then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will spring forth…then you will call upon the Lord and He will answer you…Here I Am (I will be present). Isaiah’s promise is that the darkness and gloom will become as midday. Isaiah (63:9) references ‘the angel of His presence’ (I Am) will be with us with Love and Mercy to redeem.
Chapter 60:2, (referencing a time of the post-crucifixion that’s described in Chapter 53) identifies a new world characterized as: ‘For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and a deep darkness on the people: but the Lord will rise upon you and His Glory will appear upon you…and your heart will thrill and rejoice.’ (That will happen in the middle of a great darkness upon on the whole earth!) That Hebrew word ‘marvelous’ mentioned earlier in Chapter 29, implies people using only their effort, their singular effort, efforts by their own abilities and therefore getting limited results. We do not, even in this very moment, no matter what we are hearing and seeing, we don’t have to be singular in our effort. God is with us, present. The Christian life is more than our efforts alone to manage our lives. If partnered with Christ, confident in His order, we experience Christ. If we get out of His order we become singular and our ‘single’ effort is all we’re left with.
As believers, we have many opportunities to do some pretty strange things; all of those things are generated by a Wisdom of God that is superior to our wisdom. That’s a truth in which we should base all our confidence. With God it’s not ‘survival of the fittest, not by our ‘power or might,’ but by His Spirit (of Wisdom). To live peacefully in today’s world requires a spiritual solution, requires a spiritual confidence.
Much of the Christian life can perceived as upside down. Example, if we walk out this Gospel as though it’s in receiving that we will in turn give, we subject ourselves to being ‘out of the order’ described and prescribed by the Wisdom of our Counselor/Messiah. In God’s order, it’s give and then we will receive. (I’ll also add: don’t evaluate your giving). When we give, (not just financial but our hearts as well) and then evaluate what we get in return, in some way that cancels the original purpose of our giving. I’ll remind you of the statement I’ve used many times in these letters, ‘You can’t snow the Snowman.’ When we give in order simply to get, do you think the created can outsmart the Creator? The order of God is in giving that we receive. That’s kind of goofy statement, unless it’s a statement from the Creator of the cosmos. Giving in the Father’s heart is: give and let go. God did that with His Son, knowing full well that His gift would not be received by everyone, but He gave Jesus anyway and let it go.
Many of the Gospel teachings are not humanly logical. Example: ‘what if you love them that love you, or what if you do good to them that do good to you, or what if you lend to them that hope to receive, for sinners do the same. (Luke 6:32) In our way of thinking, much of what Jesus did was not such a good idea; not a good idea to communicate with the people that were outcast in Jewish society. Not a good idea to ask people to believe he was born of a virgin. Not a good idea to come into a people hated by all the earth. Not a good idea to imagine sharing and spreading this Gospel using a bunch of fishermen, a tax collector, a doctor and the like. Not a good idea to enter Jerusalem, not the friendliest to a so called Messiah. His teaching that in order to increase you must decrease? The first will be last is another one. The beatitudes shared on Mars Hill, that the meek will inherit the earth. Imagine that being true according to our experiences. In Jesus’ words it’s not in preserving our lives that we find life. That’s not exactly Greek logic in most of His teaching and living.
In Isaiah 42, the prophet says Messiah would: ‘not cry out, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets’, yet he’s the most powerful man that ever influenced the earth. Jesus is the most read about person that ever lived; he came out of a ‘no place to lay his head’ ministry. He wrote no books, had no podcast, never had a jet plane, never sold movie rights, and never established a ministry headquarters building. He was never on television, radio or the internet. But, he was in God’s order and Wisdom. He did nothing except what he saw the Father doing. Jesus did not live by sight, didn’t limit himself to the logical, material or the political, but lived by the Word of God. Of all things required of believers today I think that’s the most important thing.
The Wisdom of God’s order works wherever it’s applied: plumbers, clerical, teachers, pilots, taxi drivers, farmers, lawyers, parents…..you name it. The only way we can live inside the manifestations of God, experience God, is to live a lifestyle by Faith not by sight. If we only try to live this life with our brain and in our flesh it will drive us crazy. But, living out of our hearts delivers the capacity to experience God in ways hard to explain except by His Wisdom. Live by Faith/Trust. Faith that He is real, He is true, He is Wise; live as though Isaiah is right, His word is…”Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters (and there will be waters) I will be with you; and through the rivers (there will be rivers), they shall not overwhelm you, when you walk through fire (there will be fires) you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” ~ Isaiah It’s a confidence even in this present darkness.