Has that sort of thing ever happened to you? You were depending
on something, but it was unsuitable or broken - or lost, or given
away! Have you even been depending on someone and they let you
down badly?
It is only four weeks to Christmas! Did you have the feeling that the shops began their advertising early this year? And then suddenly you discover that it's not long to go after all!
It was decided just the other day at our place that it was time for the Christmas tree to go up. All the pieces were carefully assembled and decorating began. Then, the next morning I heard a call to come and see. It seems that suddenly - this year - the plastic tree has come to the end of its useful life. The base is cracked and shattered. The twigs and branches seem to snap off with no effort at all.
But it is our tree! We bought it. We have depended on it year by year. We have carefully put it together and taken it apart again. We have faithfully stored it so that it would be ready for the next year's celebration. But the time has come when our faith in it is ill-founded. Our decoration plan will go ahead, but without this tree!
Has that sort of thing ever happened to you? You were depending
on something, but it was unsuitable or broken - or lost, or given
away! Have you even been depending on someone and they let you
down badly?
Just suppose you have the ability to think up a whole universe. At first it is all dark and shapeless. Then you think "Light!" and it becomes visible in all its shapelessness. So you begin to create galaxies and stars and suns and comets and . . .
Then you think, "I'd like to make a special planet with land and sea, with trees and grass and flowers, with birds and fish, and animals large and small . . . Yes, and I want to have people in this world, people to run and jump and laugh and sing, people who can care for this world, people to think and puzzle and question, to create and choose and do, people to know me, to know my life, to trust me, to respond to my presence and love . . .
And you look at it and say, "I like it! It's very good! Especially I like the people. I like to hear the laughter and to notice every new thing they find to do! I love them and delight in them. Every day I walk and talk with them in the garden…"
It is meant to be good and it is good. It is your plan and it is working as it should and you are very happy.
But then something happens to disturb the plan. You know you have an enemy. He's not just a spoil sport, but a real vandal. He would like to take what is beautiful and make it ugly. He would like to turn what is good towards evil. He would like to twist the truth into a lie. He would like to turn loving trust into arrogant disobedience.
You are a little anxious. You have made the people able to choose, able to respond to your loving plan and care. What will they do? Will they listen to the liar and turn their back on you and start to spoil the beauty and harmony of your creation?
How would you feel if next evening you go to walk and talk with the people and they weren't there? In fact, they are hiding under a crude camouflage of leaves - and acting very frightened - and guilty!
No, we're not God! God's thoughts are always far deeper than our
thoughts! But we are trying to reflect from our tiny, puny human
experience - how does God feel about a human race which has listened
to the liar, that has given place to the great vandal of souls
who poisons us in attitude and action and draws us away from the
love of God and his Word?
The Bethel Bible Series uses a series of pictorials to teach the truths in the Bible story so that they can be easily recalled. The second picture is entitled "Harmony". This represents what life was meant to be: the musical note given by the hand of God, the person is in harmony with God, with himself, with the other person and with nature (see the vine winding around the note?).
That may represent how it was meant to be, but we see more of life as it is in the third picture entitled "Disharmony". The note is broken, no longer held by the hand of God. Part of it strikes the back of the other person. The broken stem pierces his own side. The broken note strikes the earth. The ground is cracked and broken. The man faces rejection by God. He is no longer in harmony with his Maker, his neighbour, himself or the world.
Well, God is the Creator and has every right to scrap the human race and start all over again. But he hasn't done that. The closest he ever came to doing it was in Noah's time when everyone except Noah and his family were destroyed in the great flood. God doesn't want robots, but responsible and responding people. If responding to him is to be a real choice, the possibility of responding to evil is real also. So because God desires a people of choice, he sets up a rescue plan. We see the thread of his rescue plan throughout the Old Testament. It becomes clearer and clearer that he is going to send someone. The Jews called him the Messiah, the specially chosen and anointed one. It is clear that, even though the Messiah will come through their race, he is not just coming for them but for the whole world.
Just before the words of today's reading, Isaiah has been saying, "Jerusalem, you were once like silver, but now you are worthless; you were like good wine, but now you are only water. Your leaders are rebels and friends of thieves; they are always accepting gifts and bribes. They never defend orphans in court or listen when widows present their case" (Is.1.22-23). The Lord warns them of his coming judgment, but looks forward to the time when Jerusalem will again be called "the righteous, faithful city" (v.26).
And now the message looks forward to the time when Mount Zion where the Temple stands will be the important gathering place of people from many nations. They will say, "Let us go up the hill of the Lord, to the Temple of Israel's God. He will teach us what he wants us to do; we will walk in the paths he has chosen…" (2.3). It will be a time when disputes among nations will be settled - "They will hammer their swords into ploughs and their spears into pruning-knives" - and "nations will never again go to war, never prepare for battle again" (v.4).
That sounds like a return to God's original plan again, doesn't it? We don't see it like that just yet! It can only happen through the one God would send, of whom Isaiah later wrote, "He endured the suffering that should have been ours, the pain that we should have borne… But because of our sins he was wounded, beaten because of the evil we did. We are healed by the punishment he suffered, made whole by the blows he received" (53.4-5). Building a new people and a new world would be at a great cost - at the cost of the life of God's own Son, Jesus!
But even with his rescue plan, God doesn't force himself upon us. We are still people of choice. The words of our reading came to "the descendants of Jacob", who should have known, who should have been waiting and ready. The invitation of God now comes to us all - "Now let us walk in the light which the Lord gives us!" (v.5)
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