Between The Times

At one point while preparing this sermon I was tempted just to read the article I picked for my closing illustration and sit down. It’s a sermon in itself, and illustrates exactly what I had to say about this passage of Isaiah. But after thinking it over, I felt that the least I could do was explain how it fits, and how we can apply it to our own lives.

The story is the genocide in Sudan. You’re not going to read about it in the mainstream press, unless something really unusual happens, like the Touched By an Angel episode that shone a spotlight onto the slavery issue. I’m not even going to speculate on why it’s being ignored. But the facts are these:

The war between the Muslim north and the Christian and animist south has been going on for at least forty years. The last sixteen years have seen the worst atrocities. Casualties in the south number over two million; there are at least twice that many displaced persons. Northern troops routinely bomb hospitals and churches. Unpaid irregulars are paid in slaves. The U.N. has designated the worst hit regions - especially the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains - as “no go” areas, which has effectively given Khartoum a free hand to stop delivery of food and medical supplies to those areas. The last of the big NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) like the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, CARE, Oxfam, World Vision, and Save the Children, were sent packing - with hardly a peep of protest - last March. Only a handful of much smaller organizations - like the Blue Nile Project and Voice of the Martyrs - have managed to get any supplies in over the past year.

This is civil war, religious persecution, and ethnic cleansing on a larger scale than any of the places we’ve sent peacekeeping troops into since Cambodia. And yet our administration has not even so much as protested to the U.N.

“Yes, I agree that’s terrible, but what does this have to do with Isaiah?” I hear you ask.

Well, what’s happening in Sudan today is a lot like what happened in Samaria 2,800 years ago. At the time Isaiah was preaching, the Assyrians were in the process of polishing off the Northern Kingdom. Every time they chewed off a piece of Israel’s territory they’d sell the local residents into slavery and resettle the land with their own people. And Isaiah was watching from down south in Jerusalem, doing regular commentary on the situation for the nightly news, warning that the very same thing was about to happen to the southern kingdom of Judah, and hoping that someone would pay attention and start working on a plan to avert the coming disaster.

During the first half of the book, Isaiah alternates between pointing out Judah’s sinfulness, issuing oracles against Judah’s enemies, and promising that if his people would only mend their ways, God would protect them from their enemies and establish a just, righteous and peaceful kingdom for them.

Later on during Isaiah’s forty plus years as a prophet, King Hezekiah does listen to him, and Judah gets a few years’ reprieve - as a matter of fact, the story of Jerusalem’s miraculous deliverance from the armies of Sennacherib is an absolutely fascinating story - but that’s for another time.

At this point in the book, Isaiah has made it crystal clear that God’s judgment on his disobedient people will be devastating beyond description.

"Now YHWH is about to lay waste the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.... The earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled; for YHWH has spoken this word. The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers; the heavens languish together with the earth. The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth dwindled, and few people are left." [Is 24:1-6]

After grabbing their attention, and bringing home to them the seriousness of their situation, Isaiah goes on in Chapter 25 to describe the glories of the restored Israel under the just rule of God.

"...YHWH of hosts ... will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for YHWH has spoken. It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is YHWH for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation." [Is 25:7-9]