Send Me
30 May 2021
Richardson
The truth hurts! Actually it really does. It’s documented that the truth hurts when it’s something you don’t want to hear.
I read a really interesting article about how psychologists first studied this. In the early 50’s, Dorothy Martin, a Chicago homemaker claimed to channel aliens from the planet Clarion. Aliens! So of course I was hooked.
She said they told her that on December 20th, 1954, the earth was going to be flooded and everyone would die accept her and her followers. They were to be rescued by a giant flying saucer that would arrive at midnight 3 days before the flood. A group of psychologists heard about her and her followers, and joined just to study the reactions of the group come the morning of December 21st. Well, no matter what their friends told them, on the 17th, they sold or gave away their possessions and waited for the coming ship… and waited, and waited. The psychologists noted the ever increasing discomfort felt by the people in the group as the time came and passed. Then on the 21th, and still standing on dry land the cult began calling newspapers in jubilation. They said their new message was they "had spread so much light that God had saved the world from destruction."(1)
It’s actually part of our psyche to avoid proved wrong … at any cost. It’s called “cognitive dissonance”. That’s the clinical name for the pain of information counter to what you believe, and what lengths you’ll go to keep what you thought was true intact. And we will do some pretty outlandish things just so we don’t ever have to admitting we were wrong.
I bring this up after reading Isaiah Chapter 6. I was looking at verses that said:
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” 9 He said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ 10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.[a] Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
First off, those verses made me think of the term “Who wants and opportunity to excel!”
I remember the first time I heard those words in my military Basic Training. They called it an opportunity to excel but what it really meant was a whole lot more work. We would end up standing in a rent-a-crowd, fetching something, or a whole lot cleaning something. It was never something fun. We all quickly found out that in the military you never volunteer.
We’ve all experienced that at work too. Your boss wants a volunteer and you think it will help out and all you get is a lot more work and no more pay. What if the job you’re doing makes you unpopular? We’ve all learned to wait until you're voluntold!
But when God calls, how can we ever turn that down? Even if the task God was asking Isaiah to do sounded pretty thankless.
… tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ 10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes…
Why would God tell Isaiah to make the people to do that? Would it really make sense that you’d be told to make people turn more away from God? Imagine you’re sent out to preach but you know the result will be people will hear without understanding at all and that ultimately it’s going to end up with the cities desolate. Doesn’t that sound like a job without a purpose?
You have to wonder who would have wanted to be a prophet. In ancient times, their life was usually not a good one.
In Matthew it says (5:11-12, NKJV).
“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
But if you really look at what Isaiah is asked to do, he really isn’t asked to make people not understand. God just wanted Isaiah to tell them was the truth. The people needed to hear the hard message that they had strayed from the path and their reaction of disbelief was more of a prediction than anything else.
And, now that ties in with my earlier story of Dorothy Martin and her aliens. The Israelites didn’t want the truth. Just read the Old Testament. Through the history of the Jewish people, they had constant cycles of following the Lord, they would prosper, and then falling away. A prophet would come, preach the unpopular message and get the country back on track, only to have the nation of Israel fall back into idolatry and turn away from the Lord.
During Isaiah, the people had fallen again and needed to be warned that without change, their cities would be desolate. But, people don’t want to hear anything that makes them feel bad. And as we learned earlier, they’ll do anything to not suffer because the truth hurts. They will see without seeing, hear without understanding.
3000 years later we are still the same. We still do anything to avoid being wrong. It doesn’t have to be spaceships. The year 2020 was such glaring example of cognitive dissonance in action. It didn’t matter what side people were on, the things they were willing to stand up for just left me shaking my head. It just didn’t matter the subject whether it was the candidates, cops, Constitution, climate, or contagions, both sides were making the most ridiculous claims. I wondered how they could ignore plain proven facts! (and not the “facts” backed up by the rants by TV talking heads and the social media scholarly articles). I began to wonder, did the entire world failed 7th grade? And, when actual facts were presented, the messengers were greeted as pariahs with every side digging in even harder to their version of reality.
Even that’s not new. I just saw a documentary of interviews with Germans that lived during WWII. Everyone, even people living right outside the death camps said “WE didn’t know what was going on. Not us!”
But what if a prophet came to us now? Are we any different than the ancient Israelites? Although the United States is actually the most religious of the wealthy nations with over have of us praying daily(4), the landscape is quickly changing.
According to Pew Research people who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” has risen by 65% from 2009 until 2019.(2)
And of the Christians people left, how many want to hear the hard truth? I came across a question posted on the Quora website that asked: “Why can't Christian preachers abandon the unpopular messages and focus on the progressive teachings of Jesus, such as compassion and inclusiveness?” (5)
They want us to ignore any of the messages that don’t agree with what they want to hear. But, they didn’t say what messages from the Bible were just too unpopular to preach. Can we surmise what messages they don’t like if we look at the “Cancel Culture” targets and what was so offensive? Here’s just a few:
• J.K. Rawlings, the author of the Harry Potter books attacked simply because she, a victim of sexual violence, didn’t want men in her bathroom.
• The TV star Jody Comer cancelled because she dates a man who didn’t support the liberal candidate.
• Chick-Fil-A banned from certain cities and airports because the owner donates to traditional family and religious charities.
• Evan attacks on Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head. Why? Because they are a traditional couple! I mean really? The Potato Heads???
Nobody likes being told they are wrong but now that has become a national past time. People take to internet to shut down anything that doesn’t agree with their perceived notion of right, whether it’s actually correct or not.
What they are saying now isn’t so different how God described the people in further on in the Book of Isaiah (30:9-11 NIV):
{30:9} That this [is] a rebellious people, lying children, children [that] will not hear the law of the LORD: {30:10} Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: {30:11} Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
And just what was Isaiah telling them to turn their back on? Mostly it was idolatry. Idolatry was quite popular back then. It was liberating because there wasn’t a moral code for most of their idols. It was sensual, with worship of some gods meaning appeasement through temple prostitutes, and worship sessions descending into debauchery.
I guess you could have described the culture with the credo “if it feels good … worship it”
Were they really so different? We may not have carved idols but look at our pop-culture icons. How many preach the same message that as long as it feels good, it must be ok. We have celebrities exposed as pedophiles that still fill stadiums with adoring fans. Our politicians revel in exposing each other’s escapades but they are still held on pedestals for defending the faithful. And just watch the messages interwoven in movies and music telling us to just be accepting whatever flavor of the month cause they are spinning. I could name specific names but you can all read the headlines. Besides I could have said the same thing 10, 20, 30 years ago and could probably say the same thing 10, 20, 30 years from now. The names may change but the headlines are still the same.
And since things haven’t changed in 3000 years, should the call to tell the truth have changed? It seems that no matter how far we are from the times of the ancient prophets, the truth will always be the truth. It doesn’t get outdated. The earth is still round and God is still the Creator.
So which are we? Are we the Prophet or the Populous? Both have a job. The Prophet must be telling the true word of God for nothing but the glory of God. It’s a hard job. It’s a thankless job. People will want to shut you up, but as George Orwell once said, “If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
The populous have an important job as well. The populous needs to have the knowledge to discern the truth. The populous needs to have the strength to not always follow the crowd. And, we have to keep our hearts from hardening so that we can admit mistakes and own our failures. The truth hurts and we need to be willing to feel the pain if we’re not in the right.
If you are the prophet, telling the truth, how long do we keep preaching the unpopular message? Is it a onetime deal? Spout a string of one-line platitudes and be done? The fire and forget truth missile? Or is it a lifetime of bringing the message. Let’s go back to the scriptures because Isaiah asked the same thing. And to him, God answered:
“Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, 12 until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. 13 And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”
I know that verse sounds hopeless; that we bring the message until the end of time. And just look at the description of the land. Could you preach until our cities and homes were deserted? I thought it just reeked of despair. Nothing left but stumps. I didn’t realize exactly the full meaning of this message until I read a gardening article. Someone asked if they had a fruit tree infested with boring insects that would kill the tree, if they could cut it to the stump and have it grow back. The gardener columnist told him that was exactly what to do, and yes, most fruit trees will grow back from good rootstock.(3)
The terebinth is a fruit tree. New limbs will grow back. And you ever cut down an oak tree in your yard? How long until new shoots spring up from the ground?
You see, God sees the good roots. He knows good roots bring back good fruit once we remove the untruths that attack and cripple our society.
Again, this is where those who are called to be in the populous come in. In those numbers we would be the good roots left. And from us would come the branches that would again bear good fruit. This same message was carried on by Jesus with the parable of the olive tree that had good roots. In that lesson he talked of the tree where the old decayed parts were pruned, new branches began to grow and bear fruit. And wild branches were grafted in, and they also bore good fruit all because the roots of the stump were strong.
I guess you could say the more things change the more they stay the same. I think that’s because no matter how much technology changes, people are still people and the messages, both good and evil, still resonate in our society.
That means there is still a message we need to be preaching. So when you hear God say “Whom shall I send”, dig into your heart. Are you willing to answer, “Here am I, send me”?
1, Cognitive Dissonance Helps Explain Why We Hate To Hear The Truth; Mar 4, 2018; Mark Murphy; Cognitive Dissonance Helps Explain Why We Hate To Hear The Truth (forbes.com)
2. In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace; OCTOBER 17, 2019; https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/
3. Las Vegas Review-Journal Bob Morris March 10, 2018Some fruit trees will grow back from stump; https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-columns/bob-morris/some-fruit-trees-will-grow-back-from-stump/
4 Americans are far more religious than adults in other wealthy nations; DALIA FAHMY; JULY 31, 2018 ; https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/07/31/americans-are-far-more-religious-than-adults-in-other-wealthy-nations/
5. https://www.quora.com/Why-cant-Christian-preachers-abandon-the-unpopular-messages-and-focus-on-the-progressive-teachings-of-Jesus-such-as-compassion-and-inclusiveness
