“Your country lies in ruins, and your towns are burned. Foreigners plunder your fields before your eyes and destroy everything they see. Beautiful Jerusalem stands abandoned like a watchman’s shelter in a vineyard, like a lean-to in a cucumber field after the harvest, like a helpless city under siege. If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had not spared a few of us, we would have been wiped out like Sodom, destroyed like Gomorrah. Listen to the Lord, you leaders of “Sodom.” Listen to the law of our God, people of “Gomorrah.””
Isaiah 1:7-10 NLT
The existence of the nation of Judah, yo-yoing between God’s blessings and curses of their own making, was the result of the Jews’ relationship, or lack of, with God. In times of national rebellion against God, with sin, evil and neglect of Him predominating, it was a rampant disease everywhere, and one that He warned them about in Deuteronomy 28:15, 20, “But if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you … The Lord himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me”. But in times of obedience in keeping God’s commands, blessings abounded. Deuteronomy 28:1-3, “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord your God: Your towns and your fields will be blessed”.
Was God a petulant, capricious Being who took the huff when His people rejected Him? Not at all, because the commands the Israelites so often failed to keep were designed for their present and future well-being, but if they went their own way and ignored them, then it was no wonder they experienced problems. It’s a bit like today, with a burglar caught house-breaking, stealing the contents of the owner’s jewellery box. God’s command was “do not steal”, but breaking that commandment had consequences for the burglar, who subsequently found himself behind bars. For our modern-day command-breaker, Paul had a word of advice detailing a better way, God’s way, “If you are a thief, quit stealing. Instead, use your hands for good hard work, and then give generously to others in need” (Ephesians 4:28).
The landscape described by Isaiah in his vision must have been much like parts of the Middle East today, or the Donbas in Ukraine, with missiles and bombs causing destruction. Towns and villages reduced to heaps of rubble. People displaced, with their countryside overrun by foreigners. Did that mean that the people living in these places had disobeyed God? Not necessarily, because in the 21st Century evil extends far beyond its natural borders. Jesus warned about such times coming today when He told His disciples, “And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately. Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world” (Matthew 24:6-7). But in 740 BC, there was a people, God’s people, who were His special nation, and they had a choice to follow Him or not, the same choice that mankind has had ever since Jesus was crucified at Calvary.
Isaiah recorded God’s mercy, when he wrote, “If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had not spared a few of us, we would have been wiped out like Sodom”. There was always a remnant of God’s people in Israel and Judah. There was the time when Elijah ran from Jezebel, depressed with the thought that he was the only prophet left, “Elijah replied, “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too”” (1 Kings 19:10). But further down the page in verse 18, we read God’s response, “Yet I will preserve 7,000 others in Israel who have never bowed down to Baal or kissed him!”
Psalm 91 provides a wonderful picture of a mother hen protecting her chicks, a picture of how God looks after His children. “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. For he will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease. He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armour and protection” (Psalm 91:1-4). But the protection for the chicks disappears once they decide to go their own way and relocate somewhere where the mother hen cannot protect them.
We pilgrims are God’s children, and we have God’s protection with a promise that one day we will be in His presence. Yes, the evil in our sad and bad world will affect us in this life, just as in Isaiah’s day, where many good people suffered because of the sins of their fellow countrymen. In Elijah’s day, the nation of Israel was riven by Baal worship under the jurisdiction of an evil king, Ahab. But God still had a remnant of faithful people who worshipped only Him, even through their suffering.
So we continue to look upwards to Heavenly places, with faith that God will do what He has promised. One day there will be no more sickness, dying and pain – “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever” (Revelation 21:4).
Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for Your promises that prevail even though we live in an evil world. Please help us to stand firm on Your Word, as we look forward to the wonder of Glory. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 