AP

Isaiah 3:4-5   “I will make mere youths their officials; children will rule over them.  People will oppress each other – man against man, neighbour against neighbour.  The young will rise up against the old, the nobody against the honoured.

These are dangerous verses for someone of my generation to comment on in this day and age, but they were probably just as dangerous for Isaiah to pen in his day.  None of the Old Testament prophets was popular because they declared God’s truth.  If we are to be ‘salt’ and ‘light’, as Jesus called us to be, we must inevitably face the wrath of the community, just as Jesus did. ‘Political correctness’, defined by our God-forsaking culture is now a legislated requirement for acceptance within the community.  God declares  through the Apostle John,  “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).  During my lifetime of just over 84 years I have witnessed our culture moving relentlessly in the direction described by Isaiah.  To be ‘old-fashioned’ is to be ridiculed and derided today.  The ‘entitled’ population has no place for, nor does it see the need to give credence to, the wisdom of the past, and feels free to make up its rules without any consideration of what our Creator says about the best, and most helpful, way to run his world, and, sadly, we are  reaping the consequences of this more and more.

When Isaiah, as the LORD’s spokesmen, had the courage to warn God’s people in his generation about the consequences of their attitudes and actions, they took no notice, and ended up being captives in Babylon for 70 years.  Moreover, as this same attitude of rejection of God’s Word continued, God finally sent his own Son to them to live among them and to give his life at their wicked hands, and by his sacrificial, atoning death, to redeem all who would turn to him in repentance-and-faith.

As we wait for the return of this wonderful Risen, Ascended Saviour, we are reminded by the prophet Ezekiel of our responsibility to sound the trumpet warning to all who will come under his judgement (see Exekiel Chapters 3 and 33).  In a demoracy, where the overwhelming majority of people have no place for God and his Word in their thinking, our most powerful weapon is prayer, authenticated by consistent, courageous, godly living and witnessing, in the face of derision, mockery and persecution.  Let us not be discouraged by what is happening around us, but let us take heart from the words of Frederick William Faber: “Workman of God! O lose not heart, but learn what God is like; and in the darkest battlefield you will know where to strike.  Thrice blest is he to whom is giv’n the instinct that can tell that God is on the field, when he is most invisible. … … Then learn to scorn the praise of men, and learn to lose with God; for Jesus won the world through shame and calls you to his road.”

– Bruce Christian