“Ah Sinful Nation”
Isaiah 1
1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
9 Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
10 Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
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I Peter 2
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
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When I first thought about writing on the “sinful nation” my thoughts were, and perhaps rightly so, focused on our own country: America.
And no doubt about it, our country is a sinful wreck headed for disaster with the throttle wide open. Put on the brakes … and we will just keep screeching down the tracks to the barricade of God’s judgement facing us at the end.
But …
The more I thought about it, pointing the finger of accusation, judgement, and condemnation at our collective nation is too easy a way out for … us, the believers in Christ our Saviour.
And the more I thought about it, pointing the same finger at the collective nation in the Bible called Israel is still too easy a way out for … us, the believers in Christ our Saviour.
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At the heart of the problem of each people group whether America or Israel (past or present) is the actual people of God: those living in this world while at the same time being the called out and chosen in Messiah.
Yes, the collective nations are collectively responsible for their actions.
But …
It’s equally true that when the people of God fail to deal with their own personal and individual lives by refusing and/or ignoring the correction of God through His Word, then …
My premise:
The core foundational root problem is the folks walking around carrying Bibles and wearing tzitzits.
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Peter refers to us as, among other things, “an holy nation”.
In other words:
We are to be a holy body of individuals in the midst of a greater body of individuals that is not holy. Therefore, if God is angry at the sinful greater body of people in which we live, I fail to understand how it devolved to that condition if the people who are “an holy nation” were actually holy as … individuals.
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I wonder if we’ve become too adept at pointing the collective finger at the collective whole and have failed to see that perhaps it’s time to point the finger at our individual self: you and me.
It’s tempting for us to read about the Israel of old and conclude — well of course God judged them, they were bad. Likewise, it’s tempting for us to look at America and conclude — well of course God is going to judge America, it’s bad.
But …
When we (God’s children) lose sight of our own sinful personal equation in the greater national/global sinful problem, we (God’s people) will careen headlong in our self-delusion to our own self-destruction of:
*Personal life
*Family life
*Congregational life
*National life
*Global life.
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We are not separate individual islands unto ourselves.
But …
From my own perch of personal perspective I fear, in all honesty, that’s become the devolved mentality of Christianity and the Messianic movement.
Extrapolation? … Me and mine has become our primary focus.
It’s really not:
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” … is it?
It’s rather been turned around to become:
“We seek me first and the life we want and we’ll attach God where and when we can fit Him.”
And when God, His Word and His Kingdom get in the way … we chafe at it.
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Sound too harsh? That’s for you to decide.
As for me, I’m learning to let my finger of accusation stay pointed at my own self much, much longer than I thought I had need to.
Why?
Because though I’m rather insignificant in the wide swath of our country and the world, I’m still supposed to let my little light shine in the midst of the darkness.
Therefore, as more of us on an individual basis allow the light of God’s Word to illumine our own darkness then perhaps we — or should I say I? — will energize the greater Body of Messiah as it shines out like a Lighthouse guiding vessels away from danger to safety.
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Conclusion:
The negative: We live in a sinful society and world, it’s true.
The positive: As we yield more-and-more to becoming like our Great Light Bearer Yeshua … we’ll diminish the hindrance of our own darkness and shine as we should in this dark world.
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So …
The hard, but necessary, question we need to ask ourself is …
Do I really want to be a vessel fit for the Master’s use or a vessel of pleasure unto myself?
Personally:
I trowly don’t like that question.