Good friends versus good tools
This week is on Isaiah 17:10-11:
This is a short excerpt from Isaiah's prophesies for the Israelites and their Syrian neighbors. The fascinating thing is the mention of fine plants and imported vines. These doomed people were placing their trust in the latest agricultural technology. They weren't just throwing seeds in the ground or planting what their parents generations had planted. They were working with specially engineered varieties of plants, imported from expert researchers in other lands. That strikes me as really modern, and even a sort of mockery of our modern science-dependent mindset.
Isaiah tells these people that even if they are so skilled that they can get these miracle plants to grow the day they're planted (most plants are dormant after being transplanted as they adjust to the new soil and location) and even if they bud the morning they are planted (buds take time to form) it will do them no good. If God declares a curse, you cannot turn it into a blessing, even with the best skills and best tools.
These modern people had decided that they didn't need God anymore. It wasn't a conscious declaration, like they tore down the temple and started preaching atheism. It was more of a case where life got so good that they forgot they needed anything. The harvest wasn't unpredictable anymore, once they'd figured out the whole farming thing and got themselves some good plants. They weren't in the middle of a bitter war with their neighbors, so there was no cause to cry out to God for protection. People were wealthy enough that they didn't have to worry about much injustice affecting them. These people had successfully made themselves a safe little bubble to live in, and God was the last thing on their minds.
The modern mindset is that tools and techniques are more important than relationships. We think it's better to have a nice oven than to know the baker. It is better to own a car than to know the taxi driver. It is better to have a good security system than to know the policeman or our neighbors. We live in little bubbles that give us the illusion that we can provide everything for ourselves, that we're perfect in the sense of not needing anyone or anything else. God has blessed us so much that we can't even see him over the pile of gifts. And so we forget him, and each-other.
God's message through Isaiah, his sorrow, is that we've forgotten him, but that the world is still his. We have dominion over nature, and over each-other, but God has ultimate power over all of it. Our authority doesn't trump his plans.
We need to stay in touch, so we can move when we need to move, or prepare for what we need to prepare for. But more importantly, we need to acknowledge that we're not perfect, and that our blessings come from God. Even if we're terrifically impressive, that's not going to be enough to replace Him. And the only way to know our severe limitation is when we fail against a challenge we are too small for.
God is our rock. He is our safe room in a secure building in a well-defended land. God is the "get out of jail free" card for any challenge we may encounter, if we'll only listen to him. It is better to be a friend of God than to be the richest, most talented, most well-equipped man in the world.
You have forgotten God your Savior;
you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.
Therefore, though you set out the finest plants
and plant imported vines,
though on the day you set them out, you make them grow,
and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud,
yet the harvest will be as nothing
in the day of disease and incurable pain.
This is a short excerpt from Isaiah's prophesies for the Israelites and their Syrian neighbors. The fascinating thing is the mention of fine plants and imported vines. These doomed people were placing their trust in the latest agricultural technology. They weren't just throwing seeds in the ground or planting what their parents generations had planted. They were working with specially engineered varieties of plants, imported from expert researchers in other lands. That strikes me as really modern, and even a sort of mockery of our modern science-dependent mindset.
Isaiah tells these people that even if they are so skilled that they can get these miracle plants to grow the day they're planted (most plants are dormant after being transplanted as they adjust to the new soil and location) and even if they bud the morning they are planted (buds take time to form) it will do them no good. If God declares a curse, you cannot turn it into a blessing, even with the best skills and best tools.
These modern people had decided that they didn't need God anymore. It wasn't a conscious declaration, like they tore down the temple and started preaching atheism. It was more of a case where life got so good that they forgot they needed anything. The harvest wasn't unpredictable anymore, once they'd figured out the whole farming thing and got themselves some good plants. They weren't in the middle of a bitter war with their neighbors, so there was no cause to cry out to God for protection. People were wealthy enough that they didn't have to worry about much injustice affecting them. These people had successfully made themselves a safe little bubble to live in, and God was the last thing on their minds.
The modern mindset is that tools and techniques are more important than relationships. We think it's better to have a nice oven than to know the baker. It is better to own a car than to know the taxi driver. It is better to have a good security system than to know the policeman or our neighbors. We live in little bubbles that give us the illusion that we can provide everything for ourselves, that we're perfect in the sense of not needing anyone or anything else. God has blessed us so much that we can't even see him over the pile of gifts. And so we forget him, and each-other.
God's message through Isaiah, his sorrow, is that we've forgotten him, but that the world is still his. We have dominion over nature, and over each-other, but God has ultimate power over all of it. Our authority doesn't trump his plans.
We need to stay in touch, so we can move when we need to move, or prepare for what we need to prepare for. But more importantly, we need to acknowledge that we're not perfect, and that our blessings come from God. Even if we're terrifically impressive, that's not going to be enough to replace Him. And the only way to know our severe limitation is when we fail against a challenge we are too small for.
God is our rock. He is our safe room in a secure building in a well-defended land. God is the "get out of jail free" card for any challenge we may encounter, if we'll only listen to him. It is better to be a friend of God than to be the richest, most talented, most well-equipped man in the world.
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