Brokenness

Thursday 1/6/2011 6:13 AM

Today my reading included Isaiah 24, a sobering chapter if there ever was one, describing the devastation of the earth.  Verses 2-3 describe its indiscriminate nature; “…it will be the same for priest as for people, for master as for servant, for mistress as for maid, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor.  The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered.”  Verses 4-5 and 10 could describe the world today and the city in which I live.  “The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the earth languish.  The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. … The ruined city lies desolate; the entrance to every house is barred.”

When I was in Phoenix last month my mom was considering the possibility of getting a security door installed.  Lately the neighborhood in which she lives has encountered more crime and violence and she doesn’t feel as safe as she once did, fearing someone will knock the front door down when she answers it and invade her home.  In our area many homes have bars on the windows for the same reason.  That kind of behavior seems to be accurately described by Isaiah.  This past summer there was a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and millions of gallons of crude oil gushed into the water and washed up on local beaches and marshes.  The polluted environment killed thousands of animals.  Isaiah describes is as the people of the earth defiling it. 

Joel 2:28 is also part of my reading today.  God promises the following: “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.”  I wondered about the difference between seeing visions and dreaming dreams.  I think that when I was younger I had dreams of the way things should be and the hope that with some hard work on my part those dreams could come true.  As I age I think that I still have dreams of the way things should be but I have given up hope that anything that I, or mankind in general, can do will ever help those dreams come true.  I now find that I dream and pray that God will come quickly to reconcile his creation to himself to bring the peace and harmony for which I long so deeply.