Zion will be delivered with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness. But rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake the Lord will perish. (Isaiah 1:27-28)
if my people,
who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and
seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from
heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (II Chronicles
7:14)
One of
the decisions I made before leaving Erie was to listen to the prophets on the
way down. Usually, I start in Genesis, or I start in Matthew, so I never get to
the prophets. I began in Isaiah, and that led to a decision to take a closer
look at the prophets this fall and winter.
Today’s
passage brought to mind the one from II Chronicles. Both have the same idea. They
are promises to and about the Jews, but the key is the same, and God is the
same. If we would see our land saved, we must seek justice – not just for
ourselves, but for individuals that society has forgotten, and we must be penitent.
That means we must seek righteousness.
We’re
coming up to midterm elections, and I would be the last person to suggest that anyone
not vote. Please do! (Pretty please with a cherry on top!) But our elected
officials are not going to save us. Only God can do that, and He will only do
so if we seek justice, are penitent, and act righteously. We must humble
ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways.
But here’s
the thing… a healed land isn’t likely to be the “everyone’s rich and comfortable”
idea that we like to think it means. It will mean that we are individually
right with God and living in community with people who are right with God while
reaching out to those who aren’t. And that brings to mind another topic for my
fall and winter… because the trailer park in which I live does “community” better
than I’ve seen it since I was a kid, and I want to learn more about what makes “community”
work.
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