A Civilized Glory
From Isaiah 3 – 1 For behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stock and the store, the whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water, 2 the mighty men of war, the judge and the prophet, and the diviner and the elder; 3 the captain of the fifty and the honorable man, the counselor and the skillful artisan, and the expert enchanter.
Russell Kirk penned in The Conservative Mind, “If you want to have order in the commonwealth, you first have to have order in the individual soul.”
What has come down to us as the kickoff of Isaiah's third chapter shows us the counterpoint. The lack of order in the individual soul, the chasing after the idols of short-term gratification, especially on the part of the nation's leaders will have consequences throughout the whole society. The factors of social cohesion the Lord says he will take away, listed one by one, remind us of the attributes of His blessing which are so easy to take for granted on a normal day in a functioning society.
Abraham Maslow, no believer, would appreciate what the Holy Spirit through Isaiah lists first. The stock and the store gone, much of presumed gentility dissipates. It is easy for us to be polite to each other, after all, when we have plenty of reserves in the bank. We can, literally, afford to be gracious, afford to be taken advantage of now and again, afford, much to the polishing of our pride, to be SEEN to be generous. Without that reserve, when there is genuine, Christian cost involved in putting the needs of others first, our true heart is revealed, both as a society and as the individuals that make it up. Make bread and water less than certain, and and the new, old rules of society will be nasty, brutish, and short.
Only then does Isaiah tick off the impact on civilization's various specialists. The mighty man of war, the professional soldier, his call to a higher duty of protecting the weak is a less compelling summons compared to using his might to protect himself, and maybe his family. The judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder? Who can afford to look ahead when the present has gone from comfortable to something like oppressive? The prophet can no longer be sustained by a tithe on nothing, or what the congregation fears will soon be nothing. Trust in the Lord by honoring His spiritual authority is soon exposed to be a sham when the next harvest, and maybe the next meal is less than a human certainty. The removal of the favor of the Lord, even by degrees, exposes the stark and humbling reality that HE is First Cause. Our leaders, esteemed and maybe revered in good times, don't cause good times.
We are sent into our day, then, literally disillusioned. Pausing in our disorientation, we are also plugged back into gratitude. Most of us will do a job today, and our confidence that we will be paid will be rewarded. The grocer will allow us to peruse his wares with at least enough good faith on his part to can see that not everyone will steal from him. By the time we get to the checkout, the efficacy of our earnings won't have been entirely obliterated by inflation, a verb used memorably by the New York Times yesterday to describe the predicament in a less stable part of the world. By the grace of God, and in contrast to the fullness of the dire consequences in Isaiah 3's opening, the noise we hear in the 21st century West is less than soothing, but it isn't the ripping of the civil fabric. At least not yet.
The glory of God, then, is closer than our jaded and distracted hearts readily apprehend. Wherever people, Christian and non-Christian, serve us well, it is by His grace, and an opportunity for us to say so. Where we get to use whatever strengths and expertise He has given us to serve Him by bettering our neighbor's situation instead of angling to take advantage, this is also reason to be grateful. By faith, the Christian gets to believe that Christ is coming, and His reward is with Him. However predictable the paycheck, however far-fetched the worst of calamities we can imagine, we yet reserve a little hope. His reward is better. HE is better.
Russell Kirk penned in The Conservative Mind, “If you want to have order in the commonwealth, you first have to have order in the individual soul.”
What has come down to us as the kickoff of Isaiah's third chapter shows us the counterpoint. The lack of order in the individual soul, the chasing after the idols of short-term gratification, especially on the part of the nation's leaders will have consequences throughout the whole society. The factors of social cohesion the Lord says he will take away, listed one by one, remind us of the attributes of His blessing which are so easy to take for granted on a normal day in a functioning society.
Abraham Maslow, no believer, would appreciate what the Holy Spirit through Isaiah lists first. The stock and the store gone, much of presumed gentility dissipates. It is easy for us to be polite to each other, after all, when we have plenty of reserves in the bank. We can, literally, afford to be gracious, afford to be taken advantage of now and again, afford, much to the polishing of our pride, to be SEEN to be generous. Without that reserve, when there is genuine, Christian cost involved in putting the needs of others first, our true heart is revealed, both as a society and as the individuals that make it up. Make bread and water less than certain, and and the new, old rules of society will be nasty, brutish, and short.
Only then does Isaiah tick off the impact on civilization's various specialists. The mighty man of war, the professional soldier, his call to a higher duty of protecting the weak is a less compelling summons compared to using his might to protect himself, and maybe his family. The judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder? Who can afford to look ahead when the present has gone from comfortable to something like oppressive? The prophet can no longer be sustained by a tithe on nothing, or what the congregation fears will soon be nothing. Trust in the Lord by honoring His spiritual authority is soon exposed to be a sham when the next harvest, and maybe the next meal is less than a human certainty. The removal of the favor of the Lord, even by degrees, exposes the stark and humbling reality that HE is First Cause. Our leaders, esteemed and maybe revered in good times, don't cause good times.
We are sent into our day, then, literally disillusioned. Pausing in our disorientation, we are also plugged back into gratitude. Most of us will do a job today, and our confidence that we will be paid will be rewarded. The grocer will allow us to peruse his wares with at least enough good faith on his part to can see that not everyone will steal from him. By the time we get to the checkout, the efficacy of our earnings won't have been entirely obliterated by inflation, a verb used memorably by the New York Times yesterday to describe the predicament in a less stable part of the world. By the grace of God, and in contrast to the fullness of the dire consequences in Isaiah 3's opening, the noise we hear in the 21st century West is less than soothing, but it isn't the ripping of the civil fabric. At least not yet.
The glory of God, then, is closer than our jaded and distracted hearts readily apprehend. Wherever people, Christian and non-Christian, serve us well, it is by His grace, and an opportunity for us to say so. Where we get to use whatever strengths and expertise He has given us to serve Him by bettering our neighbor's situation instead of angling to take advantage, this is also reason to be grateful. By faith, the Christian gets to believe that Christ is coming, and His reward is with Him. However predictable the paycheck, however far-fetched the worst of calamities we can imagine, we yet reserve a little hope. His reward is better. HE is better.
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