Territorial Bloggings

I know that much has been written of late about great disasters, and how some folks have been seemingly driven to try and answer the question of how/why (a) God could “let” this happen. I’ve weighed in on that particular silly question, but I’ve come across an interesting text & commentary that I think helps shed some light on this issue.

As I’ve been reading the book of Isaiah, I’ve been utilizing the very fine commentary series, The People’s Bible — available from Northwestern Publishing House (WELS). It’s a nice, solid, easy-to-understand commentary series, although I’m not that thrilled that it’s based on the NIV (I would much prefer the NKJV or the newer HCSB).

Anyway, as I was reading Isaiah 21:11-12 (the 7th oracle, about Edom), the commentary (written by John A. Braun) had some interesting things to say. This text is dealing with the subject of anxiety and impatience in a time of trouble. Isaiah states that some sort of arbitrary passing of time (morning in the case of Edom) will not bring deliverance, particularly deliverance from physical afflictions. People who hope for that type of deliverance will end up moving from one affliction to another, without the hope of any real deliverance (i.e., God’s deliverance).

Here’s an extended quote from the commentary, that is quite insightful:

The Edomites who were interested only in deliverance from the invader found no deliverance and did not look beyond to the spiritual and eternal blessings God had ready for them.

How often we see this repeated in our own land and time. People want God when they experience disaster, pain, and misery. Churches are full when calamity strikes, but so many then go on with their lives and soon forget God. When the disaster passes, so does their interest in God and his blessings of forgiveness and eternal life. The Bible becomes a book of riddles, too difficult to understand. The Word of God is silent to them because the Book remains closed. They don’t return to God in repentance for the great blessing he has offered to all. Instead, they use God as a kind of good luck charm to get another day of life without trouble, looking for wealth, health, and happiness. But they miss the more important eternal and spriitual blessings of the God of free and faithful grace.

In many ways we saw this play out after Sept. 11, 2001, at least with regard to the ebb & flow of church attendance. And the neo-evangelical/Methobapticostal movement is chock full of folks who seem to view God as a good luck charm, with all their Theology of Glory driven promises of a “Prosperity Gospel”.

But, as mentioned by the commentator, these folks all miss the boat. By focusing on the temporal/worldly benefits of the here-and-now, they loose sight of the real prize — the heavenly benefits that Christ secured for us on the Cross!

Thanks be to God that He has seen fit to give us His Word — the Law that drives us to the foot of the Cross, and the Gospel that comforts us once we’re there.

-ghp