On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. Isaiah 25:6-8
It gets frustrating to live in a media saturated world with the collective attention span of a two year old. THE BIG BIG BIG STORY OF THE DAY dominates our lives….for a week or two…and then we move on to the next BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG even BIGGER!!!! STORY OF THE DAY.
I really feel sorry for the victims in this “let’s sell lots of advertising” way of being. I can’t imagine a quiet neighborhood suddenly over-run with network vans lined up for blocks, electric generators galore, wires running across everyone’s lawn, and the gauntlet of cameras and WE’RE HERE ON THE SCENE reporters asking some poor woman how she feels knowing her child was brutalized.
Today the big story is EBOLA!!! Not to make light of a scary and very dangerous virus that has killed thousands of people in Africa, but really? News reports on what happens to a nurse’s dog?
I’m thinking about this because I just read these verses from Isaiah 25. They too were written in an age where human deprivation and human devastation were daily fears. A time when some people went hungry and others exploited them. When disease ran rampant and everyone felt powerless to do anything about it.
Into this world came a promise – a new day will come.
And that new day will not come riding on the back of whoever ends up on the throne of whichever country is next in line to be a “super power”. It won’t come behind the delivery van stuffed with well-aged wines and rich food. (Or the politician who promises the same if we just elect them and throw those other bums out.)
The new day comes only by the power of the one who can swallow up death and wipe away the tears from all faces. Only God can usher in that new day and that, only in God’s power and God’s timing. I could be wrong but I’m thinking that God will be able to pull that off without Democrats or Republicans or Fox or CNN or the CDC,
I believe that new day will come. I read of those promises in the Bible and I hear them repeated every Sunday when we gather for worship. Everything else that blasts us with INFO-MATION every day is just background noise.
My sense is that if we worshipped and prayed as frequently and fervently as we sit glued to the talking heads on the radio, the TV, our computers, and our smartphones, we would all be better off. But that’s just me.
Let us pray: Dear Lord, cut through the noise of our lives so we can hear you speak. Bless those who deliver real help to real people in our broken world. Protect them and guide them in their work. Hasten the day when death is no more, when tears fall no more. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Daily Devotions 
October 17, 2014 at 1:35 am |
Along the lines of media “infatuation”, one would think breast cancer is the ONLY cancer. As Pastor Kerry said, not to make light of something serious, but c’mon! Once something becomes the darling of the activists,, it’s like nothing else matters at all. STOP watching the news, and START talking to your neighbors.
Thanks.
October 17, 2014 at 5:13 am |
Living in an age of technology and instant communication, it can be easy to fall into a digital addiction. We can become that media “news junkie”, hooked up to our I-phone, I-pad, TV, and cell phone 24/7. We are bombarded with fears from all sides: terrorism, disease and pandemics, (the latest being Eboli), wars, accidents, and death. It would serve us better to “tune in” to God more, and turn off our digital appliances. For only our Lord and Savior conquered death, and He holds the world in the palm of His hand.