DAILY BYTEThis week’s devotions have been written by Anne Wagoner, an American seminary student who has also trained as a social worker. Anne recently spent 2 months in South Africa working for a local church during the refugee crisis.
Isaiah 11:1-10
A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.
The first time I read this passage I thought, WHAT? The wolf will live with the lamb! The lion will lie down with the calf and it will eat straw like the ox! Little children, not even weaned, will play around a cobra’s nest and not be harmed! There will be no more hurting, no more destruction. How wonderful! How lovely! How very far from any reality I’ve ever seen! Where is this Holy Mount?
One of the first things that I learned working as a social worker was that we live in a world absolutely full of hurt and destruction. Our world is a place where human lions do sometimes lie down with human lambs, but forcibly; and where little children do sometimes play around cobra nests, but that’s because they live in sub-standard housing and they are more often than not devastatingly harmed. Do you ever get to the point where you don’t even want to open your newspaper in the morning because you don’t want to see more bad news? Or when you want to limit your children’s freedom and adventure so that you can be sure they are safe? I watched someone be severely beaten over a 25 dollar debt. Two weeks later I watched a police officer physically assault a homeless man. Isaiah’s Holy Mount doesn’t appear to be anywhere nearby. Peace and safety is not our reality.
Or is it?
I recently toured the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. I marveled at the sheer tenacity and - dare I say — foolishness of the opponents of apartheid that were determined to resist non-violently. What kind of hope in peace and God must have existed in those hearts and minds for them to persevere with a mantra of equality and love? To preach love, forgiveness and reconciliation in the face of blind discrimination is either an act of sheer will power or tremendous God-given grace. How do you look at the reality of poverty, abuse, etc, and believe in love?
Christians are called to do just that. We are called apart; to a new way and to a new life. We are called to be in the world but not of it. Like the strong branch that Isaiah tells us rose from the stump of Jesse, we are to judge not as our eyes see or as our ears hear, but to judge and decide with righteousness and equity. God asks us to act with righteousness in a deeply unrighteous world. As Christians, imitators of Christ, we are called to live into a reality that we might not yet see or hear.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord, we know that Christ’s resurrection and triumph over death is our true reality. Through your tremendous grace, teach us to live into that reality even as we live in a deeply broken world.
