Get In The Boat!

“The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.”

Isaiah 24:5-6

There are three fundamental perspectives when anyone reads the Bible.

The first is “How does this apply to you?” This perspective helps me see what you are doing wrong so I can either correct or criticize. Sometimes it is a combination of both. There are some who apparently think that God has gifted them to point out the faults of others. And so, when they read the Bible they look for the things that speak to the sins of others.

The second perspective, of course, is “How does this apply to me?” This is the hardest way to read God’s Word, because it puts my life on the examination table and forces me to look at the ways that I might be out of step with the Lord. This of course is the most personally productive way to look at scripture. What is in it for me?

The third perspective when reading the Bible is “How does this apply to us?” When the Bible is read with this perspective the application of scripture can change a household, a community, a nation, and even the world! It is usually the perspective of the martyrs just before they go to Glory!

So what about Isaiah 24:5-6? Is this talking about our time or some distance past or distance future residents of planet earth? We certainly have defiled the physical earth. Just ask any environmentalist. And we certainly have defiled the earth spiritually. Just ask your grandmother!

Now, of course we are not unique in living in a world that has turned aside from fundamental morality and rule of law. It has happened before. For instance, it happen during the time when a man named Noah built a boat for his family. And then, in the form of 40 days of rain, the judgment of God fell from heaven.

Look again at Isaiah 24:6a:

“Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt.”

Is it possible that the turmoil we are seeing and feeling in the world today is a curse because of how we have been living? Could God once again be judging the world for its unrighteousness? He did promise that He would never again do it with a flood. The rainbow itself seals that promise at the end of almost every storm. His promise concerned the means of judgement not judgment itself.

Here is where I want to just hit the delete button and write something about Psalm 23 or some other passage that speaks of love and peace. These verses in Isaiah 24 speak of how the judgment will come. It will come in the form of fire. Fire on the earth will leave very few people alive!

I don’t know of a time in history when this prediction was fulfilled. But I do know that the Bible does not predict events that do not happen. So there are two options. The first option is that these verses are talking about some time in the distant future and have nothing to do with today’s world. That would be comforting if we could prove that and just rest in the seat of “We don’t have to worry about that now.”

The second option is that these verses do apply to our current world situation and we are living in the time just before the fire falls! Either way, we can have only one response to the situation. Live like Noah did. He listened to God and did what God told him to do even if it made him look like an idiot to the world around him.

After the fire falls the Bible does say that a few will be left. In Noah’s day the ones who survived were with him in the Ark. If we stand like Noah did on the brink of disaster then don’t forget to GET IN THE BOAT!