Sin Gone Viral

Look! The LORD is about to destroy the earth and make it a vast wasteland. He devastates the surface of the earth and scatters the people. Priests and laypeople, servants and masters, maids and mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, bankers and debtors—none will be spared. The earth will be completely emptied and looted. The LORD has spoken! The earth mourns and dries up, and the land wastes away and withers. Even the greatest people on earth waste away. The earth suffers for the sins of its people, for they have twisted God’s instructions, violated his laws, and broken his everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse consumes the earth. Its people must pay the price for their sin. They are destroyed by fire, and only a few are left alive. The grapevines waste away, and there is no new wine. All the merrymakers sigh and mourn. The cheerful sound of tambourines is stilled; the happy cries of celebration are heard no more. The melodious chords of the harp are silent. Gone are the joys of wine and song; alcoholic drink turns bitter in the mouth. The city writhes in chaos; every home is locked to keep out intruders. Mobs gather in the streets, crying out for wine. Joy has turned to gloom. Gladness has been banished from the land. The city is left in ruins, its gates battered down. Throughout the earth the story is the same—only a remnant is left, like the stray olives left on the tree or the few grapes left on the vine after harvest. [Isaiah 24.1-13]

I suppose one would like to think this has already happened and that we earthlings don't have this to look forward to.

The problem is, this passage is speaking of a devastation such as the earth (the entire earth) has never seen since this writing in Isaiah.

Verse 5 particularly stands out: The earth suffers for the sins of its people, for they have twisted God’s instructions, violated his laws, and broken his everlasting covenant.

Is it ironic that this passage from Isaiah speaks of the "entire" earth? I think not. Never has the earth been as united in evil as it is today. With the universal technology (media and internet) currently at the earth's disposal, our sin has gone "viral."

I suppose we can wish Isaiah's prophecy is not going to come true. The problem with this wish is that it is against the odds because Isaiah quite accurately predicted the Advent and outcome of the Messiah. Are we willing to risk then that he got it wrong about the destruction of the earth?

What do we do? I cannot help but believe repentance is our only hope - if not for reprieve, at least for deliverance in the midst of the promised catastrophe. 

Maybe I have "set myself up" for seeing this in this way by all my previous days' fixation and comments on repentance. Maybe my 'rose-colored glasses' predisposition is to see repentance as the lesson here because I have only convinced myself it is what the Bible teaches. Maybe Jesus didn't mean anything when He started early in His ministry with the statement, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand..." (Matthew 3.2). Maybe He was only borrowing from John the Baptist because He hadn't gotten His own sermon material together yet? Are we willing to base our theology on maybe? I am not.

Father, with Isaiah's record of prophecy, it seems more than logical to me that the earth will suffer. Please forgive us for our gross sin. Forgive us for giving and receiving universal acceptance of that which You hate - sin.