Is. 3-4
I can’t help but think of our current times when I read this. People oppressing one another, a total lack of respect, incompetent ‘leadership’, and no shame for sin. It reads like a modern day news article! And I have no doubt that the destruction that was laid out for Judah and Jerusalem was a representation of what awaits for the rest of the world. The Jews first….and then the rest of us.
I had someone question me once as to what kind of loving father would rain curses down on his child just because his child rejected him. But I don’t see it that way at all. The Bible says that God causes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on both the righteous and the wicked. The wicked, even now, receive God’s blessing, provision, and protection, at least to a degree. They think they are fine without God because they don’t realize that they are not yet truly without Him. God does not need to rain down curses on them; all He needs to do is remove His hand from them. As it says in Isaiah 3:1, “For behold, the Lord God of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply”. Without God, there is nothing good.
Even then, though, it is not God who is doing the rejecting. It is the wicked who have rejected God. He just at some point relents and gives them what they want – the removal of His presence. As it says in verse 9, “For they have brought evil on themselves.” But God promises that He will not remove His presence from everybody. “Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them” (Is 3:10b). And chapter 4 talks about how “the branch of the LORD”, which is “everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem” (Is 4:3b) will be glorified. They (we) will be given what God has purified and His presence will be with us. Now that is a promise I can cling to!
2 Cor. 12
Wherever Paul went, he proclaimed the simple message of Christ crucified and then resurrected in glory and power. He told what he knew to be true. He did not focus on himself or his credentials. Some in the Corinthian church listened to some ‘outsiders’ who worked hard to discredit Paul (like today’s political ad mudslinging, I imagine). If they, like Paul, had been speaking the truth, what benefit could there have been in trying to discredit Paul? They could not discredit his message (because it was the truth), so they attacked him instead, in order to bring some kind of glory to themselves.
Paul spends quite a bit of this letter pointing out that, if credentials mattered to the message, he had them in spades. But he stresses over and over again that it isn’t about him, it is all about Christ. Our strengths, our credentials, our own ‘greatness’ doesn’t matter one whit. In fact, God is made greater in our weaknesses. And since the message is God’s, better that we stand out of the way, setting our own strengths, whatever they may be, aside so that God might be glorified all the more. Why try to steal His spotlight – even one small portion of it?
It seems to me that this whole concept is an important thing to grasp for two reasons. First that I will strive, as Paul did, to remain humble in living my life as a witness for Christ. The message I live should never be about me beyond whatever it is that God has done for me. I am merely the recipient of God’s grace, mercy, and goodness. God is the glorious and gracious giver.
Second, that I would use this concept as a measure of the truth in the message of others. To whom does their message point? To God, or to themselves? Are they working to discredit others or to discredit lies? If they are working for their own glory, I need to think twice about listening to what they have to say. But if they are working, as Paul, solely for the glory of God, then it is far more likely that there is truth in their message.