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Let justice reign
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Third Week of Advent
Isaiah 45:6-22
Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above, like gentle rain let the skies drop it down. Let the earth open and salvation bud forth … Turn to me and be safe, all you ends of the earth, for I am God; there is no other!
Isaiah says in this passage that God did not create and establish the earth to be a waste, but designed it to be lived in. That has become difficult for us.
Wendell Berry points out that we regularly overstep our own potential. We dream up schemes to take advantage of the world’s resources, but we neither anticipate the consequences nor know how to fix the problems those consequences create. Too often our response to this disaster is a mix of pride and denial. We stick our heads in the sand.
And so the earth does become a wasteland, and it is more and more difficult to live in. God cries out to our generation just as he did to Isaiah, “Turn to me and be safe!” You are not God, but I am. And there is no other.
As the leaves finish falling and the snow prepares its arrival, I wait for Jesus, and I wait to see if my snow blower will work this year. The sunset came so quickly yesterday. The wind is cold and gray. Time is short. Life goes on, and I am learning day by day that waiting on God is more important than getting my plans in order.
God’s justice descends like gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. Shakespeare’s rendition (in The Merchant of Venice) of Isaiah’s words reminds me that justice not only clarifies and softens relationships between people, but it is an imperative for my relationship with God and with myself. It is the essence of what makes me safe. This depth of justice is something I cannot have and will not have if I can’t wait for it. I’m not in charge here. But God is.
Lord, it is in you that kindness and truth finally meet. Justice and peace kiss as your mercy falls from heaven. We are your children, and we need your strong sweet arms, Father, to hold us and make us strong.
http://www.davesandel.net/category/lent-easter-devotions-2016/
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1531
