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Stopped! ...
Wednesday, Oct 16, 2013. If things do not come together, a shutdown might be unavoidable. With respect to politics, I do not want to comment the situation further - but in many countries government shutdowns of various kind happen when different parties do not manage to bring their different viewpoints into a coherent pictures.
Shutdown of a whole Society …
In the bible, there are several events which cause God to shutdown whole societies. The shutdown in the biblical environment is usually carried out by severe hunger, by missing harvest or by external attacks. Let us read some part of the prophet Isaiah, where a shutdown is announced one year ahead of time:
9 Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech. 10 In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent women; for the grape harvest fails, the fruit harvest will not come. 11 Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and tie sackcloth around your waist. 12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine, 13 for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers, yes, for all the joyous houses in the exultant city. 14 For the palace is forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;
15 until
the Spirit is poured upon us from on high
, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. 16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. 17 And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. 18 My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. 19 And it will hail when the forest falls down, and the city will be utterly laid low. 20 Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free. (Isaiah 32: 9-20) Reasons and Rationale … **
Why is it that God shuts the city down? Why is it that the whole society is driven out and away from this place?
Through his prophet God talks about righteousness. He talks about justice. Both righteous and justice will come back, and the people will be brought back. But until then, the city will be deserted - shut down!
In these verses, God links our behaviour to what will happen to our society. Only with justice and righteousness, we will prevail. Without justice and without righteousness, we will not be able to get anywhere with our community.
Today, the situation is not the same any more, since Jesus brought justice and righteousness. We have an open source of God's righteousness with the Cross of Calvary. Forgiveness is there in Christ Jesus these days. But we also know that God is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow - and his desire for righteousness is unbroken also in our time, in our communities and cities, in our mind and our heart.
We know what is in his heart - and that will drive our mind and our heart. We know that he is longing for justice in and between us humans. Let us search his ways today, from morning to evening! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts