<h2>Catastrophes through God’s Eyes</h2><p><a name="m_5232062065912917794_www_biblegateway_com_passage__" class="m_5232062065912917794bibleref" href="http://links.biblegateway.mkt4731.com/ctt?kn=26&ms=NTMxMjQwNzkS1&r=MjY3OTQ2OTczOTUS1&b=0&j=MTA4MDY1MzA3MAS2&mt=1&rt=0" target="_blank">Isaiah 21</a></p><p>An endless cycle of war and death—what did it mean?</p><p><a name="m_5232062065912917794_www_biblegateway_com_pass_1" class="m_5232062065912917794bibleref" href="http://links.biblegateway.mkt4731.com/ctt?kn=20&ms=NTMxMjQwNzkS1&r=MjY3OTQ2OTczOTUS1&b=0&j=MTA4MDY1MzA3MAS2&mt=1&rt=0" target="_blank">Isaiah 21:3</a>
At this my body is racked with pain, pangs seize me, like those of a
woman in labor; I am staggered by what I hear, I am bewildered by what I
see.</p><p><br></p><p>There is one easy way to picture the Middle East
of Isaiah’s day: Simply follow today’s newspaper headlines and project
backward in time. Then, as now, one nation would invade its neighbor,
leveling cities and devastating the land and its people. The prophet
Isaiah longed for an end to the cycle, much as modern-day residents of
Lebanon or Israel do today.</p><p><br></p><p>Isaiah looked at the world
with a kind of split vision. Around him he saw spiritual decay and the
dreary cycle of war and death. Yet God had given him a clear vision of
what his nation could one day become: a pure people, faithful to God,
living in peace with “war no more.”</p><p><br></p><p>A Kingdom for a Purpose</p><p>With
God’s view of the future shining brightly before him, Isaiah went about
reinterpreting history. Others in Judah looked upon military invasions
as terrible catastrophes. By contrast, Isaiah—though he felt anguish
over the events—saw glimpses of a higher purpose.</p><p>Isaiah said that
Judah had to endure pain and suffering in order to be purified. He
counseled against making political alliances to forestall the
punishment. God’s people had to go through the fire, and from the trials
a remnant—a small remaining number of persons—would emerge that God
could then use to accomplish his work. Isaiah went so far as to name his
own son “a remnant will return” (Shear-Jashub) as a walking object
lesson of his message to Judah (see <a name="m_5232062065912917794_www_biblegateway_com_pass_2" class="m_5232062065912917794bibleref" href="http://links.biblegateway.mkt4731.com/ctt?kn=22&ms=NTMxMjQwNzkS1&r=MjY3OTQ2OTczOTUS1&b=0&j=MTA4MDY1MzA3MAS2&mt=1&rt=0" target="_blank">Isaiah 7:3</a>).</p><p><br></p><p>Why had the Jews been called by God in the first place? They were to be a “light for the Gentiles,” Isaiah said (see <a name="m_5232062065912917794_www_biblegateway_com_pass_3" class="m_5232062065912917794bibleref" href="http://links.biblegateway.mkt4731.com/ctt?kn=19&ms=NTMxMjQwNzkS1&r=MjY3OTQ2OTczOTUS1&b=0&j=MTA4MDY1MzA3MAS2&mt=1&rt=0" target="_blank">Isaiah 42:6</a>),
a nation used by God to bring his truth to other nations. And out of
the land of Judah God would raise up a great Prince who would rule over
all the earth.</p><p><br></p><p>Who Is in Charge?</p><p>In short, God
had not discarded his people, no matter how bleak things looked. The
Israelites would ultimately become a missionary nation, pointing others
to God.</p><p><br></p><p>Above all other messages, Isaiah stressed this
one: God is in charge of history. To Judah—surrounded by enemies,
staggering from invasion, weary of bloodshed—God seemed far away and
distant. Isaiah assured its inhabitants that the great powers of earth
were mere tools in God’s hands; he would use them and fling them aside.</p><p><br></p><p>Life Questions</p><p>Isaiah
described people who felt afraid and abandoned by God. Have you ever
felt like that? How does Isaiah’s message offer hope for us today?</p>
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