United Front

Isaiah 51:8 ESV

For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool;

But my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.

News gets really hard to hear. Recently I have been educated on the most current ruling of the United States Supreme Court and am sorrowful, baffled, and deflated a little. I join the long list of those thinking the battle is over before he is called from the front and the equally long list of men fighting the wrong fight and assume, they are losing when victory is actually on the cusp.

Listening to commentary on the latest ruling of the court led to some curious paths for me. One commentator had noted that Justice Kagan had specifically crafted her argument and questions during oral argument to persuade Justice Gorsuch of the outcome she desired. Other commentators on the court have noted how the “liberal” justice rarely break ranks and the “conservative” justice are far more likely to but that it is not always the same one as it had been with Justice Kennedy.  Does this mean that those that hold to reasoned argument are “weaker” and that inevitably the “liberals” will write the right side of history?

With this question and others like it weighing upon me, I fall to God’s providence in my reading plan and come to Isaiah. Isaiah is working through the reality of the pending doom of his beloved society. Knowing the fall of Jerusalem and the temple is coming at the hands of the Babylonians, even as it appears victories are being one over sin and corruption during the reign of Hezekiah. Recognizing the improvement, he sees for a veneer, seeing the reality of the King’s son of destruction coming, he is encouraged. He is encouraged because no matter how bad or things look for righteousness those set against it are moth eaten food for worms. Even as it appears the corruption will win the day by all earthly measure it is a fiction; their fate is sure.

BUT stands at the middle of the two sides. The structure has two parallels, one of temporal decline, the other of eternal glory. It is easy to let the tyranny of the immediate rule our days. Loosing sight of the victory that awaits. Looking at the strategy of the Liberal justices to only use arguments as weapons to divide and simply hold a “party-line” in defense, it is hard to see when they might “lose”.

It is not the first time God has moved to destroy a kingdom and empire through social corruption and perverse judges, but if he will, he has also divided a united front before.

For the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one another. (2 Chronicles 20:23)

Let us be encouraged because the end is sure, and let us not sin against God by failure to pray for fallen sinful men that think they know what they want even when they are only sowing destruction on themselves! (1 Samuel 12:23)

Coram Deo