Isaiah 59: Truth Staggers and Justice Fails
What On Earth is Happening?
I was on my way to the store the other day and heard part of a sermon on Isaiah 59. There wasn't enough time to catch who was preaching, but I loved the premise and opened my Bible to Isaiah 59 when I got home. Isaiah 59:14-15 caught my eye:
Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey (ESV).
Boy, does that describe today. Our courts are more concerned about their own agenda rather than the law, and the "truth" is whatever we are told it is, which may or may not necessarily have anything to do with reality. If anyone departs from the mandated narrative their videos are deleted, their posts are blocked, entire websites are taken down and everyone in the world throws back their heads and howls—a dissenting voice literally becomes prey. It's as though Truth itself is drunk and staggering from intoxication. How could this be?
Isaiah indicates from the Word of the Lord why we are experiencing this in verses 1-2:
Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear (ESV).
The reason this happens is because our sin has separated us from God Himself. The lack of truth and justice is not the problem, it is only a symptom of the problem. The answer cannot be politics, the answer cannot be just resetting the Supreme Court, or getting enough Senators or Congressmen. The problem isn't our culture or even sinners, it's us—the people of God. God is the only answer, because it is He who has been wronged, not us.
2 Chronicles 7:14 has the solution:
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Note that it says, "If my people, which are called by my name," not "if those sinners in Congress or Hollywood." God in His mercy could make things right if it be His will, but only if we His people fall on our knees and beg for His forgiveness—forgiveness for personal sin, forgiveness for that of the Church, and for that of our nation. Then, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9, ESV). God is not only faithful to forgive, it is just that He do so, because Jesus has already paid for our sins if we but ask for forgiveness. Revival is still possible.
