August 14, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, there they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one desired to travel through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.” (Zechariah 7.14)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

I have seen whirlwinds, dust “devils,” tornadoes, straight-line winds and hurricanes. I have not seen sciroccos or the Santa Anna winds but I can imagine, in light of those aforementioned, what they must be like. They both amaze and terrify. They rearrange life without concern for others. They seem to have “a mind of their own” and act without thinking. They are the outflows and updrafts of air responding to the environment around them. We are horrified and mystified at the paths of destruction and reconstruction they can leave behind. We, ourselves, can act in the same manner. We spin through life so caught up on our own axis that we easily lose sight of the world around us. And reflecting on yesterday’s perspective on “the world,” you should easily imagine then the people who are left in the wake of our storm, tantrum, entitled expression of pleasure or displeasure. We may not see the consequence in the moment. It may only happen with 20/20 hindsight. By then we may be so anesthetized ourselves that we are desensitized to others. We may be immune to the situations and conditions around us because we are consumed with our own appraisal of self; whether good or bad or mediocre.

I believe that is an apt description of the nation and people of Israel in the days of the prophets. Sadly, it may have been that way for some time or all time. We become more aware of it through the words of the prophets called to speak against the profaning of God’s Word, Promise and Presence. As they produced the sounds of the words themselves, it may have felt like those rearranging winds in the hearts and minds of the people who heard them. Even if they closed their eyes and ears to them, they could feel the pressure of them. They were moved by them and not necessarily in an “inspired” manner. Rather, they were moved to escape them or deny them or refuse them. They would set themselves up with hardened hearts and minds with the intent to protect themselves from change or accountability. Their decisions and their actions, however, could not, would not and will not transform the truth into something it was not, is not and will never be. The truth scattered them like leaves before the winds of autumn or the blast of a mighty summer storm. In the Letter to the Ephesians, we read the call to reason, “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.” (4.14) The responsibility for such disability falls on the people themselves. Instead of being rooted in the Word of God, they opted for being rooted in the ways of humanity seeking to serve only itself. Because of that, they were easily uprooted and scattered to distant lands. (We have heard of objects being carried tens and even hundreds of miles by the wind of a storm; so we can capture the image provided to Zechariah about the people of God.)

What is the consequence? Oh, do not think for a moment that there are no consequences to our actions. Do not allow yourself to believe that denial means an absence. God declared that what was seen by those exiles returning to Israel and to Jerusalem was their own fault. They dare not blame God for the desolation and destruction of all they longed for having called it home. What they observed was the devastation of a place. What they experienced was the change of their “world.” Similarly, we know the place can change from here to there, but the truth remains the same. We dare not say “that is over there, it can never happen like that here.” Before we know it, the wind which blows where it will, shall carry the same sin-fection and deposit it in the midst of us. There it will find root and grow like uncultivated weeds until the whole field is full. At first, we are at fault for not tending to the weeds. Before long, we are at a greater deficit because we gave ourselves to cultivating the weeds preferring them over the fruit of a harvest which speaks to the better life. This is what the message says to Zechariah. It is about personal and corporate accountability. Mighty ones of God, the place may be different for us from them and the age may be equally distant but the truth remains the same. Because we did not tend the harvest and have preferred the weeds, we are easily scattered and diffused. We become unrecognizable as to our former selves. We no longer reflect the image in which we were created. We will, however, be brought back to ourselves and be confronted with ourselves face to face in the mirror of God’s truth. Will we find despair and destruction? Or will we grasp God’s mercy and grace in the image of Christ whose face is “the man in the mirror”? What will the consequence be then? The choice is ours but the end never changes.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.