And In that Day...

 

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat.  The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all.  The cow will graze near the bear.  The cub and the calf will lie down together.  The lion will eat hay like a cow.  The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra.  Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm.  Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.  Isaiah 11:6-9

As I read this passage again this morning there was a recurring thought that kept playing over in the pictures of my mind.  I imagined the sense of fear that is common to all existence…and the absence of fear. 

·       A child playing near a deadly cobra’s hole…safely.

·       An African American man driving through a “white” neighborhood…calmly

·       A Caucasian woman stopping at a street corner to ask three young Chinese men for directions…and sharing a laugh.

Life, whether you’re at the top of the food chain, or the bottom, has a large directory of extant fears, and the corresponding survival techniques we develop to head-off our personal extinction.  Some fear is healthy in a fallen world.  I can think of these without even trying:

          ·       The fear of gravity’s effect on an airplane in which I’m riding

          ·       Worry over the strength of iron bars between me and that lion at the zoo

          ·       Concern when my son stayed out way later than curfew

          ·       …and on, into the night.

There is fear enough to go around; I’m certain the enemy of our souls has made sure the supply of fear will be abundant.  It’s part of his arsenal.

The Christian’s arsenal against fear has only one weapon, the Word of God.  Isaiah’s prophecy is about a day when fear will be absent.  God may be telling us that our character and nature will be so changed we will have no desire at all for the greed, power, and conquest that exhibits itself in wars and other atrocities we visit on each other.  It may just be that God will even remove the memory of fear.

Of course that day is not here…yet!  For now we still wouldn’t let our babies play near the snake’s hole, or leave the sheep unguarded.  But appropriate prudence and wisdom should not rob us of the joy of anticipating such a time as Isaiah’s vision, nor working for bits and pieces of that fear-enemy’s destruction.

          ·       We can take care of God’s creation

          ·       We can resist racism by learning to love others with Godliness

          ·       We can be generous, and less suspicious

For You Today

In that Longest Journey Starts with the First Small Step department, how about putting your biggest fear on the altar today?  We could start learning to live like Isaiah’s lambs and lions.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

For another post on this text see Taming the Devil