The first verse of the Isaiah passage tells of increasing
consolidation of wealth in the hands of a few.
The Lord had apportioned the land by families and over time some of
those were unable to make a living from their portion for one reason or another
and, in spite of the Law requiring a Sabbath and a Jubilee where the land was
returned to its original owners, they were finding ways around the Law so that
they could acquire the land of others more permanently. The Law was intended to prevent crushing,
inescapable poverty but they had circumvented the Law and some had now no hope
of returning to their ancestral lands.
The Law took into account that there would be vagaries in yields and
some would make poor business decisions but there was always that reality that
they could return to the land through those Sabbath and Jubilee
provisions. Debt wasn't intended to last
beyond those times, the amount of credit available was limited by those
provisions and therefore the amount of risk anyone could take would be
similarly limited. How would we make
changes in the system in which we live that would accomplish those aims? Could there be a Christian economy within the
larger economy based on lending and borrowing principles from the Law that
would impose limits in the same way?
The beginning of the end is not a good time for the
nation. Wrath and judgment will come
against Jerusalem and the people and great distress will be on the earth. We also know that judgment begins at the
household of God. Restoration only comes
after judgment has been enacted. God's
people must be purged of sin and idolatry prior to blessing. We aren't capable of properly receiving God's
blessing until we have the right values and the right understanding of both Him
and ourselves. Jesus says that prior to
the coming of the Son of Man great woe will fall on the Land and it will be
overrun by Gentiles. That happened long
ago and still they wait. We are to be
those who are anxiously awaiting and preparing ourselves and the world to meet
its creator. There is work to be done.
Paul seems to have been truly unconcerned with the end
times. He knew that the work to be done
was evangelism rather than obsessing over looking for the end. He knew the end would come and that all the
parables Jesus told about the master going away and coming back concerned what
the servants did with the time in between.
Were they doing their assigned tasks or were they spending their time
working out what day the master would return to the exclusion of their
work? Paul's lack of concern with such
things should inform the church concerning the mission given as it also mirrors
Jesus' lack of specificity about the end. The more important thing is the mission of
making disciples, preparing a people.
The end and judgment will come, will you be found faithful in that day
to what you were commanded to do, loving God with everything you have and your
neighbor as yourself and what you were commissioned to do, making disciples.
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