Pastor Glenn’s Weblog

Isaiah 13-19.  In this section we see that God overrules the nations.  In our world we often view nations as the real powers and people groups as the ultimate good or evil.  We sometimes view nations or people groups as powerful enemies to be feared.  The Taliban and Al-Qaida are viewed by some that way.  But powerful nations and powerful people are still under God’s control.  Isaiah spoke these prophesies against some powerful nations and cities of his day, and in them we see that God rules over those powers.  He allows nations to exist for a time to carry out his purposes, but he is still in control.  He prophesied against Assyria, Babylon, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Cush, and Egypt.  They would all eventually fall from power, but God’s Kingdom remains forever.  His purposes will not be thwarted.  “The LORD has sworn, ‘Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen.’  . . .  For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?  His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?” (Isaiah 15:24, 27)

            We need not fret when nations, people groups, political parties and ideologies come to power.  They have only the authority God allows them, for he is in control.  We must keep the eternal perspective of God’s Kingdom, and our trust must be in him alone.  “Surely the nations are like a drop in the bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales.  . . .  Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing.  . . .  He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.”  (Isaiah 40)