WHY ARE THE NATIONS IN AN UPROAR?

One thing is certain as we navigate our way through the twenty-first century: "The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might he increases power" (Isaiah 40:28-29).

The God who created history saw the twenty-first century coming long before we could even begin to imagine it. He is not caught off guard by the ways of the world in these busy and stressful days. He is not caught off guard by the philosophies and religions and ideologies that inundate and saturate the cultures of the world. He is not caught off guard that people still hate His Son and still seek to crucify Him at every opportunity. He is not caught off guard at the runaway passions that dominate the human heart, the addictions that imprison countless millions of people, or the inner hatred that drives individuals and political powers to decimate those in opposition. He is not caught off guard at how His Name is used and abused, ridiculed and profaned, slandered and ignored. He is "the Creator of the ends of the earth," and, "His understanding is inscrutable."

Psalm two asks the question, "Why are the nations in an uproar and the people devising a vain thing?" (vs. 1). A few verses later it says of God, "He who sits in the heavens, the Lord scoffs at them" (vs. 4). It is sort of silly how mankind has such an exaggerated view of its own self-importance. I think sometimes we human beings really do believe we are the center of the universe and that our ways are flawless beyond comprehension. What a farce. How sad. How silly.

To complicate things we live in an age of unprecedented technology, which has given to us the capacity to destroy the world. We haven't always had this power, but we do now; and its presence cannot be denied or ignored. Most of us would not use this power to destroy, but there are those in the global community who would. Some people crave power so intensely, seek to control so forcefully, and are so committed to bringing others into submission to their ways, that they will stop at nothing, even bringing a world down, in their efforts to get their way.

This is the world, at least a part of it, in which we Christians are honored to live and to serve our God. It is the world that has been handed to us. It is the arena into which God has placed us at this time in history to tell the wonderful story of Jesus; and His story is, indeed, wonderful. It is the one story that speaks to the very core of the human experience and brings there the redeeming love of God.

This moment in history has not been forgotten by God but is a front and center chapter in an unfolding movement of grace, “God's grace …Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace; grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt, grace that points to the Refuge, the mighty Cross…the marvelous grace of our loving Lord.”(“Grace Greater than Our Sin” by Julia H. Johnson and Daniel B. Towner, 1910)