Last night I put my music on random shuffle and got this interesting juxtaposition.
We've only just begun -- on the eve of destruction. My meditation (in this post) on the time just after the resurrection of Christ has reminded me that there is no real contradiction in this. New beginnings in spiritual terms have a way of happening on what is in material and even "religious" terms, the eve of destruction. After the revelations of Moses, 40 years of wandering in the desert. After David, idolatry. After Isaiah and Jeremiah, the destruction of Jerusalem. After Jesus, Nero and then the destruction of Jerusalem again. After Joseph Smith and the Romantics, the Civil War and then the 20th century.
The voice said, "Cry."And he said, "What shall I cry?""All flesh is grass,and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it:surely the people is grass.The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:but the word of our God shall stand for ever."
Isaiah wrote that. Isaiah. Isaiah, who saw God and took the burning coals of heaven in his mouth. Isaiah who stood against king and priest alike and, at the whim of God's anointed monarch, was stuffed into a hollow log and cut in half with a saw. Incomparably great Isaiah.
Behold, I have created the smiththat bloweth the coals in the fire,and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work;and I have created the waster to destroy.No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper;and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
Let the world go to hell. That's where it's always been going anyway. Our business is elsewhere, and they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
