Wednesday in the Third Week of Advent

The Lord has sent a word against Jacob, and it will settle upon Israel; and all the people will know [those] who say in pride and in arrogance of heart: "The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place."

Exactly how many ways can a prophet proclaim judgment? How many times must a prophet say the same thing over and over again? When does the prophet's message reach the point of diminishing return?

After a brief interlude of hopefulness in the assurance that one day the new light of God's Wonderful Counselor will shine forth like the dawn (9:1-7), Isaiah of Jerusalem returns to his main message -- the Covenant People have broken faith, forsaken their God and now are under judgment for that apostasy. The prophet reframes the political situation as it stands in real time, for both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and his own homeland of Judah. These desperate times aren't merely the province of kings, princes and their lackeys. These times are portents of God's judgment.

Isaiah warns Judah to take note of what is happening to the north. Israel's futile attempts to secure its borders with the Syrians, the Philistines and the Assyrians will fail. This failure, as Isaiah sees it, is because of Israel's refusal to humble itself before the Lord. In fact, the proof of Israel's intractable pride is encapsulated in its pitiful efforts to ignore its precarious situation. Rather than repentance and reform, Israel resorts to the language of denial -- "Sure, some of our brick buildings have fallen, but we will rebuild them -- bigger and better, with more expensive material. Indeed, it's unfortunate that our forests have been eradicated, but we will replant those lands with better timber -- cedars rather than scraggly sycamores."

In the face of impending collapse, the official word from those in power are words of arrogance -- "We will find a way, on our own, not only to rebuild, but to surpass ourselves in glory. This is an opportunity to show what our national will can accomplish if we all simply pull together through this difficult time." Gorged with the false sense of their own abilities, they were unable to recognize their emaciated faith in the One who had, throughout their history, been their salvation. 

The troubling part of this oracle, though, is that Isaiah understands these kingdoms have reached the point of no return. Their fate is certain. There is no turning about from the disaster to be visited upon them. And while the situation is crystal clear to the prophet, the vision of those "in power" is occluded by presumption. 

Whatever our thoughts are about Isaiah's notions regarding Divine intervention in the affairs of politics, I wonder if the response of our own leaders during these challenging times should give us pause -- if only for a little while. I wonder if our concerns over "the Market", "the Big Three" or the latest actions of "the Fed" are only reflections of our own hubris -- the notion that if we try hard enough, we can roar back from the brink and surpass our former glory? I wonder what Isaiah would have to say to us and our sense of entitlement? 

Humility doesn't come easily to those who readily forget from whence they came and to whence they will return. Advent is the perfect antidote to the lie of our own self-importance. In the humility of the manger we see a God who deigned to identify with the dust of humanity. In the awe-filled vision of the end of time, we see a God who comes to judge humanity for its hubris even as humanity's pride is purified through the all-encompassing power Divine Love. 

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.