Whenever I read the Biblical book of Isaiah, I cannot help but think of our times.Yes, he lived in Jerusalem, prophesying from 740 to 701 B.C., a time long, long ago in a place far, far away. Yet, history is cyclical, human nature remains what it was, and his descriptions of his waning society are so too close to our own to ignore:Oh, sinful nation,People weighed down with guilt…They have abandoned the Lord…Where will you be stricken again,As you continue in your rebellion?The whole head is sickAnd the whole heart is faint.From the sole of the foot even to the headThere is nothing sound in it,Only bruises, welts and raw wounds.Look deeper and see how many people are hurting toady. We indulge in more pleasures now than our forefathers did, and reap a lot more pain.Living the world’s way undermines loving and stable of families. An abused and neglected generation are becoming abusers themselves. We snuff out the unborn and euthanize the vulnerable.Your hands are covered with blood…How the faithful city has become a harlot,She who was full of justice!Righteousness once lodged in her,But now murderers.And what kind of people head this immoral, life-taking lot?Your rulers are rebelsAnd companions of thieves;Everyone loves a bribeAnd chases after rewards….They also strike bargains with the children of foreigners…So the common person has been humbled.Is this ancient Jerusalem or contemporary Ottawa? In both places integrity and tradition have been trampled.I will make mere boys their leaders,And mischievous children will rule over them.And the people will be oppressed,Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor;The youth will assault the elder,And the contemptible person will assault the one honored…My people! Their oppressors treat them violently,And women rule over them.The rat-on-your-neighbour phenomenon became all-too-familiar during the pandemic. In recent years, those standing up for righteousness are targeted and cancelled by a misguided, youthful generation. The True North Strong and Free is faltering in its truth, strength, and freedom.Your fields — strangers [foreigners] are devouring them in your presence…Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,Because their speech and their actions are against the Lord,To rebel against His glorious presence.The expression of their faces testifies against them,And they display their sin like Sodom;They do not even conceal it.Woe to them!For they have done evil to themselves.Can you think of anyone today parading sinful, destructive lifestyles or misguiding youth about who they are and what they should do?My people! Those who guide you lead you astrayAnd confuse the direction of your paths.Indeed they do. From kindergarten to post-secondary, teachers are out to undermine society, overturn morality, and openly advocate for what will destroy us. It is another sign our society is at a low ebb and ripe for overthrow, which was always the intention of the Cultural Marxists anyway.Remarkably, all these italicized Bible quotes are exclusively from the first 3 chapters of Isaiah’s 66 chapters. And, before he wrote any of them, God told him people wouldn’t listen!And He said, “Go, and tell this people:‘Keep on listening, but do not understand;And keep on looking, but do not gain knowledge.’Make the hearts of this people insensitive,Their ears dull,And their eyes blind,So that they will not see with their eyes,Hear with their ears,Understand with their hearts,And return and be healed.”The heart of God, the threat of judgment, and the promise of redemption shared so poetically by Isaiah may have echoed through the centuries, but they were ignored by too many in his day.If you’re a truth teller, feeling like you’re getting nowhere, trying to warn society of the doom just ahead if we continue on this path, take heart. You are in good company; your stance and message will be remembered well when the wicked are remembered in infamy.Isaiah lived in the final days when Israel had a king in Samaria and the tribe of Judah had a king in Jerusalem. As Isaiah had warned, Israel was conquered and most of its people were exiled by the King of Assyria to live elsewhere in his empire.So what would God think of the rulers in our own capital city, full of self-aggrandizement, handing out contracts to their friends of little to no value, serving foreign interests, burying us in public debt, and laying heavy taxes on people? Isaiah hints God will rise to contend with them.The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and leaders of His people,“It is you who have devoured the vineyard;The goods stolen from the poor are in your houses.What do you mean by crushing My peopleAnd oppressing the face of the poor?”This government deserves to fall spectacularly, and it doesn’t take a divine message to know that.At least Isaiah lived to see some positive impact. A righteous king in Jerusalem named Hezekiah invited his prayers and heeded his words.Hezekiah king built a tunnel that brought water into the city underneath its fortifications to prevent thirst in a siege. It remains to this day and I have walked through it myself..Better yet, Hezekiah led Judah (from which the Jews are named) into a divine deliverance that spared Jerusalem from an Assyrian conquest.Alas, Isaiah was martyred after Hezekiah died. His son Manasseh took the throne in 695 B.C, and “did great evil in the sight of the LORD,” as the Bible says. This king sacrificed his own son to the god Molech by fire and engaged in the dark practices of paganism.Manasseh could not tolerate Isaiah and according to Jewish tradition, he had him sawn in half. (Remarkably, in later years, he repented. 2 Chronicles 33 v.10) Eventually, Jerusalem was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He took most of the Jews from their land in 587 B.C., and their treasures too, as Isaiah had predicted. By then Jeremiah was prophesying, and few listened to him, either.As for today’s Canada, I believe both good government and a turning to God are just ahead, just as it was under Hezekiah. Though a dark and wicked New World Order will sweep over the land sometime thereafter and trample the truth-tellers, the Messiah Isaiah prophesied will break this oppression and reign forever.In our time and any other, God’s promise through Isaiah remains.Say to the righteous that it will go well for them,For they will eat the fruit of their actions.Woe to the wicked! It will go badly for him,For what he deserves will be done to him.Our response is up to us, and the consequences will surely follow.
Whenever I read the Biblical book of Isaiah, I cannot help but think of our times.Yes, he lived in Jerusalem, prophesying from 740 to 701 B.C., a time long, long ago in a place far, far away. Yet, history is cyclical, human nature remains what it was, and his descriptions of his waning society are so too close to our own to ignore:Oh, sinful nation,People weighed down with guilt…They have abandoned the Lord…Where will you be stricken again,As you continue in your rebellion?The whole head is sickAnd the whole heart is faint.From the sole of the foot even to the headThere is nothing sound in it,Only bruises, welts and raw wounds.Look deeper and see how many people are hurting toady. We indulge in more pleasures now than our forefathers did, and reap a lot more pain.Living the world’s way undermines loving and stable of families. An abused and neglected generation are becoming abusers themselves. We snuff out the unborn and euthanize the vulnerable.Your hands are covered with blood…How the faithful city has become a harlot,She who was full of justice!Righteousness once lodged in her,But now murderers.And what kind of people head this immoral, life-taking lot?Your rulers are rebelsAnd companions of thieves;Everyone loves a bribeAnd chases after rewards….They also strike bargains with the children of foreigners…So the common person has been humbled.Is this ancient Jerusalem or contemporary Ottawa? In both places integrity and tradition have been trampled.I will make mere boys their leaders,And mischievous children will rule over them.And the people will be oppressed,Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor;The youth will assault the elder,And the contemptible person will assault the one honored…My people! Their oppressors treat them violently,And women rule over them.The rat-on-your-neighbour phenomenon became all-too-familiar during the pandemic. In recent years, those standing up for righteousness are targeted and cancelled by a misguided, youthful generation. The True North Strong and Free is faltering in its truth, strength, and freedom.Your fields — strangers [foreigners] are devouring them in your presence…Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,Because their speech and their actions are against the Lord,To rebel against His glorious presence.The expression of their faces testifies against them,And they display their sin like Sodom;They do not even conceal it.Woe to them!For they have done evil to themselves.Can you think of anyone today parading sinful, destructive lifestyles or misguiding youth about who they are and what they should do?My people! Those who guide you lead you astrayAnd confuse the direction of your paths.Indeed they do. From kindergarten to post-secondary, teachers are out to undermine society, overturn morality, and openly advocate for what will destroy us. It is another sign our society is at a low ebb and ripe for overthrow, which was always the intention of the Cultural Marxists anyway.Remarkably, all these italicized Bible quotes are exclusively from the first 3 chapters of Isaiah’s 66 chapters. And, before he wrote any of them, God told him people wouldn’t listen!And He said, “Go, and tell this people:‘Keep on listening, but do not understand;And keep on looking, but do not gain knowledge.’Make the hearts of this people insensitive,Their ears dull,And their eyes blind,So that they will not see with their eyes,Hear with their ears,Understand with their hearts,And return and be healed.”The heart of God, the threat of judgment, and the promise of redemption shared so poetically by Isaiah may have echoed through the centuries, but they were ignored by too many in his day.If you’re a truth teller, feeling like you’re getting nowhere, trying to warn society of the doom just ahead if we continue on this path, take heart. You are in good company; your stance and message will be remembered well when the wicked are remembered in infamy.Isaiah lived in the final days when Israel had a king in Samaria and the tribe of Judah had a king in Jerusalem. As Isaiah had warned, Israel was conquered and most of its people were exiled by the King of Assyria to live elsewhere in his empire.So what would God think of the rulers in our own capital city, full of self-aggrandizement, handing out contracts to their friends of little to no value, serving foreign interests, burying us in public debt, and laying heavy taxes on people? Isaiah hints God will rise to contend with them.The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and leaders of His people,“It is you who have devoured the vineyard;The goods stolen from the poor are in your houses.What do you mean by crushing My peopleAnd oppressing the face of the poor?”This government deserves to fall spectacularly, and it doesn’t take a divine message to know that.At least Isaiah lived to see some positive impact. A righteous king in Jerusalem named Hezekiah invited his prayers and heeded his words.Hezekiah king built a tunnel that brought water into the city underneath its fortifications to prevent thirst in a siege. It remains to this day and I have walked through it myself..Better yet, Hezekiah led Judah (from which the Jews are named) into a divine deliverance that spared Jerusalem from an Assyrian conquest.Alas, Isaiah was martyred after Hezekiah died. His son Manasseh took the throne in 695 B.C, and “did great evil in the sight of the LORD,” as the Bible says. This king sacrificed his own son to the god Molech by fire and engaged in the dark practices of paganism.Manasseh could not tolerate Isaiah and according to Jewish tradition, he had him sawn in half. (Remarkably, in later years, he repented. 2 Chronicles 33 v.10) Eventually, Jerusalem was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He took most of the Jews from their land in 587 B.C., and their treasures too, as Isaiah had predicted. By then Jeremiah was prophesying, and few listened to him, either.As for today’s Canada, I believe both good government and a turning to God are just ahead, just as it was under Hezekiah. Though a dark and wicked New World Order will sweep over the land sometime thereafter and trample the truth-tellers, the Messiah Isaiah prophesied will break this oppression and reign forever.In our time and any other, God’s promise through Isaiah remains.Say to the righteous that it will go well for them,For they will eat the fruit of their actions.Woe to the wicked! It will go badly for him,For what he deserves will be done to him.Our response is up to us, and the consequences will surely follow.
