Day 198, or July the seventeenth. Be godly in a godless culture.
Our thoughts today are rooted in Isaiah chapter 14 verse 13.
You said in your heart, I will ascend to the heavens, I will raise my throne above the
stars of God, I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of
Mount Zephon.
And now the big picture surrounding this verse.
This is a bleak period during which Isaiah condemns Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab,
Damascus and Samaria, in other words, most of the enemies of God's people at that time.
Ironically, if you look at a modern map, many of these same countries would still not call
Israel a friend. Iraq, Turkey, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, and even the central belt of
the land we call Israel today.
Israel was the spokesman for God, a God who had emotions and wanted to relate to his people.
All the other pagan deities were man-made and simply demanded sacrifices and worship.
Gods weren't relevant to daily life, they were there to be worshipped and hopefully,
in return, they would give you what you wanted—victory in battle, rainfall, or bumper crops.
And now our action step for today.
Isaiah addresses the mighty kingdom of Babylonia and its ruler who appears a total megalomaniac.
In ancient times rulers were often revered as gods, so the king's claims in today's
verses are not unexpected, in fact, he had to make them in order to appear powerful.
Today, however, we are much more subtle and far too civilized for such superstition. We
are constantly drip-fed by the mantra of, only stupid or badly educated people believe
in God. Clever people are above all that. We are becoming an increasingly godless society
where power, influence, and notoriety are all that count. We need to pray for our country
and its leaders in particular. We are producing generations that not only have no spiritual
experience but even worse, don't know that they lack it. We must confront our godless
society with something of God's love and justice. It's not too late.