Isaiah 30:9-18
Are We Serving Time?

For they are a rebellious people,
        faithless children,
    children who will not hear
        the instruction of the LORD;
who say to the seers, "Do not see";
        and to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us what is right;
    speak to us smooth things,
        prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path,
        let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel."
Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:
Because you reject this word,
        and put your trust in oppression and deceit,
        and rely on them;
    therefore this iniquity shall become for you
        like a break in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse,
        whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant;
    its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel
        that is smashed so ruthlessly
    that among its fragments not a sherd is found
        for taking fire from the hearth,
        or dipping water out of the cistern.

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:
    In returning and rest you shall be saved;
        in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.
    But you refused and said,
        "No! We will flee upon horses"--
        therefore you shall flee!
    and, "We will ride upon swift steeds"--
        therefore your pursuers shall be swift!
    A thousand shall flee at the threat of one,
        at the threat of five you shall flee,
    until you are left
        like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
        like a signal on a hill.

Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you;
        therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.
    For the LORD is a God of justice;
        blessed are all those who wait for him.

New Revised Standard Version

So much of the message of the prophet Isaiah is delivered in strikingly beautiful poetry, drawing wonderful contrasts between the way of the rebellious Israelites and the Way that God intends. This passage shows this contrast in what the people are "doing" when what they should do is to wait for God's guidance.

Part of what strikes me in this passage is how our modern culture tends to praise this mindset. Corporate mission statements frequently recite the mantra of a "bias for action". The rather dated cliche' states "Don't just sit there, do something!" We encourage people not to be a "victim", but to take some kind of action, as if the two were opposites. We even sell millions of "action heroes" to our children. I'm not saying that all this is "bad," but it does make me think.

It's easy to remember the last part of Matthew 6:24: "You cannot serve both God and Wealth." But Jesus used that sentence as an example of the truth in the first part of that verse: "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other." At what point does Time become that other master for us?

I have two jobs, one full-time management position, and a part-time music position at the church. I have a family with a teen-age daughter. I play several musical instruments and I love photography and music composition. Boredom is rarely a problem. To keep up with my work responsibilities, my music responsibilities, and my family responsibilities, I have a large To Do list in my Palm Pilot, and often times, it seems like that To Do list is running my life. If I spoke those words with the right inflection to an audience, I'm sure to get a laugh -- we all know just how that feels!

But as I write this article, I don't see the humor. It sounds more like a confession:

"God, I have sinned. I have been serving my To Do list when I should have been serving You. I have let the pressures of Time undercut the higher calling of following You, and I have limited Your dealing in my life because I couldn't set aside the Time. I have corrupted the tasks that You called me to do by squeezing them into my Time schedule. In doing so, I missed the service opportunities You had prepared that needed just another five minutes of my time, and I have missed the blessings that You wanted to give me if I had just waited until You were done with those tasks.
God, I need Your healing in my life. I need You to calm the frantic urges to do just what Isaiah accuses me of doing, to jump on fast horses and gallop away when You want me to sit and be still. I need You to develop in me the Wisdom that we Walk, not run, in the Way. I need You to show me, over and over again, that growing in the Way doesn't mean accomplishing more and more tasks. Remind me that You provide the harvest, not my To Do list. Amen.