"A Front Porch Perspective"

Scripture Passage

Isaiah 18:1-23:18

Scripture Focus

For the LORD has told me this:
“I will watch quietly from my dwelling place—
     as quietly as the heat rises on a summer day,
     or as the morning dew forms during the harvest.”
                                             (Isaiah 18:4 NLT)

Observation

Isaiah 18-23 records a series of oracles against various nations—promises, essentially, of God’s judgment against each nation (including His own people, Judah), along with a remarkable prophecy of redemption: Egypt, Assyria, and Israel united side-by-side in the worship of Jehovah!

The passage reminds me (among other things) that Israel did not exist in isolation, but was divinely situated at the crossroads of the world and deeply connected to even the international politics of her day—but (at the same time) that this was a world in God’s full control! That God was God over all the earth—and is, still—and that He directs the future of not only His chosen people Israel, but the future of the whole earth.

And He does so quite matter-of-factly. That’s what catches my attention today. I’m reminded of Psalm 2, where the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain…where the kings of the earth take their stand—and God in heaven laughs! In today’s reading, the Lord “watches quietly from his dwelling place—“

     “as quietly as the heat rises on a summer day,
      or as the morning dew forms during the harvest.”
                                            (Isaiah 18:4 NLT)

It’s like the whole world is abuzz with activity, and God simply sits on His porch and watches—not disinterested…not uninvolved…but quite unflappable and unperturbed by it all! God’s feathers remain unruffled by all the activity of humanity, because—for all our hectic scurrying—He remains the One in control! And He is able to effect judgment and redemption as pleases Him. And when He is done, the most remarkable things will have happened—

     In that day Egypt and Assyria will be connected by a highway. The Egyptians and Assyrians will move freely between their lands, and they will both worship God. And Israel will be their ally. The three will be together, and Israel will be a blessing to them. For the LORD of Heaven’s Armies will say, “Blessed be Egypt, my people. Blessed be Assyria, the land I have made. Blessed be Israel, my special possession!”
                                                  (Isaiah 19:23-25 NLT)

I’m suggesting that the unqualified authority of the Lord—authority over all the earth—has my attention today, and that, for all my mad planning and frenzied action, I marvel at His deliberate, measured use of divine power. “Help me, Lord, to view both your work and my days from your divine, ‘front porch’ perspective.”

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