Today’s Scripture Reading (December
7, 2013): Isaiah 34
Mars and
Venus are strange planets. They both share the distinction as probably being
the only other planets in our solar system that might have been able (at least
at one time) to support life. But both planets suffered planet wide disasters.
It is these planetary disasters that stop scientists in their tracks when they
consider the future of the planet on which we live. The question that they want
to ask is – “Is it possible that the earth is due for a planetary collapse such
as has already happened to our closest neighbors in our Solar System?
For Venus,
the planetary disaster was a naturally occurring but rampant Green-House
Effect. If you wonder why some people get a little excited about the
Green-House Effect that we seem to be inviting into our neighborhood, it is
because we have a very clear example of what a Green-House effect can do to a
planet living right next door. The Green-House Effect makes Venus the hottest
planet in the solar system. The average temperature on Venus is 462 C (or 863
F). Compare that temperature with Mercury, which at its hottest point in the
middle of the day at the equator of the planet reaches only 427 C (or 800 F) -
but at Mercury’s poles the temperature never exceeds -93 C (or -136 F). What
makes Venus hot is its atmosphere and the Green-House effect that the planet
has suffered from. In every other way, Venus is very much like Earth, but an
ecological disaster keeps Venus from being able to support life.
Mars is
different. There is evidence that at one point the planet had an atmosphere and
may have even had water running over the surface of the planet. But both are
long gone. With Mars, the problem seems to have been a massive collision – as
wells as many smaller collisions - with other objects in space. The surface of
the Red Planet is battered, but it also appears to be hanging upside down in
space – that is that the planet spins in the opposite direction of all of the
rest of the planetary bodies. And one of the theories for this peculiarity of
Mars is that the planet has been hit so hard that there is a chunk of the
planet missing and that the collision flipped the planet over. The result is a
planet wide disaster that has forever changed the face of Mars forever.
So as
scientists ponder our future, they see both of these planetary disasters as
being the very real dangers that lurk in our future. Both of the circumstances
that caused the death of Venus and Mars are very real possibilities for Earth.
It is enough to keep some people up at night.
This passage
in Isaiah has been interpreted very literally as an end time prophecy – or a
“this is how our planet will end.” It is not a prophecy of what specifically
might happen in the last days, but when the last day for the earth finally
comes, it will be a global catastrophe that ends our time on the earth. The
image that Isaiah wants to leave us with is that in the last day, the stars
will dissolve from the sky. The prophecy is global in its scope. In other
words, it is not just my stars that are going to disappear, it is our stars
that will leave the sky. According to Isaiah, in that day, the final judgment
of the earth will be made clear to everyone. And as has already happened to
both Venus and Mars, in that day the Earth will no longer be able to support
life.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah
35
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