In that day—“Sing about a fruitful vineyard …” – Isaiah 27:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 23, 2020): Isaiah 27

Have you ever played with dominoes? Not an actual game like “Chickenfoot,” but just setting them up in a chain and then knocking them down. As a kid, I could do that for hours. I loved to make little forks in the chain that would cause the falling dominoes to go out in two different directions. Or in circles. I was good at circles. Sometimes, if I did it just right, I could get them all to fall. But more often than not, I would make a mistake, and a whole section of my domino puzzle would stay standing after all of the rest had fallen. And then you would correct the error, and try it one more time.

There is a pessimism in the modern church that I believe is borne out of a belief that we are living in the last days. It is a song that cries out the woes of a world that is declining into its own, self-created oblivion. The dominoes are falling, and no one can stop them. I hear the plaintiff cry of the church. God does not make mistakes. And we point to the events of the day and declare that we can see the dominoes falling, and if one falls, they will all fall.

To be honest, the church’s mournful song that has always confused me. It is almost as if we don’t want Jesus to come back, and we think that if we can yell loud enough, we can stop the dominoes from falling. Maybe we can launch a campaign that will stop the anti-Christ from coming to power. Or perhaps we can prevent the Mark of the Beast from being placed on the population, whatever you might think that that might be. If we yell loud enough and get everyone to understand what is really happening, we can be the ones who will stop the dominoes from falling.

But I suspect that the truth will be something different. Every time I listen to an “end times” speaker, a voice inside of me says, “that is not the way that the world is going to end.” I suspect that when the anti-Christ rises to power, there will not be any Christians on television, warning us that this person is evil. The truth is that most of us will be ardent followers of this enemy of creation. And the Mark of the Beast won’t be something obvious, it will be innocuous, and it will sneak up on us.

Isaiah prophesies of these last days. And he says, “In that day – Sing about a fruitful vineyard.” If you are a believer that we are living in the last days, then the time has come to sing a song of joy, and not weep or campaign against the move of God. Sing because of all the fruit that God has joyfully given to those who follow him. Don’t cry for the barren trees, because there is nothing that you can do about them. And amid your song of joy, the dominoes might fall. And when that happens, you will forget about everything that you once thought was important, and your joy will increase.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 28