… it will be the same for priest as for people, for the master as for his servant, for the mistress as for her servant, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor. – Isaiah 24:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 20, 2020): Isaiah 24

On the morning of January 23, 1556, an earthquake hit the Shaanxi area of China. The quake destroyed an 840-kilometer (or 520 miles) stretch of land. Complicating the problem was that millions of people lived, at the time, in silty soil caves that had been deposited on the plateau over the ages. These caves, known as the Loess caves and the dwellings were known as yaodongs, housed most of the people in the area. The earthquake collapsed many of the caves and caused landslides, which destroyed even more. One Chinese study of the earthquake described the effects of the Shaanxi earthquake this way:

In the winter of 1556, an earthquake catastrophe occurred in the Shaanxi and Shanxi Provinces. In our Hua County, various misfortunes took place. Mountains and rivers changed places and roads were destroyed. In some places, the ground suddenly rose up and formed new hills, or it sank abruptly and became new valleys. In other areas, a stream burst out in an instant, or the ground broke and new gullies appeared. Huts, official houses, temples and city walls collapsed all of a sudden.

It didn’t matter who you were; the Shaanxi Earthquake changed your life if you lived anyplace near the area.

Disasters tend to be the great levelers of our experiences. It doesn’t matter who you are when disaster strikes; you stand among the hurting. Disaster results in the banker and debtor standing side by side, and yet no one can tell the difference. It destroys the barriers that are often built to keep us apart in our society. Disaster does not ask how much money we have, or what kind of education we might have achieved, before it strikes. It just strikes and leaves us in its destructive wake.

Isaiah prophesies of the devastation that will happen at the end of time. We don’t know how the disaster will come. It might be a natural disaster. It could be a disaster that we will bring on ourselves or even something supernatural that happens to destroy the planet. But Isaiah insists that it will destroy the earth. And on that day, none of our achievements or differences will matter. The most expensive palace will offer no more protection than a Loess cave. And we will be swept away.

John picks up the theme of the removal of social distinctions in the last days again in his Revelation.

Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it” (Revelation 6:15-17)?

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 25