Today's Scripture Reading (May 27, 2026): Isaiah 33
We are
probably about as close to the end of the Earth as we have ever been. The
Doomsday Clock, a symbol of the likelihood of a human-made global disaster, is
set to 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to the midnight
hour since its inception in 1947. Maybe the caveat here is that it is about a human-made
disaster. The Doomsday Clock is not about the likelihood of a rogue comet
hitting Earth, an event we have no control over. The Clock explores the danger
the human race poses to the planet. War in the Middle East and in Europe,
coupled with pollution and global warming, are represented in the evaluation
that we are only 85 seconds away from a catastrophe. Maybe the biggest problem
we have is that there aren't enough "stable geniuses" in charge of
the nuclear powers. When we look at the people in charge of Russia, China,
Israel, and even the United States, it isn't a huge leap to see one of them
pushing the nuclear button in a bid to end an argument and feel like a winner,
when the reality is that as soon as the button is pushed, the whole world is a
loser. It is only within the last hundred years that we have had the ability to
destroy the Earth. The farthest we have been from the midnight hour was
seventeen minutes to midnight in 1991, in the wake of the fall of the Soviet
Union; a time when the future looked positive for a majority of the planet's
nations.
Our
ability to destroy the Earth might be relatively new, but nations have
recognized their own fragility since the beginning of human history. Empires
have risen and fallen, maybe something that we need to be reminded of, and
nations have been trampled in the process of the rule of the nations. In those
moments of defeat, it has felt like the Doomsday Clock, on a smaller scale, was
approaching, and even hitting, the midnight hour. Maybe this is an obvious statement,
but one that we need to hear. No earthly empire has ever lasted forever. Every
military power has an expiration date, and there are things that we can do to
hasten or delay that moment. It is a message that I believe especially those of
us who live in North America need to hear.
Isaiah
is writing in one of those times. For the nation of Judah, the national
Doomsday Clock is approaching midnight. Their sister nation, Israel, has been
defeated and carried into captivity. Assyria has entered Judah's territory and,
one by one, has defeated the cities of the Kingdom. Now the army is gathering
around Jerusalem, seeking to defeat Judah.
Isaiah's
message? Stay the course; God is still on the throne, and he can be the
foundation that the nation needs. Ultimately, he is in charge of the Doomsday
clock. And that is true when the Clock is set at seventeen minutes to midnight,
and when it is set at just 85 seconds before the time of catastrophe.
Tomorrow's
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 34
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