Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do, and don’t live in dread of what frightens them. Make the LORD of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life. He is the one you should fear. He is the one who should make you tremble. He will keep you safe. But to Israel and Judah he will be a stone that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall (Isaiah 8:12-14 NLT).
Last week I happened onto what is apparently a very popular survivalist radio talk show. The host explained with great intensity how the Covid-19 virus had been created by the Chinese Communists (as well as a secret vaccine to protect themselves after allowing several thousand to die) so that they could destroy the U.S. economy and prepare for one-world government. Who knew? He did, evidently.
Thinking about that, my mind went to the above passage. Judah was being attacked by its two northern neighbors, Israel and Syria, with the goal of deposing the Davidic king and putting their own man on the Judean throne. Isaiah 7:2 says the hearts of the king and his people were shaking like trees in a windstorm. We can see them wringing their hands and hear them saying, “It’s a conspiracy! What are we going to do?!”
I don’t know whether this virus is a conspiracy, although I sincerely doubt it, but I see a lot of frantic people feeling helpless and that history is out of control, just as the Judeans did. What is Yahweh’s prescription to them and to us? It is, “Get your priorities right.” Who is the Holy One? Who is the I AM of Heaven’s Armies? The “Chicoms”? A rampant virus? No! Shall our lives be dictated by the dread of mere creatures? Never! Shall we let the fear of those things govern our outlook? Not at all! Our approach to life must be dictated, governed, by the reality that there is One God who rules and overrules in all things. (By the way, that last sentence is what is meant by “the fear of God”; it is not living in constant anxiety that if I happen to look cross-eyed at God he is going to hit me.)
If we make God our focus, knowing He, the transcendent Holy One, is in control of all things, then we can live in confidence, in the sanctuary of His power and His love. If we forget that, leaving Him out of the equation of our lives, then we will be in turmoil because we are actually stumbling over Him in our self-imposed darkness. Let’s not forget it; let’s live in the light.
