Service or Self-Preservation?

Isaiah 5:2 (ESV)

He dug it and cleared it of stones,

and planted it with choice vines;

he built a watchtower in the midst of it,

and hewed out a wine vat in it;

and he looked for it to yield grapes,

but it yielded wild grapes.

Isaiah goes on in chapter 5 to explain that Israel is the vineyard. Because they have not been fruitful God will make them even less fruitful. Because they have been more interested in expanding their wealth and enjoying their prosperity than in serving others and working for justice, God will take away all that they have. In their loss, two truths are significant. First, God does not see their prosperity as a blessing. It is the very thing that has distracted them from what they should be doing. Their comfort has turned them into wine aficionados and mixed drink experts. What they should have been doing was using their wealth for the benefit of the less fortunate. It sounds a bit like our world. God’s church has been more interested in its own comfort than in the fate of the desperate and hurting masses around them. The ease of God’s people will be turned to dis-ease.

Isaiah 5:6 (ESV)

I will make it a waste;

it shall not be pruned or hoed,

and briers and thorns shall grow up;

 I will also command the clouds

that they rain no rain upon it.

God does not see their prosperity as a blessing. It is the very thing that has distracted them from what they should be doing. Second, God will get his work done without us.

Isaiah 5:15-17 (ESV)

Man is humbled, and each one is brought low,

and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.

But the LORD of hosts is exalted in justice,

and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.

Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture,

and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich.

Man is humbled, but the LORD is exalted. Those to whom God’s people should have shown hospitality and compassion will now eat where the people of God used to eat. God will accomplish his purpose, but his people will suffer loss. God has given his church the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18). We have instead pursued our own comfort and safety. We have acted as though our purpose is to stay safe and hang in there until God comes to rescue us. That is not our purpose.

Israel was supposed to be a light and a blessing to the nations. Instead they turned inward and sought safety. God removed their safety. The church is supposed to be a light and a blessing to a broken world. Too often we have turned inward and sought safety instead. When you read the history of the early church and the martyrs who died simply because they were Christians, and then you look around at our 21^st Century North American Church culture it is hard to believe that we are the same church. Will we embrace God’s mission, or will we continue to turn inward and choose safety? God will accomplish his purpose either way, but wouldn’t it be better to be a part of it?

This passage causes me to reexamine my own life and priorities. It causes me to wonder whether I too have chosen self-preservation over ministry. It reminds me that ultimately self-preservation leads to loss of self in God’s economy. It is in selfless service that we find real meaning, and God’s full provision.

Matthew 19:29-30 (ESV)

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.