April 5, 2011

Isaiah 2
I briefly had a part-time job selling baseball tickets for the Portland Beavers over the phone M-F 6:00-8:00. It was an interesting job. I only made minimum wage plus $1.00 for every package that I sold. It lasted for about 4-6 weeks. As you can imagine, I did not make much money. What made the job interesting was the people with whom I worked. One of them was a local bank vice president. He made a comfortable living. I was a little perplexed as to why he bothered. He said that he did it because he was bored at home, and he thought this might be interesting temporary outlet. One night I was out of gas and money, so I rode my bicycle into town. When he found out that I had rode my bicycle 11 miles to show up for a 2-hour minimum wage job, I guess that he felt sorry for me. He asked if he could give me a ride home. I wasn’t hard to persuade. He volunteered to take me home the rest of the nights until I was paid and could put a little gas in my car. During the next week or two, I got to know a little bit about his values. And we talked about spiritual things. He even taught me a song that he learned as a kid:
I don’t care if it rains or freezes
Just as long as I’ve got my plastic Jesus
Sittin on the dashboard of my car. . .
Hmmm. . . I don’t remember his name, but I remember the silly song he taught me. . . .
Yet the song represented his spiritual thought so well. He had invented his own god whom he worshipped. In truth he worshipped a god that was the work of his own hands. To people such as they, who never repent from the work of their own hands, Isaiah says three times that they will hide away from “the glory of His majesty.” (v. 10, 19,21)
Most people spend their lives worshipping the work of their own hands. My friend did. He had risen to vice-president of data control for a bank. He wasn’t extremely wealthy, but he was comfortable. He didn’t need (so he thought) the real Jesus. He was comfortable with his plastic Jesus, one made with his own hands. Why would he trade the glory of His majesty for a Jesus made with his own hands? Could it be because he never stopped long enough to seek Him in His word to see His majesty? Could it be that he had never seen the majesty of the real Jesus? Isaiah tells us that the day is coming when Jesus will dwell among us visibly. His majesty will be available for viewing. Then nations will say, “Come and let us go unto the mountain of the Lord.” They will do this in order to experience Him. How ever we view the glory of His majesty now, it is certain then the glory of his majesty is something that will motivate people to lay aside all for which they had warred in order to cease warring and take up farming. His glory, when fully experienced, is worth laying aside all for which we previously fought and died for in order that we might know Him. Do we have that kind of knowledge of Him now? If not, why not? What is it about Him that would make one want to give up the god of their own making to trade it in for farm implements? Maybe we have a faulty view of the glory of His majesty. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john