A Curious Instrument

Have you been noticing more interesting people standing for public office? Isaiah saw it and made some predictions.  Isaiah 3:4-5 4 And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. 5 And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient , and the base against the honourable. I think we have seen a lot of oppression generated by "do-gooders", which I studied in college and my first several jobs employed me to doing. I had female colleagues and bosses, often of the "social justice" variety. Very nice people until you cross them, which I was smart enough to avoid doing as a younger man.   Isaiah 3:12 12 ¶ As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths. I have seen more and more people (mostly men) be totally destroyed in the n...

There are a growing group of people who flaunt their perverse sins. Isaiah 3:9 9 ¶ The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.  In doing this, they "reward evil unto themselves".  Perverse actions sound magnified when they are celebrated openly. What is notable beyond the actions that God forbids ("sin as Sodom") is the trumpeting of their sins ("declaring", "they hide it not"), which is described as reward[ing] evil unto themselves. God doesn't need to immediately punish this behavior, the person doing it convicts themselves, like pleading "guilty as charged" to a judge. Repentance is available to these people as with anyone else, though change for the better is still required alongside a denunciation of their flaunted perversions. There is a way back to righteousness! 

This is more of Isaiah letting everyone know that they will ultimately (and not so ultimately) get returned to you what you do. Isaiah 3:9-11 9 ¶ The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom , they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. 10 Say ye to the righteous , that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. 11 Woe unto the wicked ! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.  Sometimes, we concentrate on the bad side of our doings, but Isaiah is good to say that as we are righteous, we will have good things come to us. Rewards and justice are indeed two-edged!

We think so much of ourselves.  I was somewhat trained as a low level planner in my undergraduate college days, styled as some sort of proto-"life coach" to low-income people who needed "management". I quickly lost interest in such a role, as I lacked the desire to run other people's lives and have continued in that lack, to the consternation of my children, I suppose. I don't know exactly if this is what Isaiah means in "loftiness" and "haughtiness", but it seems that God alone will be "exalted" in this way at some future day. Isaiah 2:17 17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.  I don't know what this means for the managerial class of the future, but it seems that such folk will need to find more practical pursuits outside of "motivation" and "productivity" toward corporate goals.