No More Listening to the Rogue

"1 Behold, a king will reign righteously

And princes will rule justly.

2 Each will be like a refuge from the wind

And a shelter from the storm,

Like streams of water in a dry country,

Like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land.

3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be blinded,

And the ears of those who hear will listen.

4 The mind of the hasty will discern the truth,

And the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly.

5 No longer will the fool be called noble,

Or the rogue be spoken of as generous.

6 For a fool speaks nonsense,

And his heart inclines toward wickedness:

To practice ungodliness and to speak error against the LORD,

To keep the hungry person unsatisfied

And to withhold drink from the thirsty.

7 As for a rogue, his weapons are evil;

He devises wicked schemes

To destroy the afflicted with slander,

Even though the needy one speaks what is right.

8 But the noble man devises noble plans;

And by noble plans he stands." (Isaiah 32:1-8)

Like me, are you tired of listening to the rogue and the fool? Are you exhausted...like the parched land of verse 2...from listening to all the rhetoric that is telling us what's wrong with the world?

From where I'm sitting, it seems like a lot of the people that are getting blamed happen to be unable to speak for themselves. We're told that sending aid to impoverished countries or supporting policies and programs that aid and assist the destitute are what are causing all of the economic ills of our society. 

Mostly what I hear the fools saying is "nonsense" and "wickedness" (verse 6). And if their remedy for the economic crisis has anything to do with hording our own wealth and spending it only on ourselves so it can "trickle down" then my prayer is that as the Body of Christ...we choose not to "practice ungodliness and to speak error against the LORD." These will only keep the "hungry person unsatisfied" and will "withhold drink from the thirsty." (verse 6)

How else can we explain ourselves when our nation throws away copious amounts of food and we buy bottled water by the boatload...yet just a short plane ride away (or maybe even in our own backyard), there are people who have no food and have to literally drink from a cesspool? Can we even come up with a reasonable excuse anymore?

There are times that I absolutely abhor media and technology. Yet, it has made our world so much smaller that I can no longer neglect the outcry of the poor. 

When people in Manilla must make a city in the midst of a cemetery and lepers are forced to live in a garbage dump, how can we stand before our Messiah, who left us with the command of loving and serving "the least of these" in His Name, and explain away our apathy?

Are you ready for something more than being told that the rogue is "generous" (verse 5) while behind our backs he is enslaving generations of impoverished families? I pray that you are. But where do we start? How can one person make a difference?

First of all, remember that you are not one person. The Spirit of the Almighty, the Creator of the universe lives inside of you if you recognize Him as Lord of your life. And when that happens, there is no limit to what you can do. (Ephesians 3:20)

And when we allow Him to "reign righteously" (verse 1) in our hearts and let His 'just rule' (verse 1) be our plumb line by which we measure all things and through which we filter all the noise of this world... 

"Then the eyes of those who see will not be blinded, 

And the ears of those who hear will listen.

The mind of the hasty will discern the truth,

And the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly." (verses 3-4)

To me that sounds better than any "noble plan" that I could devise, but by HIS 'noble plans...I will stand!' (verse 8)