God Is Not A Segregationist

by   |  14 Jul 2008  |  0 Comments

LIFE STEPS THROUGH ISAIAH Take a devotional journey through the book of Isaiah Chapter 2 – God Is Not A Segregationist Someone has said the most segregated time and place in the country is Sunday morning at the average church. Certainly this isn’t true everywhere but it is in many places. Hopefully this is starting to change in America. Human nature seems to be to want to be with our own kind and to be suspicious of anyone not like us. Even Christians aren’t immune from prejudice. Isn’t this strange since God loves all people and His heart has always been to redeem all nations? Israel had this problem of failing to understand the heart of God. They failed to grasp the truth that God loved Gentiles just as He did the Jew. God shows His heart in this chapter by giving His people a glimpse into the future. In the last days God’s kingdom and His house will be made up of all nations or people groups (v.1-2). They will come to the house of God to learn His ways and walk in His paths (v.3). The result of this knowledge will finally be peace on the earth. Nations will not go to war with each other again (v.4). This will then be a wonderful world in which to live; prejudice and its conflict will be no more. When will such an amazing time start? No one knows for sure. It is what the Bible calls the last days or the Day of the Lord. God’s kingdom will be fully established on the earth. Until then the earth operates by the pride of man, the influences of the world (1John 2:16), materialism and idolatry. But God will eventually call for a day of reckoning (v.5-12). In that day the pride of man will be humbled (v.17). People will hide from the wrath of God in the caves of the earth (v.19-21). This glimpse into the future shows us who we really are and who God is. God’s message to us in the light of this is to stop regarding man. He is a frail creature whose breath of life is in his nostrils (v.22). We are all alike and in the same boat as far as God sees us. None of us are anything to be esteemed. The world and the church would be better off if we would see people through God’s eyes. Think about that the next time you are upset about too many of a different ethnic group starting to attend your church. Perhaps you were all right with it for a while until there got to be too many of “them”. Were you worried they would take over your church? Why would we be concerned to take the gospel to different nations if we aren’t concerned to take it to the people of the nations who perhaps live in our neighborhood? God is no respecter of people. He is not a segregationist, neither should His church be. God is bringing the nations of the world to America. If God allows us to live in a multi-cultural community the church should reflect its community. Old prejudices die hard, even among believers. However, the power of the gospel is able to overcome them.