At Just the Right Time

This article is based upon thoughts about Isaiah 35.

Here we see another of Isaiah's visions about the restored earth and the preeminence of Jerusalem as the center of God's activity. The Messiah will sit upon the throne of David, and the nations will flow into the city to worship the King of kings. No harm shall come to anyone on the road. Those who were in exile shall return home to a glorious new reality of the kingdom of God, and God himself shall wipe away every tear from their eye, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. We see several points involved in the vision:

First of all, clearly there is miracle involved in the restoration of Jerusalem and the world. The desert is going to bloom like the crocus, there will be pools of water instead of wasteland, and streams instead of the relentless sand. In Shelley's poem, "Ozymandias", the poet states, "beyond the site of that colossal wreck, the lone and level sands stretched far away." Instead of a haunt for jackals and animals of the desert, we see swamps and wetlands. This will be the Lord's doing, for nothing short of miracle could transform the great desert into a place of water and delight.

Science is revealing the possibility of such a miracle. Infra-red photography from satellites in space reveal a system of underground rivers in the Middle East and Sahara wastelands. Where the rivers come to the surface, an oasis develops. The same hand that parted the Red Sea can bring these rivers to the surface when the time is right. The area will be transformed from sand and wasteland into fertile land, filled with springs and pools, making it the paradise it was destined to be. Is this the Garden of Eden so long hidden, once again to be revealed in some future time? Who can say, but the power of God will be revealed in more than one way when Jesus comes to reign.

Secondly, not only the land but the people are restored. Those who have been fearful are invited to trust in the Lord; the weak shall be strengthened, the hungry fed, the downtrodden lifted up, and those who have prospered, the abusive and the rich, shall be sent empty away. This is clearly a reversal of the ways things usually are. In the world of yesterday as well as the world of today, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Seemingly no one cares, but those who know God realize that He is watching, and one day will make all things right. Justice will roll down like water down the mountain side, and those who have had no justice will receive it, and those who have no power will suddenly find themselves being looked after by the One true power.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the unanswered question remains: When will this happen? I have only one insight, and it is this: Christ will come at just the right time. It will be when all have come into the kingdom that can possibly be saved. God will not leave out even one single soul that can be received. The kingdom will be fully realized when God gives the command.

When I was a boy about the age of 12, my father took us fishing at Steinhatchee river in Florida. We had gone way out into the mouth of the river where the ocean is, to the last buoy, when the weather turned bad. The skies overhead turned black, and then it began to rain. My father went to crank up the outboard, and it wouldn't crank. He pulled it up to see what was the matter, and the brass pin holding the blade had sheared off, leaving us dead in the water. Rain began to fill our little boat, and my father dumped out the live bait from our bucket and told me to bail. Then he told me to pray, and I knew we were in real trouble! The rain came down in sheets, and we could hardly see ten feet from us, when suddenly another boat appeared, coming in from farther out to sea than we were. We hailed them, they threw us a rope, and we were pulled back to the docks. We were saved in the nick of time.

At just the right time, Christ was born into the world, and at just the right time Christ will come again.

Blessings,
Terry