Connect With God | Sunday, January 16, 2022

The burden against Egypt. Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, and will come into Egypt; the idols of Egypt will totter at His presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst. (Isaiah 19:1)

When everything we trust in is shaken, God is exposing the deficient so we will cling to the unshakable.

A Season of Shaking and Skepticism

We are currently in a series here at Cross Connection Church called Life in Connection. Our mission is life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. It has been my custom for over a decade to begin each year by refocusing us on our mission and vision. Today we're talking about life in connection with God.

You've surely noticed the last couple of years have been a little crazy. Two years ago, at the end of 2019, I shared with our church that I perceived 2020 was going to be a chaotic year. I said that because it was a presidential election season, and 2016, 2012, and 2008 were all crazy. It seemed a sure bet—and 2020 certainly didn't let me down, not just politically but with everything that came with coronavirus.

After nearly two years of chaos, and really after more than two decades of rapid change and what some call hyper-novelty, we have developed a general skepticism and distrust around institutions. Ask yourself: Are you less trusting and more skeptical of federal institutions like the FBI, CDC, FDA, or IRS? Of public health professionals, the medical and pharmaceutical industries, corporate media, social media platforms, politicians, big business, universities, law enforcement, or even what gets broadly labeled "science"?

The Breakdown of Societal Mainstays

We are more skeptical because we have witnessed the breakdown of great industries and societal mainstays. It is hard to believe that in California—one of the wealthiest, most advanced states in arguably the wealthiest nation in the world—during certain months we are concerned about the mainstays of water and power. It seems absurd to be talking about rationing power and water in this hyper-modern era.

And it's not just water and power. Air travel is less reliable than it used to be—not less safe, but you don't know if your bags will arrive, if your plane will show up on time, or if it will simply be canceled. Supply chains are less dependable. The fact that we are concerned about these things is destabilizing and stressful. Trust in institutions is at a multi-generational low.

Everything has been shaken, and those things that once seemed steadfast mainstays of Western society have not stood up under the stress. As much as we may not want to accept it, there is probably more shaking to come. Supply chain issues are not done; there's no agreement about how to handle coronavirus or reopen society. Yet I want to suggest that this shaking may actually be a good thing.

The Shaking of the Nations in Isaiah

To answer why, turn to Isaiah 19. I love the book of Isaiah—I've been a student of it for a long time and have taught it seven or eight times at a Bible college. I find it a fascinating lens to look at our own culture through a book written nearly 2,800 years ago.

In Isaiah chapters 13 through 23, we read of the shaking of the major nations of Isaiah's time. The source of the shaking was God, and the reason was the collective sinfulness of those peoples. The ancient city-states—Babylon, Syria, Tyre, Moab, Philistia, Assyria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Edom, Arabia, and even Israel—are all shaken by God because of their sin and rebellion.

Such massive shaking is not fun. One of the most significant memories from my childhood happened just after 5:04 p.m. on October 17, 1989. Game three of the World Series between the Giants and the A's was about to begin, nationally televised, when the stadium shook with a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit the Bay Area. Earlier that same day my family had laid my grandfather to rest, and we were gathered at my grandmother's house in Antioch, about 30 miles from Oakland. I was about nine years old, and it affected everyone in a major way.

About five years later, in January 1994, we had the Northridge earthquakes—a 6.7 magnitude quake and aftershocks. It was incredibly destabilizing. There was all this talk that "the big one" on the San Andreas fault would make California fall into the ocean. When everything shakes, it's hard not to be internally destabilized.

What an Idol Is, and Why Shaking Helps

Nearly 2,800 years ago God shook Egypt, and the idols of Egypt were shaken at His presence. The result: the heart of Egypt melted in its midst. Our society has been experiencing massive shakings over the last 25 years—culture-altering, society-shifting events that are like metaphorical earthquakes. With each successive shaking comes a melting of the people's hearts.

The 1989 and 1994 earthquakes were devastating—over 100 deaths between them, thousands injured, more than $100 billion in losses. But when shaking like that happens, it also exposes the areas of society that need to be strengthened. New engineering had to come out so we could build to withstand it. Shaking exposes the deficiencies and weaknesses of our lives and our trusts.

At the most basic level, an idol is anything in which you trust and to which you are devoted. We don't have idols named Baal or Asherah today, but we still have idols—the things people trust in and are devoted to. When what you trust in is shaken and exposed as deficient, your heart will melt. In Isaiah 19, Egypt trusted in their wealth, the wisdom of their leaders, the gods of their nation, the Nile, and all the industry that came from it. God caused those things to fall apart, and the people's hearts melted.

Idols Cannot Save

Why might that be a good thing? Because idols cannot save. It is better to find out now that what you are trusting in is weak and deficient than to bank on it to the very end, only to be left wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked when it all falls apart.

Think of Bernie Madoff. At the height of his career, hundreds or thousands entrusted him with tens of billions of dollars—and lost in a huge way, because the final shaking exposed him as a fraud. All their trust and devotion came up short.

For the better part of the last three quarters of a century in the West, we have trusted in science and technology, medicine, our universities, government, our military, corporations, and law enforcement. For all intents and purposes, our society sees these Western institutions and the ideals behind them as the savior of society. You can tell, because that's what we have tried to export to other cultures. For nearly my entire adult life we've been in foreign theaters trying to export these ideals, because we believe they have value.

Lost in the Midst of Abundance

I'm not speaking against those things—I love the culture we live in. And don't get me wrong: science, technology, medicine, and these institutions have produced unprecedented increases in human wealth and well-being. There are fewer people living in abject poverty today than at almost any other time in history. But after two decades of shaking, you are probably more skeptical than ever that the ultimate answers to the world's biggest questions will be found in these things.

That's not a bad thing, because shaking exposes the deficiencies and weaknesses of our trust. Though we have great science, technology, medicine, education, and comparatively good institutions, we still feel lost—and we are lost; we are in darkness. This is the height of what postmodernism breeds. After decades of philosophical writing on the topic, we are now beginning to feel the nihilistic angst of postmodernism in a bigger way than ever. And that may not be a horrible thing.

The Danger of the Orienting Response

Yet we are living in tenuous and potentially dangerous times. Russian physiologists and neuroscientists of the 19th and 20th centuries observed that humans subjected to hyper-novel conditions have a startle reflex. We also have an orienting response. When things change rapidly, we are triggered, and we seek equilibrium.

You've surely noticed people seeking the "new normal." It's cliché, but we long for stability—for things to settle into something steady, routine, even mundane. We long for homeostasis; that's normal biologically and psychologically.

The problem is that when the things we trusted in are shaken and turned upside down, our inclination is to latch onto something else as fast as possible to bring stability. This is why so many widowed men almost instantly buy a motorcycle or sports car—and far too often find a new wife within months of their spouse's death. There is a compelling sense within us that wants stability and normalcy. But the danger is turning to something that will not address our deficiencies, or that will make the situation much worse. There are countless cautionary tales of people who have done exactly that.

God Shakes the Shakable So We Trust the Unshakable

Hopefully the shaking exposes our weaknesses for a purpose. God allows the things we trust in that are not Him to be shaken. In fact, it is His desire that they be shaken—because God shakes those things that can be shaken so that we will trust in that which is unshakable.

The author of Hebrews says God's voice shakes the earth:

See that you do not refuse Him who speaks... Now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven." Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:25–29)

Stability, surety, and life are not found in the things of this world. Better politicians and politics will not bring security. Our hope is ultimately not in science, technology, medicine, mathematics, universities, corporations, or institutions. Those things will not produce utopia, no matter how many academic papers say they will. All the talk of "deconstruction" in this postmodern era is really just the picking through of the rubble of those things as they fall.

God Is Our Refuge

This shaking isn't necessarily a bad thing—if the result is that you find, in the rubble, that which is sure and steadfast, immovable and unshakable. The psalmist writes:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah. There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God... God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. (Psalm 46:1–5)

Come, behold the works of the LORD, who has made desolations in the earth... "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. (Psalm 46:8–11)

God is over and above all the things that melt the hearts of men. He is unmoved by the very things that move us, and He allows the things we trust in to be shaken so we will realize that our idols are unworthy of our devotion.

God Lets Things Crumble So We Will Find Him

So it comes down to this: God will allow things to crumble around you. Maybe you feel like everything is falling apart right now—you've lost a family member, a relationship, a job, a house. Maybe you've prayed and asked others to pray, and wondered, "God, why have You not fixed this?"

From the Scriptures, from observing others, and from my own life, I've seen that God will allow things to crumble around us so that, standing in the midst of the rubble, we might find Him. He will let the storm rage so we will turn to Him. He will let us sink into the waves so we cry out for help—like Peter, who walked on water, saw the wind and waves, began to sink, and cried out. God allows us to grope about lost in darkness so we might find life and light in His grace, and come to recognize that what we truly need is found only in life in connection with Him.

We were created to live in connection with God, and apart from Him we will always be lost. In Genesis 1 and 2, man and God were connected in a tight relationship, but humanity set out to be self-sufficient—that's what the fall in Genesis 3 is about. God allows us to grope in the dark until we are ready to call out to Him, when we realize we are deficient and weak without Him.

Those who go down to the sea in ships... see the works of the LORD... For He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea... Their soul melts because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end. Then they cry out to the LORD in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses. He calms the storm... So He guides them to their desired haven. (Psalm 107:23–30)

Abundant Life Through Jesus

We've done a good job in Western society of building beautiful existences—about as close to heaven on earth as you can imagine—but it is amazing how quickly things unravel. In the midst of that storm, we need to cry out to the Lord, and He brings us out of distress to our desired haven, to the abundant life we deeply desire.

True abundant life is found only through Jesus, in connection with God. That's why we say: life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. Jesus said, "The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy; I have come that you may have life, and have it more abundantly." He said, "I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness." He said, "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost," and "The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

Jesus came to rescue us from darkness and death, to reconcile us to God the Father, that we might receive His unshakable kingdom. Let me say that again, because it's so important: Jesus came to rescue us from darkness and death to reconcile us to God the Father, that we might receive His unshakable kingdom.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation... that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God... in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:14–22)

The Shaking Points Us to the Unshakable

We've lived through a significant time of shaking, and these times will only increase. Whatever you believe about end times, many of those passages speak of earthquakes, wars and rumors of wars, and pandemics escalating as we approach the return of Jesus. Why? So that anything that can be shaken will be shaken and fall apart, so we will see what is unshakable. And only Jesus, only God in His kingdom, is ultimately unshakable.

In the midst of that, we see that God is over and above all the things that melt our hearts. God allows it all so we will turn to Him and say, "God, will You rescue and save me, that I might find life in connection with You—true abundant life?" It's my hope and prayer that in the midst of all the chaos and shaking, you will see that Christ alone brings surety. He alone is our refuge, our ever-present help in time of trouble.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I pray that You would speak through Your word and through this message to anyone and everyone who will hear it, and that You would draw people to Yourself by Your Holy Spirit. I am not there in person; this is recorded and will be on the internet for only You know how long. God, would You use Your word and this message to draw people who find themselves in the midst of all the shaking, where everything seems like rubble around them, that they would see that You alone are sure and steadfast. Lord, draw them to Yourself. You are our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in time of trouble. We thank You that in You we have a sure and steadfast hope of a kingdom that will not be shaken. I pray that You would encourage the hearts of Your people with that truth. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.