The Language of “Them”

If you follow us on Twitter, you probably know that we’re going through Isaiah 59 right now in our Tweets. (For those who aren’t following us on Twitter yet, find us at @insp_faith)

Something struck me as I was reading through Isaiah 59 this week. I call it the language of “them.”

What I mean by the language of “them” is my tendency to read certain passages in the Bible as if they relate to “them” and not to me, or us.

Let me give you an example:

Their cobwebs are useless for clothing;
they cannot cover themselves with what they make.
Their deeds are evil deeds,
and acts of violence are in their hands.

Their feet rush into sin;
they are swift to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts are evil thoughts;
ruin and destruction mark their ways.

The way of peace they do not know;
there is no justice in their paths.
They have turned them into crooked roads;
no one who walks in them will know peace.

Isaiah 59:6-8

Even though right before and after these passages, Isaiah switches from using “them” language to using “us” language, internally, I still stay in the mindset that all of this depressing talk about sin and injustice relates to “them” – the “wicked.” When I think of the wicked who rush into sin and shed innocent blood, I picture the bad guys in those old Bible movies, like Dathan from The Ten Commandments. The wicked people the Bible must be referring to are slightly overweight, stuck-up gluttons dressed in old-fashioned robes. With an image like that in my head, it’s hard to relate these passages to people in today’s world or to myself.

Even when I realize how silly my mental images are and make an effort to apply these Scriptures to contemporary times, it’s still hard to bring it home to me and people I know. It’s much easier to look at leaders like Hitler and Stalin who clearly shed a lot of innocent blood and are considered wicked by most people’s standards.

But me…I’m not so bad, right? My friends and family, none of them have committed murder or stolen from those who are impoverished.

Or so I think.

And so it appears, on the surface.

But when we’re all really honest about the world’s problems…when I realize that I take a long shower on days when I’m tired, with absolutely no thought to the resources I take for granted that people in other parts of the world are literally dying for…when I think about the products I use that at some point in their production are polluting groundwater and rivers…when I dwell on the methane that my trash is creating somewhere in the world after it leaves the garbage can in my kitchen, I realize that maybe I’m not quite as different from those “wicked” people in the Bible after all. Maybe I am contributing to violence and injustice, without even thinking about it.

The thing is, even though I know about these problems, even though I see injustice that I’m indirectly connected to every time I watch the news, I’m like the people in Isaiah 59. Verse 16 says, “Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.” I am part of that crowd of sinners that is mankind, refusing to shun evil, lest I become a prey.

So what’s to be done about that? Am I saying that we should all withdraw from the world and its corrupt systems? Should I stop using water or using any material goods, knowing that my use of them is hurting somebody somewhere? Should I stop paying my taxes, knowing that some of the money is probably going toward systemic injustices, toward pollution, toward abortion?

I could be wrong about this, but I don’t think that’s what God is calling me and calling you to do. I don’t think we’re supposed to withdraw from the world. And I don’t think we’re supposed to be wracked with paralyzing guilt over all the evils we’re voluntarily or involuntarily committing.

The Good News is in Isaiah 59:17, “He saw that there was no one, He was appalled that there was no one to intervene;  so His own arm worked salvation for Him, and His own righteousness sustained Him.”

Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God is bringing redemption to us and to creation. Do I have an obligation to join with Him in that work of redemption? You bet. And that’s going to show up in small ways, through loving my neighbor, through recycling, through composting, through telling people about Jesus, through doing what I can do to fight injustice.

And it’s going to come through confession and repentance. Through realizing that even if I can’t change the world entirely and bring about God’s justice in my lifetime, I have a duty to intercede in prayer and to confess my sins and our corporate, societal sins with a contrite heart to the LORD.

I have full confidence that one day Jesus will physically return to the earth and restore everything that has gone wrong through sin and death. But until that day comes, let us identify ourselves with the “thems” of Scripture and realize the role we have to play in confession, repentance, and justice.

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