Holy Scripture, Batman!

Previous blogs in this series:
1-- Pits, Towers, Fields and Dancing
2-- ... Thoughts on Sheep
3-- Getting out of the Towers
4-- The Shadowlands
5-- The Land of Grace: Casting Shadows
6-- When the Tower Crumbles: Getting to the Land of Grace
7-- A Disclaimer

I read my Bible at night, before falling asleep. This works well for two reasons:

1.) I'm reading my Bible, which is a good thing to do.
2.) Scripture's usually really good at putting me to sleep.

Except last night, it did not make me sleep. Last night, I was yelling at Carly while perched in my bed because the portion of Isaiah I was reading was ALL ABOUT TOWERS AND SHADOWLANDS AND FIELDS...!

Look look look:

Isaiah 28:11-13
"...God will speak to this people,
12 to whom he said,
'This is the resting place, let the weary rest';
and, 'This is the place of repose'—
but they would not listen.
13 So then, the word of the LORD to them will become:
Do and do, do and do,
rule on rule, rule on rule;
a little here, a little there—
so that they will go and fall backward,
be injured and snared and captured."

Those are the Towers! See? God WANTS us to find rest, but instead we distort the word of God into "do and do and do" and "rule on rule on rule." And what does that become? A PRISON. We are CAPTURED.

Oh don't worry, there's more. Isaiah goes on to say these people will feel impenetrable, they will feel secure in their "covenant with death"-- they will say, "when an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place" (28:15). The Towers are supposed to make us feel safe, right? And they do. But IT'S A LIE. Isaiah tells those people, "When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it. As often as it comes it will carry you away... The understanding of this message will bring sheer terror. The bed is too short to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you" (18-20). Those are the Tower cells: blankets too narrow to shelter you from the agonies of this world; beds too short to offer lasting comfort. This world has a LIMIT. Isaiah says, "Stop your mocking, or your chains will become heavier" (22). Chains! See? It's a prison! We try to protect ourselves with rules, but it's a prison!

Later in chapter 29, Isaiah says, "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men" (29:13).

Baaaaaaaaaah, it's not enough to obey the RULES-- the world is more complex than that!

Here's Isaiah discussing complexity in the Land of Grace:

" 23 Listen and hear my voice;
pay attention and hear what I say.
24 When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually?
Does he keep on breaking up and harrowing the soil?
25 When he has leveled the surface,
does he not sow caraway and scatter cummin?
Does he not plant wheat in its place,
barley in its plot,
and spelt in its field?
26 His God instructs him
and teaches him the right way."

In other words: formulas don't work in the fields. You can't always trust that plowing will be the right thing...! Sometimes you plow; sometimes you have to break up the soil; sometimes you have to sow. Some fields are right for wheat; some for barley; some for "spelt," whatever that is. How do we know what to do when, or what to PLANT when? We have to listen to instruction. It requires intimacy-- listening to the voice of the Shepherd. Isaiah continues:

"27 Caraway is not threshed with a sledge,
nor is a cartwheel rolled over cummin;
caraway is beaten out with a rod,
and cummin with a stick.
28 Grain must be ground to make bread;
so one does not go on threshing it forever.
Though he drives the wheels of his threshing cart over it,
his horses do not grind it.
29 All this also comes from the LORD Almighty,
wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom."

Oh-- and what about the Shadowlands? Isaiah talks about that too!
"15 Woe to those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from the LORD,
who do their work in darkness and think,
'Who sees us? Who will know?'
16 You turn things upside down,
as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to him who formed it,
'He did not make me'?
Can the pot say of the potter,
'He knows nothing'?" (29:15-16)

The Shadowlands is the place where Truth is obscured-- where darkness is used to mask both sin and Truth. That's JUST what Isaiah talks about!

AND, people in the Shadowlands "say to the prophets,
'Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!'" (30:10-11). But in Galatians-- which is the chunk printed right after Isaiah in my One-Year-Bible (it's broken up weird), Paul pleads to the people in the Shadowlands, "Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God-- or rather, are known by God-- how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?" (Galatians 4:8-9).

In other words: the people in the Shadowlands are eager to avoid truth in favor of cheerful lies. That sets them up to worship gods that are not God-- but that worship is enslaving.

I bet you're thinking, "Wow Greta... you've just sliced and diced a LOT of scripture to conveniently work within your analogy." It's okay if you're thinking that. I thought that last night too. Then I read this:

"In the day of great slaughter, when the Towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted" (30:25-26).

BAAAAAAAAAAH, "when the Towers fall"! And remember when I wrote, "...the Land of Grace is bathed in bright light... Even after the sun has set, the Land of Grace is blessed with a bright, full moon." And Isaiah talks about the "moon shining like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter"!!!

I mean... this is freak-out-worthy, right? I feel like Isaiah and I are on the same trippy wavelength.

Okay, that's all for now.