It will end - 19 December 2008

Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger.   Of all the sons she bore there was none to guide her; of all the sons she reared there was none to take her by the hand.    These double calamities have come upon you— who can comfort you?— ruin and destruction, famine and sword— who can console you?   Your sons have fainted; they lie at the head of every street, like antelope caught in a net.  They are filled with the wrath of the LORD and the rebuke of your God. 

 Therefore hear this, you afflicted one, made drunk, but not with wine.    This is what your Sovereign LORD says, your God, who defends his people: "See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger; from that cup, the goblet of my wrath, you will never drink again.    I will put it into the hands of your tormentors, who said to you, "Fall prostrate that we may walk over you.' And you made your back like the ground, like a street to be walked over."

Isaiah 51:17-23 [NIV] 

Only now, at the end of a week when we have felt the comfort of a mother-like love of God, have seen the firmness of the hand that holds us, and have glimpsed a world where God lives and where we can live too – only now when we have felt God’s encouragement and the shadow of his hand – only now does Isaiah consider the reality of the hardship facing a people who have “drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger”.  Because now we see that our suffering is part of the suffering of the whole world, brought about by sin to which each of us contribute, often unwittingly, but nevertheless culpably.  Calamity may have come and we are caught up in it, but ‘hear this, you afflicted one, made drunk, but not with wine’: it will end.  There will come a time when you will look back and realise it has ended.  It will seem like waking from a nightmare.  But wake up you will.

So as you and I go back into our worlds, take heart.  The world is so much bigger; our God is so much bigger!  Be comforted, he has not forgotten you – and he never will.  Be encouraged, a time will come, even if it is not yet, that justice will come, and mercy will come and you will have the victory.  Trust him!  But more: he tells us to wake up, for the God who defends his people says, "See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger”

This Christmas time, determine you will have hope, you will make it a time of celebration, whatever the outward problems. You may find the sheer act of faith is rewarded far more than you expect.