Surviving The Fall
“For you said, “We have made a covenant with Death, and we have an agreement with Sheol (hell)…it will not touch us” Isaiah 28:15
My brother-in-law went skydiving about a year and some months ago for his brothers bachelors weekend. I don’t know what possessed them to jump out a perfectly good airplane at thousands of feet above the earth. Because they were not professionals but thrill seekers, they had to be attached to a professional skydiver. The person they were attached to has hundreds of jumps under his belt. The instructor knows at what altitude you must jump out of the plan at, what angle you need to drop into, and most importantly, when to pull the shoot! Now, imagine for a moment my brother-in-law said, “You know what, I got this gravity and me we have an understanding of one another. I am going to jump myself I don’t need a parachute. In fact I do not need to be strapped to a professional with a parachute.” What is the likelyhood somneone would survive that jump? I would say it is not likely he would not survive at all!
We see in our text above a statement made to the people of Samaria. They were called to repent and turn to the God of Israel. Isaiah has been pleading with them to seek the Lord. Yet, as they listened to Isaiahs instructions, they mocked Isaiah, and the Lord. They say what many today say about death, and it goes something like this, “I don’t need to be a Christian or believe in Jesus Christ. God and I have an understanding of one another, we have an agreement.” Those are fatal words. That understanding is as foolish as saying you do not need a parachute to survive jumping out of an airplane at ten thousand feet. Why do people say and do such things I will never understand. But in the preceding verse 14, the Lord calls them “scoffers” which gives us some insight on why they are saying such things. The word for scoffer in Hebrew is similar to that of a bragging person. It is because they are prideful and pride blinds. Therefore, they have blinded themselves from impending doom.
In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:5 the Lord Jesus declares this, “Blessed (happy) are the humble, for they will inherit the Earth.” A humble man or women can see their need for a parachute. A humble person understands that on their own, they will not survive jumping out of the plane, and gravity will win. The humble man or women acknowledges his or hers sinful state and knows they need saving. The problem with the proud is they don’t know they are falling. They don’t know this because their pride has blinded them from the truth, death will take them. Thanks be to our God and Father who sent His only begotten Son Jesus, to be our instructor that we attach our lives to save us! It is only in the Lord Jesus that we will escape the teeth of death like a bird (Psalm 124:7). If you are not secured in Christ, if you are not bound to Jesus, you are blind and don’t see the ground approaches quickly. You are in a fallen state of sin. Sin has an ugly baby which is…death (James 1:15). Cling to Jesus, be attached to Christ, He is the only way of surviving the fall of mankind.
Agape,
Frank
