The Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and aliens will join them and will cleave to the house of Jacob. 2 And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the Lord’s land as male and female slaves; they will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them. – Isaiah 14:1-2
As of the writing of this devotional, the Mega Millions jackpot was at $640 million dollars. Powerball sits at $900 million dollars.
Numbers like that can really wreck a person’s mind. Particularly when one thinks about how the trajectory of their life would radically change in an instant.
With that much money, priorities can get scrambled up and relationships become radically altered. Suddenly, the whole world can see if the values you had before the windfall are still intact. Would I offer to fix the church’s roof? Would I build a homeless shelter and staff it into perpetuity? Would I pay off the medical debt or college loans of hundreds, many thousands of people? Or would I buy a private plane and employ a personal chef?
It's a good thing that the odds of hitting the full jackpot sit around 300 million to 1.
When the people of Israel hear the words in the first two verses of 14th chapter of the prophet Isaiah, they must have felt like they were hitting that kind of jackpot. After years of subjugation and exile, they’ve been promised that not only will they be set richly in their own land, but they will have such a rewarded abundance that outsiders will be attracted to them and join them. The prophet goes on to say that not only are they going back home to their promised land, but they’ll be also escorted by those who removed them in the first place.
When given that kind of blessing, surely the people would return to their values. However, what we find in the rest of scripture is what we would likely find in ourselves. The people of Israel have good moments where they are a shining example of generosity and benevolence, serving and worshipping God as grateful people. However, they also have many more of moments where they stray from hearing God’s word, horde what they’ve been given, and forget that they have been blessed to be a blessing.
With a sudden influx of resources, would we be generous and benevolent or selfish and tyrannical? Would we help those in need or help ourselves to another portion?
The truth of the matter is that we ARE blessed. Blessed beyond measure. We have friends, a church family, and resources to serve others. Even in states of relative stress and scarcity, we have more than enough to share. We have so many reasons to give thanks to God.
And so, people of God, let us give thanks and give to others. Welcome to the promised land, my friends. God continually blesses us richly.
Let us pray, a prayer of St. Richard
Thanks be to you, our Lord Jesus Christ, for all the benefits which you have given us, for all the pains and insults which you have borne for us. Most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother, may we know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day. Amen.
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