When Isaiah Sounds Like Today

Isaiah 5:6 says the Lord will command the clouds not to rain. That sounds like drought to me. Aren’t we in a drought? The clouds have seemed stingy this year and water appears to be the topic of discussion on every newscast. I don’t know if this is exactly what Isaiah is talking about here, because today the Gospel of Jesus Christ is being taught and accepted all over the world. The light of the Gospel is shining. So maybe I need to be careful not to read only doom and gloom into Isaiah. Still, his words make me stop and think.

Verse 8 is a stark visual to me:
“. . .join house to house, till there can be no place. . . .”

Does this not describe our housing today? Row houses are everywhere and more are being built daily. I’m honestly not alarmed by that because I see gathering in it too. People are clearly being drawn to Utah, and covenant people are gathering all over the earth in preparation for the Savior’s return. And without doubt, we (think Utah here) are inviting the world to "come and see."

Then again. . . Isaiah always seems to dig deeper than appearances.

I remember that the bottom line behind much of this building is growth and money. Clyde is always saying, “Cash is king,” and it’s obvious some very rich people are buying up land and building multi-family dwellings. Maybe they look like the good guy, but there is still a lot of money changing hands. Isaiah’s warning seems less about the buildings themselves and more about greed driving the bus.

Then verse 9 hits:
“Many houses shall be desolate, and great and fair cities without inhabitant.”

That’s sobering.

History repeats itself. Cities rise and fall. Economies boom and collapse. People scatter. Jobs disappear. Families move where survival takes them. Isaiah could have been seeing all kinds of things from where he stood.

But I also don’t think these verses cancel out the latter-day gathering. If anything, they remind me that worldly systems are unstable while the Kingdom of God keeps moving forward. The Lord knew all of this would happen, and yet temples continue to dot the earth and the Gospel continues to spread.

Verse 10 feels like a warning that huge investments can still produce very little of lasting value.

Maybe that’s the real question Isaiah leaves with me:
What are we building our lives on?