The past few years have brought unforgettable challenges and uncertainties, with the COVID-19 pandemic and social upheaval causing many to feel the world is in chaos.What do you do when everything seems to be falling apart, and you don’t know what the future holds? This feeling of uncertainty echoes the opening chapters of the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah’s Vision
The prophet Isaiah began his ministry in Judah during a time of great turmoil. In Isaiah 6, he recounts, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.” During Uzziah’s 52-year reign – one of the longest in the nation’s history – Judah experienced great peace and prosperity. However, after Uzziah contracted leprosy and withdrew from public life, internal strife began. Despite economic prosperity and political strength, they suffered from spiritual pride and rebellion, repeatedly rejecting God for pagan idols.
With Uzziah’s death, Judah’s security eroded, and political division, spiritual apathy, and corruption surfaced. Fears about Judah’s future were well-founded, as the next decades saw cultural and political turmoil, culminating in the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to Assyria. This great anxiety mirrors our own recent social turbulence and fears about the own future: what is going to happen next?
God’s Holiness
In this context, Isaiah received a powerful vision of God, not focused on the loss of an earthly king but on the proclamation of God as King. Isaiah saw God on a great throne, surrounded by angelic beings worshipping Him as ruler over the cosmos. This vision emphasized God’s holiness and the nature of His kingdom. There are two important observations to be drawn here:
- God’s Holiness Defines His Kingdom. In Isaiah’s vision, God is called “holy, holy, holy,” signifying the highest superlative: his supreme holiness. God’s glory fills the earth, reflecting His presence and acts. More importantly, God’s holiness is found in his character—upright, true, and absolutely faithful. Now, holiness is more than just this, but it is nothing less. Israel’s idolatry and failure to remain faithful to God stood in contrast to God’s holiness and faithfulness. Isaiah recognized this and his reaction was humility and repentance.
- Jesus Focused on the Kingdom. Centuries later, Jesus began His ministry proclaiming, “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:14-15). This good news was not just about forgiveness of sins but about God reclaiming His kingdom and restoring the world. The kingdom of God is a central theme in Jesus’ teachings, mentioned over 120 times in the Gospels.
What is the Kingdom?
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible tells of the story of God as a holy king ruling over His people. It begins with creation of Adam and Eve in a garden and ends with the new creation and all nations, tribes, and tongues worshipping God as their King. In between is the story of God reclaiming his fallen kingdom. Having a kingdom requires a king, land, and people. God’s design in creation involved humankind having ruling over and filling the earth in obedient fellowship with him as the King.
Jesus teaches us to seek this kingdom, which should govern our desires, priorities, and actions. In Matthew 6:33, Jesus preached to seek the kingdom of God first, promising that our needs will be met. He emphasized it again in The Lord’s Prayer with, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Luke 11:2). This prayer connects back to Isaiah’s vision of God’s holiness and kingdom.
The Kingdom Within Us
But this is not a political kingdom. It is not the restoration of economic prosperity to our nation or the triumph of becoming a “Christian nation.” It is certainly good for a people in the land, any people, to turn their hearts toward God and live out a Christian ethic in society. But the kingdom is something different and it involves the collision of worldviews and attitudes of the heart, a cosmic battle between two competing claims about what is true and right.
God’s kingdom is first and foremost spiritual. It is God’s reign in our hearts, making us holy as he is holy. To restore the kingdom of peace and love around us, God must first restore the kingdom within us. Being kingdom-minded means trusting God for our needs, and letting His holiness define every part of our lives. We cannot be kingdom-minded without being filled with the Spirit of the King, the Holy One that appeared in Isaiah’s vision. In our chaotic world, God still reigns as King, redeeming and restoring his kingdom in us.
In a world filled with uncertainty and turmoil, seeking God’s kingdom means pursuing God’s holiness in us. True peace and tranquility come from a state of trust and reliance on the Holy One who reigns over our lives, not from external circumstances of a prosperous society and a strong government we like. God’s holy presence alone is the source of lasting peace and purpose. As we navigate these challenging times, would you daily seek God’s kingdom, the Spirit of the Holy One ruling in your heart and mind?