DISINTEGRATION
In the movie, ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, the avengers fail to stop Thanos, who gains the infinity stones and then snaps his fingers to make humans and aliens selectively disintegrate. While such dramatic disintegration might not take place outside movies, disintegration is a way of life. Nations crumble, kingdoms decline, organizations weaken and companies go bankrupt. Disintegration is also a reality for individuals and families. What causes disintegration? Zechariah points out (in Zechariah chapter 7) the example of the nation of Israel that went from the unmatched glory of David and Solomon to being scattered across the nations and gives us reasons for their disintegration.
1.Moving away from a God-centric life:
5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? 6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?
Rituals were established in ancient Israel that centered on God, but soon it became convenient to take away God from those activities. Today it is no different with an abundance of churches and religious rituals, but God is conspicuously absent from the lives of people. It is difficult to preserve devotion to God, who demands much from man. It is far easier to preserve the rituals and wallow in the deceptive comfort that they bring. Nations have been built on Christian principles, but today only the shell remains, with no life within. When God is taken away from the fabric of a society, life is snuffed out.
2. Neglecting a godly life:
9 “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’11 “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears.
True godliness is manifest in a godly life, where God’s nature is made real in the lives of his people. Goodness is sadly on a decline as we hurtle forward in a world that has little time or patience for others. The self has taken center-stage, where boasting, gloating and pride abound and man has little concern for those around or for the ultimate good.
3. Hardening heart to the Spirit:
12 They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry.
Responsiveness to God is an inbuilt ability for man, which needs to be strengthened with a good conscience. When man does that, he becomes ripe for the revelation of Christ that brings salvation. For a person who has received Christ, the indwelling Holy Spirit speaks and the disciple needs to be responsive and obedient. This centers the person in Christ and helps anchor him in eternal life.
When man fails to remain in God, there is little hope left. In God’s words,
14 ‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one traveled through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.’”
And in the midst of all the disintegration that is obvious, we are left wondering what could have been, if man had stuck with God.
