Disruption

“Disruption” is a big word these days. I suppose that there have always been disruptions. Now everything gets talked about more. But perhaps we can think about this word Biblically. God is a God of disruptions.

A disruption is something that interrupts what we regard as normal. If the stock market has been going up for a period of time, we begin to regard that as normal. But if the stock market then goes down, we assume that there has been a disruption. But are we a good judge of what is normal? Not very. But God is - He is a good Judge.

In Genesis 6 when things were going on as normal (or so humans with bad memories and poor perspective so thought), God sent a disruption, called the Flood. It was geologically and globally disruptive. Only 8 individuals were spared. This was a disruption of an unacceptable normal. It was a return to God’s normal - to people living lives centered in the worship of God.

Years later, the people of Israel were getting by, but not so well. They would face enemies and opposition, which they came to regard as normal. But actually, the hardships were “disruptions” sent by God to get their attention, that they might reform their ways. But these local disruptions were followed by big ones: the Assyrian captivity for the northern tribes, and the Babylonian captivity for the southern, and they faced national disruption. God was going to turn their hearts back to Himself. He was bringing them back to normal. But only so far. It was preparatory.

Climactically, God acted to bring about another Disruption: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son.” He sent Jesus into the world, to walk in our shoes, and to die in our place. He placed the sin of the world on His shoulders, and offered forgiveness in Christ. Deep Disruption. Upside-down and Inside-out Disruption. He did all this to make possible a right relationship with Himself - fellowship with God. 

And now the world goes on, many with no consideration of what God has done in Christ, developing theories of what, for each day, is the new normal. There continue to  many more disruptions, but then, predicted in Scripture, a Final Disruption, when Jesus comes again in His glory. Are you ready?

     “For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong.” (Revelation 18:8 NAS95)