Then the wilderness will become a fertile field, and the fertile field will yield bountiful crops…But now your brave warriors weep in public. Your ambassadors of peace cry in bitter disappointment. — Isaiah 32:1-Isaiah 33:9

“Then…But now…” has been the lifelong burden of all of us Cubs fans.

Barring one glorious exception, the Cubs are one of the most well-documented, crash-and-burn teams in professional baseball.

This year is no different.

A few weeks ago, fans were talking about playoff tickets, but now the talk is about what went wrong.

Even still, I’ll cheer for them until it hurts, which it inevitably will.

As Isaiah uses the expression

“Then,” he speaks not to the past but to the future.

He presents to the people of Israel a vision of a new day dawning.

It will be a day of justice and righteousness.

It will be ushered in, Isaiah says, when the Spirit is poured out on them from heaven.

Salvation, wisdom and knowledge will be in great supply, and God himself will be their sure foundation.

For all who believe in Jesus, there is a glorious “then” awaiting.

Every wrong will be righted.

Every vestige of sin, evil, darkness and the devil will be forever eliminated.

Eternity will be experienced with God on a new earth unencumbered by curse.

But now, we live in the wonder of Jesus who gave his life for our sins in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live.

But now, we live in such a way to point others to the author of the “then” that lies ahead.

Under siege

After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord: … — Isaiah 37:1-38

As we looked at the amount due at the bottom of the page, our hearts sank.

We knew we didn’t have the money to keep this adoption process on track.

We also knew that the Lord had told us not to borrow money for this faith journey.

We were stuck, under the siege of a financial demand we had no ability to meet.

We laid the papers before the Lord and cried out to him for provision. In amazing ways, he met that need and the next one and the next one…

King Hezekiah was watching his kingdom collapse one city at a time.

The Assyrians were steadily and systematically making their way to Jerusalem to destroy it as well.

Hezekiah spread the message from the King of Assyria before the Lord and prayed for deliverance.

God replied through Isaiah, “Because you prayed about King Sennacherib of Assyria, the Lord has spoken this word against him…” Hezekiah prayed.

God responded. Siege over.

Instead of silencing us in frustration, life’s sieges should alert us to pray.

Each of us has or soon will have an imposing threat looming large over our lives.

Marriage problems, financial strains, addiction issues, health concerns and the like will press us into the truth that we are not in control.

However, we’ll keep trying to control anyway.

Why? People do crazy things when they’re under siege.

Perhaps the craziest is to refuse to cry out to Jesus.

Two evil things

For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me — the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all! — Jeremiah 1:1 – 2:30

I knew there was a ladder in the garage, but it was all the way in the garage.

The chair was right there and it would only take a second to put the folding closet door back on the track.

As the chair gave way beneath my weight and I crashed to the ground, my dad’s words of wisdom came back to me.

“Son, there’s a right tool for every project.”

Abandoning the ladder for a chair was a terrible idea.

Jeremiah, God’s prophet, was charged to carry God’s words to the people whether they wanted to hear it or not.

Mostly, it fell in the “not” category.

Jesus spoke of being the fountain of living water.

Here we find the original introduction.

It was exceedingly foolish, not to mention evil, to abandon God, but then to dig and use a cracked cistern? It bordered on insanity.

What little life they had left to pour into it seeped away and ended up lost.

“Crazy people,” I think to myself, “Why would they make such an irrational choice?”

Then, it occurred to me, it was the same reason why I ended up in a bruised heap on the floor with a broken chair — it was the easiest decision.

I’ve done it before and it was no big deal. I can handle this on my own. Sound familiar?

Jesus says, “Here I am.”

We say, “Thanks, I’ll let you know if I need you.”

Hmm… “Crazy people,” I think to myself.

Tom Wiles is senior minister of Fall Creek Christian Church in Pendleton. He can be reached at 765-778-3166.