Maher-shalal-hash-baz

Destruction is immanent. What a great name! I think I'm going to change my name. You can call be "Hash" for short... ;-)

So who cares about the political warnings given to ignorant and unreceptive leaders 3000 years ago? Are they of any relevance to us today? Why bother studying them?

Is destruction any less immanent now than it was for Jerusalem?

Are we not facing the same kinds of concerns and issues today that they faced then?

Are there lessons that can be learned from the situation?

The answer seems to lie in the fact that all of these things are cyclical - the names change, and the scale of operations changes, but the lessons and the applicability remains the same. We are a people who tend to want to trust each other more than we want to trust God. Which is ironic, because God is really the only one worthy of our complete trust. But it's true - Stalin trusted Hitler, Chamberlain trusted Hitler, the Cambodians trusted Pol Pot, etc, etc, etc. The point of all of these lessons seems to be trust God and He will inspire you, enable you, and even fight your battles for you.

It is as true for nations as it is for families and individuals.

It is not without reason that Christ is called by Isaiah the Prince of Peace.

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