What has happened in Haiti is a catastrophe with immeasurable consequences to the Haitian people. The irony, I suppose, is that the most impoverished country of the western hemisphere is finally receiving international attention. At least a little of the recent attention has been directed at the condition of the Haitian nation before Almighty God. It has been suggested that the devastation in Haiti is the result of God enacting His judgment against this country for its “contract with the devil”. My question is what nation on planet earth doesn’t have at least a segment of its population that has made contracts with the devil at one time or another.
According to Scripture, to not be with God in relationship with Jesus Christ is to be in enmity with God. People have talked about the practice of voodoo throughout segments of the Haitian people. Voodoo is a form of idolatry. So is materialism. So can be religion. How about everything to do with our human selfishness that obstructs us from pursuing a deeper relationship with God, or even having a relationship with God in the first place? Our idolatry is evident throughout the world, and it no doubt angers God. Are recent earthquakes in Indonesia and China the result of God expressing His anger? Is the recent flooding in the Philippines the expression of God being angry? What about the slaughter of citizens in Rwanda and Darfur? What about the persecution of women, Jews, children, the weak, and so on? What about when my father’s heart quit? What about when I was bit by a mosquito? Why doesn’t God stop it? Is He angry?
The truth about God is that since the flood He has not sought to destroy His creation. God loves each and every one of us, including Haitians, and desires that none perish but that all live forever (John 3:16). God is a God of mercy and reconciliation. Jesus did not die so that God would deliberately wipe out hundreds of thousands of people in one fell swoop. Even when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah he spared those who were righteous. Look at what God says about reconciling us to Him, even when we have strayed into idolatry. This is portions of Isaiah 57.
“Good people pass away; the godly often die before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. For those who follow godly paths will rest in peace when they die. You worship your idols with great passion beneath the oaks and under every green tree. You sacrifice your children down in the valleys, among the jagged rocks in the cliffs. Your gods are the smooth stones in the valleys. You worship them with liquid offerings and grain offerings. They, not I, are your inheritance. Do you think all this makes me happy? You have committed adultery on every high mountain. There you have worshiped idols and have been unfaithful to me. You have put pagan symbols on your doorposts and behind your doors. You have left me and climbed into bed with these detestable gods. You have committed yourselves to them. You have traveled far, even into the world of the dead, to find new gods to love. You grew weary in your search, but you never gave up. Desire gave you renewed strength, and you did not grow weary.
“Are you afraid of these idols? Do they terrify you? Is that why you have lied to me and forgotten me and my words? Is it because of my long silence that you no longer fear me? Now I will expose your so-called good deeds. None of them will help you. Let’s see if your idols can save you when you cry to them for help. Why, a puff of wind can knock them down! If you just breathe on them, they fall over! But whoever trusts in me will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain.”
God says, “Rebuild the road! Clear away the rocks and stones so my people can return from captivity.” The high and lofty one who lives in eternity, the Holy One, says this: “I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts. For I will not fight against you forever; I will not always be angry. If I were, all people would pass away—all the souls I have made. I was angry, so I punished these greedy people. I withdrew from them, but they kept going on their own stubborn way. I have seen what they do, but I will heal them anyway! I will lead them. I will comfort those who mourn, bringing words of praise to their lips. May they have abundant peace, both near and far,” says the Lord, who heals them. “But those who still reject me are like the restless sea, which is never still but continually churns up mud and dirt. There is no peace for the wicked,” says my God.
There is a lot said here. God, through the prophet Isaiah, no doubt rebukes His people for their idol worship. Going back to Isaiah 56, God speaks of the foreign Gentile people as also being His people who serve Him with their lives, so I believe this passage applies to all of us today. He then rips into those who treat God-given life as being no more than a drunken orgy committed to satisfying selfish indulgence. He is speaking to every single one of us who have taken for granted and abused the life, talents, and resources He has so generously imparted to us.
God is gracious and forgiving. He desires relationship with you and with me. God loves the nation of Haiti. It is in God’s heart to reconcile with even the vilest offender living in that country. We read from Isaiah that God punishes willful greed and depravity by withdrawing His protection from natural consequences related to the sin. He wants for us to learn that the gods we have erected will in no way stand against the delicate balance in the world with its evil intentions to harm us where we live. God will not always protect us from the fragility of the planet we live on. Is certain that our idols, our selfish “drugs” of choice, will not be able to save us no matter how loudly we cry out to them for help.
But to each one of us who call out to Jesus when we have recognized our weakness and admit we cannot survive on our own, God hears our prayer. He meets us from where He is to where we are, no matter where we are. He has seen what we’ve done and He will heal us anyway. God declares that the road that is our life be rebuilt, and that the rocks and stones that we have stored up and built up to worship self be cleared away. Just like the prodigal son who left his father to indulge himself, then when he had to endure the consequences of his self-indulgence came to his senses and returned to his father (Luke 15), God will embrace us, reconcile us to Him, fully restore us, and bless us with the best that comes from Him.
Haiti needs to be rebuilt. There are millions of tons of rubble that must be cleared away. God will restore the spirit of each and every Haitian open to receiving His goodness. God also calls for us to pray for the people of Haiti and all people under persecution in their life across the globe; that they would respond to Him in their need, wanting from Him all that He desires to give. And finally, we’re called to give as we are able to our brothers and sisters of one family—the family of our Sympathetic Savior Jesus Christ.
