Shaken In God's Sieve

In a series of striking figures of speech the prophet Isaiah depicted God's indignation with the nations of that day:

Behold, the name of the LORD comes from a remote place;

Burning is His anger, and dense is His smoke;

His lips are filled with indignation,

And His tongue is like a consuming fire;

And His breath is like an overflowing torrent,

Which reaches to the neck,

To shake the nations back and forth in a sieve,

And to put in the jaws of the peoples the bridle which leads to ruin

(Is.30;27,28 NASB )

How vivid is this impression of divine displeasure and chastisement! The nations of today's world invite God's similar visitation because of widespread defiance of His moral law, and their being lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Reviewing world events in 1991, the illustration of nations being shaken back and forth in a sieve seems singularly apposite.

How far-reaching, for example, were the effects of the Gulf War among many nations. Those participating in the "Desert Shield" and "Desert Storm" operations undertook the gigantic task of transporting many thousands of service personnel, their equipment and weaponry, to the theatre of conflict; a large majority was sent across the Atlantic from the United States. What sieve-like "shaking back and forth" this involved, in terms of economic disruption and abrupt change of circumstance for millions of people!

The peoples of Kuwait and Iraq were of course the chief sufferers from direct military action. From their former extreme affluence, the Kuwaitis were reduced to servitude during the occupation of their territory. Even when the invaders had been driven out, the economy was left in ruins and the environment ravaged. Through Saddam Hussein's ill-judged invasion of Kuwait, Iraq sowed the wind but reaped the whirlwind of the Coalition's unprecedented aerial bombardment. Countless lives were sacrificed, the country's economy and infra-structure were seriously damaged.

"Shaken back and forth in a sieve". Can we soon forget the pictures of

Kurdish refugees, streaming from their homelands to escape into the northern mountains of Iraq, despite all the hardships and dangers? Then their return to the "safe havens" hastily improvised by the Coalition forces. Similarly tragic was the massive exodus of Sh'ite refugees from southern Iraq to Iran; with many trapped in the inhospitable marshlands.

Then there were thousands of immigrant workers and their families, forced to flee from Kuwait or Iraq, but facing such perilous conditions en route home to Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and even as far away as the Philippines. How widespread the shaking process!

Our thoughts turn to the Soviet Union, in ferment through economic problems and political change. Strong nationalist feelings motivate several of the republics to demand a large measure of autonomy or even complete independence. Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania on the Baltic, the vast Russian Republic, and the southern republics of Georgia and Ukraine are among those claiming a new order of things. Little wonder there is a sense of unsettlement and uncertainty about the future.

Severe "shaking back and forth" as in a sieve overtook Yugoslavia in 1991. A country familiar to many through the development of tourism in recent years, it seemed incredible that it should be torn apart by vicious strife between Slovenes, Croatians and Serbs. This prominence of ethnic strife reflects a trend which will be characteristic of the final confederacy of the times of the Gentiles. For the feet and toes of the great image seen in dream by Nebuchadnezzar were "partly of potter's clay and partly of iron" (Dan. 2:41 NASB). This was interpreted to indicate that "it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay". Then follows the comment: "And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery" (v.43). This implies, it would seem, cohesion within ethnic groups but an independent attitude between such groups: a feature seen today not only in Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, but in many other contexts.

With what sense of awe we watch the unfolding of God's work among the nations towards the return of the Lord Jesus!

unknown | Dec 1991
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