Isaiah 33:14-15

"The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites.  Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil."
Isaiah 33:14-15


This is a really interesting scripture, and it goes on after this... talking about how the righteous "shall see the king in his beauty." I love it. :)  Anyway, there are a few things that I want to comment on in here.  One is... "sinners in Zion." this kind of surprised me, just because the whole idea of Zion, at least to me, is the idea of the perfect society, where everyone is righteous and living well... where we take care of each other, and no-one is being mean or cruel... etc.  But I guess that's why it talks about hypocrites... and seriously, it is something for each of us to think about.  As we try to become Zion people, and to build a Zion society, are we truly dedicated to it inwardly, or only as a fashion trend?  :)  I think sometimes that's why people leave the church, because they see all the hypocrisy of the individuals within it.  And I am not talking about some unknown "them," I am as much to blame as anyone else.  We need to examine ourselves and see if we are all about the image, or all about the inner reality.  Why do we worship, and who do we worship?  Is it God, and trusting him to know what is right, and to lead us to beauty and truth... or is it ourselves, our image of how we want other people to see us, and we bail on God's will as soon as it becomes difficult or clashes with our own?
The other thing I wanted to comment on (sorry this is getting long) is the second verse, talking about all these bad things that righteous people shouldn't participate in. :)  (That’s from one of the footnotes, clarifying that we don't just ignore injustice, we refuse to participate in it.  Perhaps we need to stand up against it...)  Anyway, our society is full of these things... oppression, violence, bribes... all of it.  Most popular novels and movies are replete with images of some kind of evil.  We fill our minds with it every day, and in a way I think that it poisons us.  We no longer trust people, we no longer believe in people's goodness and potential.  We start thinking of people as "strangers" instead of neighbors... as outsiders instead of family.  We get territorial, and start disparaging anyone we don't identify with.  So, anyway, I think as we build Zion we need to start building some things that will fill us, and others, with positive images as well.  In our daily lives we need to promote goodness... hope, belief in people.  When we write, when we speak, we need to speak of what we can build, what we can become... and not of evil that can't be cured.  God can take care of it, and if we can believe him, we won't become hopeless. :)  There is infinite possibility out there for us... for anyone.  Instead of listening to the messages of failure and limitation, we can drink of the waters of hope and love... and learn to fly.  To change the world.  Life, love... is never hopeless, never pointless.