Fortune and Destiny
Isaiah 65:11 – But as for you who abandon the LORD and forget about worshiping at my holy mountain, who prepare a feast for the god called ‘Fortune,’ and fill up wine jugs for the god called ‘Destiny’ – 12 – I predestine you to die by the sword, all of you will kneel down at the slaughtering block, because I called to you, and you did not respond, I spoke and you did not listen. You did evil before me; you chose to do what displeases me.”
These are sobering and terrifying verses. How often have we personified ‘Fortune’ and ‘Destiny’ seeking to create our own positive version of the future? We enjoy viewing it in our entertainment. We enjoy playing it in our games. We enjoy reading about in our fiction. It has become so ingrained within us that we don’t even realize we are engaging in an ancient form of idolatry that has ruined entire civilizations of people in the past. How? Through misplaced trust in lifeless, powerless gods that cannot save in a crisis.
So this is what the sovereign LORD says: “Look, my servants will eat, but you will be hungry! Look, my servants will drink, but you will be thirsty! Look, my servants will rejoice, but you will be humiliated! Look, my servants will shout for joy as happiness fills their hearts! But you will cry out as sorrow fills your hearts; you will wail because your spirits will be crushed. Your names will live on in the curse formulas of my chosen ones. The sovereign LORD will kill you, but he will give his servants another name.- Isaiah 65:13-15.
The gods of Fortune and Destiny cannot send manna from heaven. They cannot provide water from a rock. All schemes trusting in them will end in embarrassment and failure. All who trust in them will find tragedy and hopelessness at the end of their life’s journey. Their lives will come to an end but their names will live on as warnings of what not to do.
The gods of Fortune and Destiny are fake. There is only one true God. He is faithful. “Whoever pronounces a blessing in the earth will do so in the name of the faithful God; whoever makes an oath in the earth will do so in the name of the faithful God. For past problems will be forgotten; I will no longer think about them. For look, I am ready to create a new heavens and a new earth! The former ones will not be remembered; no one will think about them anymore. But be happy and rejoice forevermore over what I am about to create! For look, I am ready to create Jerusalem to be a source of joy, and her people to be a source of happiness. Jerusalem will bring me joy, and my people will bring me happiness. The sound of weeping or cries of sorrow will never be heard in her again. – Isaiah 65:16-19.
The true God will do all this! Joy and happiness are found in Him! Evil will be destroyed and all the problems associated with it will be forgotten. God Himself will not think about them ever again. Think about the unresolved problems you woke up with this morning. They will all be solved. The stresses associated with this life will all be over, exchanged for a new life; a new existence upon a new earth and a new heaven.
Fortune and Destiny? They are not gods to be worshiped. They are not entities that bring good luck. They are diversions from the truth about everything from creation to the end of time. They represent our feeble attempts to save ourselves in this life; to redefine, remodel, and remove the one true God from our lives not realizing our deaths become the only result of such action.
The verses today are a warning; they are a testimony of the one true God, Jesus Christ, who is the only pathway to a bright and hopeful future free from the problems that plague this life. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Let’s entrust our lives and our future to Him today!
Where two are gathered 