SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 21
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
And the lookout shouted, “Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower; every night I stay at my post. Look, here comes a man in a chariot with a team of horses. And he gives back the answer: ‘Babylon has fallen, has fallen! All the images of its gods lie shattered on the ground!'” O my people, crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heard from the Lord Almighty, from the God of Israel. [Isaiah 21:8-10]
Isaiah is speaking to his own people about the eventual downfall of their neighboring oppressors – Babylon, Edom and Arabia; he describes the scene when a messenger comes telling them about Babylon’s fall.
This is a message of hope to a people crushed on the threshing floor; the threshing floor (where wheat was sifted to separate the kernel from the chaff) was a symbol of judgment.
Israel is going through a time of judgment, but in the end the agents of that judgment will be stopped.
Wait for it, wait for it, the day is coming when good news will finally come, when the hardship will be done!

They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. [Luke 21:24]
Jesus similarly describes a season of judgment when Jerusalem will be crushed on the threshing floor, as a time of judgment and separation.
For a season (or the time of the Gentiles), the Romans are permitted to trample on God’s chosen city.
This is in part a judgment on the Jews for their rejection of God and His messiah; it is also God’s way of separating the kernel from the chaff, so that through hardship those who are true to God will be separated from those who do not honor or serve God.
And it will not last forever, this season of judgment and separation will only be for a time, until that time is fulfilled; wait for it, the day is coming when good news will finally come, when the hardship will be done!

This is a general truth that applies to all hardship and suffering.
God is allowing it for a season, for a time – sometimes as a judgment, sometimes as a process of separation or purification or preparation.
It is not always clear to us why God allows us to go through seasons of being crushed or trampled on (the threshing floor), but there is always a purpose, and God’s purpose must be fulfilled before it ends.
We all wish that God could spare us the threshing floor experiences; and yet because God is good, and what God does is always right, we choose to trust that there is good reason for it.
We should not always assume that hardship and suffering are judgment – sometimes they may be, but other times they may have another purpose.
Sometimes God uses hardship to purify us, to make us stronger, to prepare us for something.
Sometimes God allows us to suffer so that we can help others.
You may spend time in the hospital because God wants to use you to impact a nurse, or the person in the room with you, or a family member – we will never know how many people touches through our season of pain.

But Isaiah and Jesus encourage us to see God’s hand behind all that is happening, His good purpose – for us and for others!
Wait for it, wait for it, the day is coming when good news will finally come, when the hardship will be done!

PRAYER:
Lord, thank You for strengthening me with this hope, that no matter what happens, all our experiences are a part of your good purpose, and one day we will see the good end that You have in mind!