Scripture: Isaiah 33:17-22 (NIV)

Your eyes will see the king in his beauty
and view a land that stretches afar.
In your thoughts you will ponder the former terror:
“Where is that chief officer?
Where is the one who took the revenue?
Where is the officer in charge of the towers?”
You will see those arrogant people no more,
people whose speech is obscure,
whose language is strange and incomprehensible.

Look on Zion, the city of our festivals;
your eyes will see Jerusalem,
a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved;
its stakes will never be pulled up,
nor any of its ropes broken.
There the Lord will be our Mighty One.
It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams.
No galley with oars will ride them,
no mighty ship will sail them.
For the Lord is our judge,
the Lord is our lawgiver,
the Lord is our king;
it is he who will save us.

It’s possible that many people fighting against the Empire didn’t know exactly who they were fighting against. For those in the Rebellion that we see in the movies, they probably didn’t have a name to put on those on the other side. The leadership did, of course–Princess Leia knew Grand Moff Tarkin by sight, though some of that was from her time in the Senate–but the rank and file just knew that they were wearing Imperial uniforms and flying TIE fighters, which is all they needed to know.

For those that rebelled on their planet, though, those connections were personal. The group fighting to liberate Lothal knew Governor Pryce and Agent Kallus, for instance. Others on Imperially controlled planets and systems probably knew the head of the local garrison, the person collecting the taxes, the majors and generals that were regularly on the planet. They knew who they were fighting against and those people took up a lot of their thoughts and focus.

After the Empire was defeated, though, do you think those people gave a lot of thought to the Imperial bureaucracy? I would think there was some criminal trials, of course, but for the general folks that worked in the Empire, I think people didn’t care as much. It wouldn’t be something that those workers talked much about, but the fact that the right was victorious would overshadow a lot of what happened beforehand.

Isaiah, as was his habit, looked ahead to the future and saw that, when the Lord returned, those that were in power now wouldn’t be a concern to the Israelites. They well knew those that were oppressing them currently. The person who wouldn’t let them in the city without a fee. The one that used their power against them just because they could. Not only the major players in their oppression but the day-to-day people that implemented it. They knew them all and felt their arrogance.

Isaiah knew it wasn’t going to last forever. These people in power now would become so irrelevant that the Israelites wouldn’t even remember their names or whatever happened to so-and-so. While there was suffering now, peace and prosperity would come when the Lord’s plans were fulfilled.

No matter where we are in our journey, what time of year it is or how old we are, there are worldly pressures bearing down on us. In some places, these are political, with oppression and war being a way of life. In many others they are mental, social, or economic. These things can seem to blot out the joy of life and keep us wondering where God is in all of this mess.

God is where God always is, right with us. These pressures, which seem so large and important now, will at some point be wiped away by His Glory. Sometimes it happens quickly, sometimes it takes a while, and sometimes it will require us to be in His eternal presence, but peace and joy will be ours and we won’t have to worry about anything else!