“Because he who is blessed in the earth will be blessed by the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth will swear by the God of truth…” (Isaiah 65:16a)

In our multi-faith, pluralistic world, the notion of absolute truth has suffered among the elites as an antiquated, uninformed perspective on life. With the making of many books there is no end (Eccl 12:12): with ideas and philosophies proliferating through internet blogs and news outlets of every conceivable stripe, everyone has a say. Social media, while giving a voice to every person who thinks he has something significant to say, seems to have taken on a personality of its own, like a mastermind manipulating and feeding the masses. What goes “viral” reflects the collective shouting down of that which is not popular or not trending, while promoting that which is threatening and non-threatening alike.

But in the storm-tossed sea of competing ideas, where is an anchor to keep a person from being swallowed up like sinking flotsam? Any mooring you choose will be buffeted by some faceless voice—nothing is sacrosanct anymore. So where does one turn, to stop the drunken swirl of worldly intoxication of untruth and the resulting animal-like retreat into one’s own individual enclave, one’s own personal “truth” mixed with self-gratification? After all, doesn’t the philosophy of today have self as its ultimate goal? Everyone must define truth for himself, or so we are told.

The prophet Isaiah lived in a similar time, where people jettisoned God’s truth for their own, albeit cloaked in religious activities. They had become:

“[a] people who continually provoke Me to My face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on bricks; who sit among graves and spend the night in secret places; who eat swine’s flesh, and the broth of unclean meat is in their pots. Who say, ‘Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am holier than you!’ These are smoke in My nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.” (Isaiah 65:3–5)

Who is to say what they were doing was wrong? The God of truth says so, that’s who—He designed truth, He created it. He is truth. He is the anchor of reality for those who live by His Word. How blessed are those who separate from the popular thinking of the crowd. To “swear by” is to act upon the real existence of God. In Scripture, an oath is worded this way: “As the LORD lives I will do …” When all is said and done, eternity will settle the record (Isaiah 65:17), because we believe there is an anchor of truth. That anchor is God.

Lord, You are my truth anchor in the fluid world of human philosophies.