The applause still rings in my ears. It was the applause and the standing ovation during the State of the Union address when President Obama proclaimed that we were the most powerful nation in the world, spending more on our military than the next five (or was it more?) countries combined.

What would Isaiah say about this? Scholars call him Third Isaiah, the author of chapters 56-66, who prophesied to the disillusioned exiles as they returned to a crumpled and listless Jerusalem after generations of being in Babylon. He never dealt with the destruction of Jerusalem which precipitated the exile. He didn’t experience the death and destruction and heartache. He didn’t experience the defeat of the Babylonians. What he dealt with was the shock, the hopelessness, the struggle. There was no applause.

How can this be? Aren’t we told that military might will save us? Haven’t we been trained to believe that the more weapons we have the safer we are? Well, talk to Third Isaiah. None of this happened. What he saw was continued devastation despite our enemy’s defeat. It makes me wonder about all the money we are spending. Will it really lead us home to a place we want to be?