According to a new survey from the World Economic Forum (WEF), the fastest growing threat to our planet since the COVID pandemic is “social cohesion erosion” which is simply “unrest due to change.” According to the WEF, it’s “perceived as a critical threat to the world across all time spans…and is seen as among the most potentially damaging for the next 10 years.” Further, “social cohesion worsens upon rising divisions and polarization in society… erosion also lurks in the fissures created by opposing viewpoints on vaccines and on face-mask mandates, and in the rallying cries for long-awaiting racial justice in historically oppressed communities.”

This is a story of crumbling civil society, fractured by conflicting forces from within. Included in the causes for this erosion are youth disillusionment, social security collapse, and livelihood crises. The report maintains that when paired with “mental health deterioration” things get even scarier: “All of that could come as a slow burn with fallout covering the next decade.”

“Risk-mitigation efforts” are possible, according to the report. This would include poverty alleviation, human health improvements, and basic resources security. While citing geopolitical rivalries, the report expresses the hope that “countries come together to ensure common benefits” while working together to share what should be universal resources.

Klaus Schwab of the WEF has talked about the need for a “Great Reset” which he has now rebranded as the “Great Narrative.” The world needs to unite around a new global story. He and the WEF want to help “imagine the future, design the future, and then execute the future.”

I thought of Isaiah 14:24-27 when I read of Mr. Schwab and the WEF. It is God who is in control of the future – not the WEF. “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand. I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed from their shoulders. This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out and who can turn it back?”

Alec Motyer gives a succinct description of the sovereignty of God described in this passage. “Assyria was the current superpower, as Babylon was the rising superpower. Isaiah offers a prediction to be fulfilled within the lifetime of his hearers as an assurance that the more remote prediction of the fall of Babylon is equally certain.”

God crushed the Assyrian Empire in 612 BC when Babylon conquered it. Isaiah in this passage extols the sovereignty of God. He asks, “Who can thwart the Lord?” (v. 27). No one can seize the outstretched hand of God. As the Grace & Truth Bible states, “The Lord Almighty is not merely a reactor to historical happenings. He propels history, directing it for his sovereign purposes.”

Men, there will be a lot of chatter regarding the great “arc of history” in the days to come. Remember: the “Great Narrative” is in God’s hands. Listen to His challenge: “Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or whine, O Israel, saying, ‘God has lost track of me. He doesn’t care what happens to me’?” Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening? God doesn’t come and go. God lasts. He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine. He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath. And he knows everything inside and out.” (Is. 41:27-28 Message).