<snip>Echoed by Paul in 1 Corinthians is “Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”</snip>
These are the golden verses!
but you would have none of it.
You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’
Therefore you will flee!
You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’
Therefore your pursuers will be swift!
A thousand will flee
at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
you will all flee away,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
like a banner on a hill.”
Again, whatever the fleshly solution, whether fleeing on a horse or acting to escape by sheer willpower…the solution creates a new problem, so that one ends up with two problems instead of one. The first problem is the enemy. The second problem is engaging with the enemy instead of engaging with our deliverer. If we fight independently, we fight alone.
Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!
Grace, compassion, fighting for the victim—it’s all here if one will be quiet and trusting.
People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
These verses smack of redemption and the presence of our teacher, the Holy Spirit, who really will guide us, who speaks in the voice of Jesus, our Shepherd, whose voice we know and follow. This is, as Watchman Nee said, the normal Christian life, the Christ-in-us life (and not the “average” Christian life).
Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”
We can serve only one master and when we see what our idols do for us, we will cast them down and away. Anything less than Christ that I’ve given authority to, whether a rule, a beverage, or a person—anything less is just a modern idol, more-less. More, because it gains my trust and devotion. Less, because we live in an atheistic age, with the result that while we may doubt God’s presence, we likewise doubt the existence of little gods inhabiting various objects. What were idols to the Israelites are diversions to us. They anesthetize our quiet desperation (to use Thoreau’s handy phrase).
In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted [allowed].
The enemy/idol/addiction is slaughtered and the siege-towers or strongholds of the enemy fall. Things lighten up. As the moon shines brightly and the sun even brighter, healing comes.
<snip>
And you will sing
as on the night you celebrate a holy festival;
your hearts will rejoice
as when people playing pipes go up
to the mountain of the Lord,
to the Rock of Israel.
The key word is “as”—a person set free does not need a holy festival, pipes, or even a mountain, for these are all symbols of the reality keeping the person free.
<snip>
Isaiah 31
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
who rely on horses,
who trust in the multitude of their chariots
and in the great strength of their horsemen,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
or seek help from the Lord.
<snip>
But the Egyptians are mere mortals and not God;
their horses are flesh and not spirit.
Another opposition of our fleshly efforts versus the spirit of the Holy One of Israel.
<snip>
“Assyria will fall by no human sword;
a sword, not of mortals, will devour them.
<snip>
Their stronghold will fall because of terror;
at the sight of the battle standard their commanders will panic,”
declares the Lord—
When we allow God to fight the battle (which Jesus won), the odds are reversed, and the enemy, whatever it is, can only tremble in response, for we are more than conquerors…all this if we adhere to repentance (changing our thinking) and resting, being quiet and trusting.
Watchman Nee shared this analogy:
The object of temptation is always to get us to do something. During the first three months of the Japanese war in China we lost a great many tanks and so were unable to deal with the Japanese tanks, until the following scheme was devised. A single shot would be fired at a Japanese tank by one of our snipers in ambush. After a considerable lapse of time the first shot would be followed by a second; then, after a further silence, by another shot; until the tank driver, eager to locate the source of the disturbance, would pop his head out to look around. The next shot, carefully aimed, would put an end to him.
As long as he remained under cover he was perfectly safe. The whole scheme was devised to bring him out into the open. In the same way, Satan’s temptations are not primarily to make us do something particularly sinful, but merely to cause us to act in our own energy; and as soon as we step out of our hiding-place to do something on that basis, he has gained the victory over us. If we do not move, if we do not come out of the cover of Christ into the realm of the flesh, then he cannot get us. (from The Normal Christian Life)
Isaiah 32
<snip>
Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed,
and the ears of those who hear will listen.
The fearful heart will know and understand,
and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear.
Healing miracles—physical and emotional—follow quietness and trust.
<snip>
But the noble make noble plans,
and by noble deeds they stand.
I like the accidental internal rhyme in English (“plans”-“stand”) that reinforces the Hebrew parallelism. The liberated can act and plan, with generosity.
<snip>
The fruit of that righteousness will be peace;
its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.
People can be “complacent” and “secure” in their feelings (referred to in omitted verses), but feelings alone cannot be trusted. When the Lord is trusted with noble plans and noble deeds, then real “peace,” “quietness,” and “confidence” come. What always surprises me in Isaiah is the emphasis on quietness and trust, quite the contrast to my reactive stressful efforts.
My people will live in peaceful dwelling places,
in secure homes,
in undisturbed places of rest.
Rest, rest, rest. Come to me all you who labor, and I will give you ….
<snip>
Isaiah 33
<snip>
Then an abundance of spoils will be divided
and even the lame will carry off plunder.
No one living in Zion will say, “I am ill”;
and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven.
Even the wounded and weakest of us will “carry off plunder” (healing, deliverance, and happiness). No one will say “I am ill”! All this was declared 800 years before the Jesus came, worked miracles, and sent the Holy Spirit to continue his work. So much more shall we carry off plunder from the enemy and declare our health!
Isaiah 34
<snip>
Things don’t look good for Edom—wildlife takes over and thrives.
Isaiah 35
<snip>
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
<snip>
And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness;
it will be for those who walk on that Way.
I see no reason to think the blind, deaf, lame and mute are figurative, just as I see no reason to discourage those who are emotionally crippled from holding to this promise. The Way of Holiness is also the Way of Wholeness. Popular opinion nonwithstanding, there’s no account of a person who seeks healing from Jesus being refused. Chastised for unbelief, yes. Refused, no. Jesus “drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick” (
Matthew 8:16).
<snip>
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Currently, this meditation on Isaiah quotes 20 passages that reference joy. In my life, joy is in scarce supply. It’s absence is telling. It tells me I’ve not entered into the full salvation my God has willed me.
Isaiah 36-39
The story of Hezekiah is interesting, glorious, and perplexing. To keep my focus, I’m passing on these worthy chapters. But I cannot ignore Hezekiah’s healing, which among other things reminds us that when we are given a terminal diagnosis, that may be a test and may be postponed by over a decade:
In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”
Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.
<snip>
Isaiah 40
<snip>
He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.
Close to his heart! Know it. Just as parents need to know He will gently lead them as they raise children. This in turn will make them more gentle with their children.
<snip>
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who [wait on] the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
The Hebrew phrase means to wait with expectation. Expect to run in the body. Expect to run into the presence of Jesus as you wait in faith.
Isaiah 41
<snip>
All who rage against you
will surely be ashamed and disgraced;
those who oppose you
will be as nothing and perish.
Though you search for your enemies,
you will not find them.
Those who wage war against you
will be as nothing at all.
Sin and sickness rage against us. We will no longer be disgraced; rather they will be disgraced. In Romans 8, Paul starts out saying there’s no condemnation for those in Christ. Not only that, but he then says “Christ condemned sin in the flesh.” Who’s the prisoner now?
I love that we will look for our enemies and not be able to find them, because some days that’s all I see: depression, sickness, emptiness. I’ve been there in the past, looking for enemies and not finding them (“how could I have ever yielded to addiction?” I have puzzled to myself).
For I am the Lord your God
who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;
I will help you.
Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob,
little Israel, do not fear,
for I myself will help you,” declares the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
He is here to help, figured as a parent holding his child’s hand. The seemingly disparaging “worm” was, then, an expression of helplessness. We feel helpless so often. Our first instinct is denial. May our better instinct be to respond to helplessness with a cry for help. Instead of simply seeking to be stronger, seek to be stronger faith. We are, after all, created to be reliant. There is no wholeness otherwise. There is only the illusion of wholeness, an illusion Jesus never embraced. “I do nothing of my own accord.”
See, I will make you into a threshing sledge,
new and sharp, with many teeth.
You will thresh the mountains and crush them,
and reduce the hills to chaff.
You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up,
and a gale will blow them away.
But you will rejoice in the Lord
and glory in the Holy One of Israel.
Instead of being threshed or thrashed by sin and sickness, we become threshing machines. Christ in us annihilates addictions, compulsions, laziness, doubt, and isolation.
The poor and needy search for water,
but there is none;
their tongues are parched with thirst.
But I the Lord will answer them;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will make rivers flow on barren heights,
and springs within the valleys.
I will turn the desert into pools of water,
and the parched ground into springs.
I will put in the desert
the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive.
I will set junipers in the wasteland,
the fir and the cypress together,
so that people may see and know,
may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
that the Holy One of Israel has created it.
Anticipating Jesus’ declaration, this passage announces abundant life. We are thirsty and cannot find water; then come “rivers,” “springs,” “pools of water”—plus more: trees for shade and also for food, so much that we know with certainty that the Lord “has done this.”
<snip>
Isaiah 42
Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will bring justice to the nations.
He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”
Jesus is prophesied here, or at least that’s how Matthew and I take it. Matthew quotes the
passage: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory.”
[2]
So comforting: not only will he bring forth justice, but he will do it gently to the weak and weary. Those who struggle (bruised or bent reeds, smoldering candles) will be protected by him and will not be crushed by the wheels of justice.
This is what God the Lord says—
the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out,
who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it,
who gives breath to its people,
and life to those who walk on it:
“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
“I am the Lord; that is my name!
I will not yield my glory to another
or my praise to idols.
See, the former things have taken place,
and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
I announce them to you.”
The prophet continues to reveal what God (“the Lord”) says about his servant (Jesus). The relationship is intimate and comforting (hold your hand), the mission is global (light for the Gentiles), the ministry is liberating (healing the blind, freeing the prisoners), and is unprecedented (new things I declare; before they spring into being, I announce them to you).
It is dizzying to know this from both Isaiah and the gospels and yet to feel as if I’ve only gotten a glimpse.
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise from the ends of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
you islands, and all who live in them.
The role of the people being delivered is mostly singing and praise—not trying, striving, straining, and groaning. Deliverance is grace, it’s a gift. Sing. Praise. (Praise is not saying the words “I praise you…” although that’s not a bad thing… praise is speaking about the attributes of the Lord… his love, mercy, wisdom, and kindness.)
<snip>
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
and make the rough places smooth.
Who is not on an unfamiliar path? Who doesn’t need more light and a smoother route?
<snip>
Isaiah 43
But now, this is what the Lord says—
he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
Isaiah repeats this redemption theme so often that, because we can tune things out, we must never allow ourselves to become anesthetized. It is by constant faith that our redemption occurs, and that faith depends on constant reminders and revelations, whether through the scriptures or otherwise (meditating, singing, fellowshipping).
The redemption has been done (“have redeemed”)—will we accept it or insist on waiting for it to come? Put differently, will we live by faith or longing?
Summoned by name? Initially, that’s Jacob or Israel (individual names applied to a people) but other passages in the scriptures suggest we are called by our individual names and even given new names. All the evangelical talk about a “personal relationship with God”—whatever it may leave out—is on firm ground here. To think God doesn’t know us and call us by name is to think with disbelief.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
While the redemption has been accomplished (the life of God has been offered in exchange for the life of humans), it has not been worked out in time and space, with the result that floods and fires “will” come.
Jim Caldwell, who led our 1970s prayer meetings, was about as much like Jesus (or maybe Peter or John) as anyone I’ve known. Before that time, he had some kind of nervous breakdown, and it was this passage that put him into a good place for the rest of his life. I visited him when he was getting in his 80s and even then he was full of joy and love, a true grace case.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I give Egypt for your ransom,
Cush[a] and Seba in your stead.
Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you,
nations in exchange for your life.
Reading this allegorically (and, really, who wants God to literally sacrifice someone else for our sake?)…just as Israel trusted in Egypt, the very things we falsely trusted in—the crutches, vices, and distractions—will be demolished so we can be saved.
Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
I will bring your children from the east
and gather you from the west.
I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
I don’t understand the historical meaning of this theme, which occurs a few times, about missing sons and daughters. Certainly today the promise would comfort parents of children who had disappeared by choice or by the will of another (and this world has plenty of them).
For people like myself who are fortunate to be close to their children, as well as for those who have no children, one’s life works, such as writing books or composing songs, starting helpful organizations or having some role in the kingdom of God…these too are our children, these plans, efforts, and ambitions. They are often put aside for lesser things. And they will be restored as we stand by our redemption.
Taking “children” as metaphors links this scripture to one of the happiest promises from Joel (2:25): “And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten.”
<snip>
I, even I, am the Lord,
and apart from me there is no savior.
I have revealed and saved and proclaimed—
I, and not some foreign god among you.
You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God.
Yes, and from ancient days I am he.
No one can deliver out of my hand.
When I act, who can reverse it?”
Another reminder that the idols and gods did not rescue the people…no doubt the reminders would not be stated so often if it were not easy to forget the invisible being who lives outside of time and space… and even after the incarnation, we need the reminder that it is the Spirit, not things, circumstances, or people who hold the answers.
<snip>
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
Who isn’t tempted to live in the past? Many with guilt. Some with pride or self-satisfaction. Either way, that’s not the way. Forget the past and see the new thing.
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
The wild animals honor me,
the jackals and the owls,
because I provide water in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosen,
the people I formed for myself
that they may proclaim my praise.
The new thing is a surplus of provision—water, grace, health, deliverance…whatever makes us into whole people. The phrase “collateral damage” is turned on its head here. The collateral benefit is that even the animals prosper as the people do.
<snip>
“I, even I, am he who blots out
your transgressions, for my own sake,
and remembers your sins no more.
In the middle of chiding his people for going astray (again) comes this interesting statement that the forgiveness is for God’s sake, which I’m going to take to mean that it goes against God’s nature to harbor unforgiveness, just as it goes against God’s temperament to focus on people’s sins. God is all about forgiving and forgetting!
<snip>
Isaiah 44
But now listen, Jacob, my servant,
Israel, whom I have chosen.
This is what the Lord says—
he who made you, who formed you in the womb,
and who will help you:
Do not be afraid, Jacob, my servant,
Jeshurun [upright one], whom I have chosen.
For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring,
and my blessing on your descendants.
They will spring up like grass in a meadow,
like poplar trees by flowing streams.
Some will say, ‘I belong to the Lord’;
others will call themselves by the name of Jacob;
still others will write on their hand, ‘The Lord’s,’
and will take the name Israel.
And so in this age of identity politics and intersectionality, however important they may be, the better, higher identification is the declaration that “I belong to the Lord.” We see that this declaration transcends the historical mire of class and race differences. It is illustrated by abolitionists and guardians of minority rights who share the identity (I belong to the Lord). This list includes people as culturally disparate as Harriet Tubman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Wilberforce, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the current Pope Francis.
<snip>
I have made you, you are my servant;
Israel, I will not forget you.
I have swept away your offenses like a cloud,
your sins like the morning mist.
Return to me,
for I have redeemed you.
Sing for joy, you heavens, for the Lord has done this;
shout aloud, you earth beneath.
Burst into song, you mountains,
you forests and all your trees,
for the Lord has redeemed Jacob,
he displays his glory in Israel.
This passage is preceded by declarations from the Lord that “apart from me there is no God” followed by a tirade against idols and those who make idols, those who, from the same tree, build a fire for cooking a meal and an idol to worship, not realizing that they are imagining, not experiencing a divine thing. By contrast, the real God makes us, purifying us as the sun evaporates a morning fog.
Humans feel compelled to do something. Some make ancient or modern idols out of nature, while others learn to celebrate in harmony with nature the fact that they are made by God, not makers of gods:
<snip>
Isaiah 45
<snip>
Before me every knee will bow;
by me every tongue will swear.
They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone
are deliverance and strength.’”
All who have raged against him
will come to him and be put to shame.
This chapter, emphasizing as it does the Lord’s military power, doesn’t ignite my imagination with promises of deliverance, even though deliverance for his people is the outcome of that military power. But the chapter is probably important in that it establishes the sovereignty of God, a prerequisite to trusting him. More than that, it provides language that, in the New Testament, declares the supremacy of the Deliverer:
In Romans 14, Paul quotes the lines about every knee and every tongue in order to emphasize the grace of God in the following way. Some Christians regard religious holidays and rites, whereas others do not; some have (overly) sensitive consciences, whereas others do not. Both parties, apparently, were judging and condemning the other. Whenever we judge someone, we are taking on the role of divine judge, a role we simply do not possess and cannot carry out, knowing so little either about another person’s history or heart. When we remember we will all bow before God, that “each of us will give an account of ourselves to God,” then we will “stop passing judgment on one another.”
In Philippians 2, Paul echoes the passage in Isaiah again, with pizzazz. Jesus, after dying and rising, has been exalted and been given a name that is above every name, so that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Rarely in my life do I think of names as being hierarchic. But here we have a name above all names: Jesus (Deliverer) is above cancer, addiction, depression, and any other condition whose name strikes us with fear. This exaltation of Jesus, who shares his name with us (his believers are, after all, part of his body), brings glory to God the Father. Such glory—a state of radiance and celebration—is beyond my imagination, even if that is what I’ve looked for all my life.
<snip>
Isaiah 46
<snip>
Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
A promise I couldn’t appreciate earlier in life. And “carry”…as in carry an elderly person reaching a second childhood?
<snip>
Isaiah 47 ∅
<snip>
Isaiah 48 ∅
<snip>
Isaiah 49
What a golden chapter, in its entirety: pure redemption.
Listen to me, you islands;
hear this, you distant nations:
Before I was born the Lord called me;
from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.
He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me into a polished arrow
and concealed me in his quiver.
He said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”
But I said, “I have labored in vain;
I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,
and my reward is with my God.”
The islands suggest the global influence of the servant of God (yes, the Jewish nation, but significantly greater, Jesus).
[3]
And now the Lord says—
he who formed me in the womb to be his servant
to bring Jacob back to him
and gather Israel to himself,
for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord
and my God has been my strength—
he says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
This is what the Lord says—
the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel—
to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation,
to the servant of rulers:
“Kings will see you and stand up,
princes will see and bow down,
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
In the end, every knee will bow to Jesus.
This is what the Lord says:
“In the time of my favor I will answer you,
and in the day of salvation I will help you;
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people,
to restore the land
and to reassign its desolate inheritances,
to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’
and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’
“They will feed beside the roads
and find pasture on every barren hill.
They will neither hunger nor thirst,
nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them.
He who has compassion on them will guide them
and lead them beside springs of water.
I will turn all my mountains into roads,
and my highways will be raised up.
See, they will come from afar—
some from the north, some from the west,
some from the region of Aswan.”
Following the declarations of redemption—both physical and spiritual—comes this nice poetic spot: north, west, we expect “south” but instead get a city from Egypt that provides a soothing sound as well as the specificity of an Egyptian memory.
Shout for joy, you heavens;
rejoice, you earth;
burst into song, you mountains!
For the Lord comforts his people
and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.
But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me.”
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me.
It would be hard, even if it were bad hermeneutics, to avoid associating the palm of the hands with the wounds from the crucifiction, sealing the commitment of God to humanity.
Your children hasten back,
and those who laid you waste depart from you.
Lift up your eyes and look around;
all your children gather and come to you.
As surely as I live,” declares the Lord,
“you will wear them all as ornaments;
you will put them on, like a bride.
“Though you were ruined and made desolate
and your land laid waste,
now you will be too small for your people,
and those who devoured you will be far away.
The children born during your bereavement
will yet say in your hearing,
‘This place is too small for us;
give us more space to live in.’
Then you will say in your heart,
‘Who bore me these?
I was bereaved and barren;
I was exiled and rejected.
Who brought these up?
I was left all alone,
but these—where have they come from?’”
We may be unaware of our offspring who will be restored to us, whether literal children or lifetime efforts and goals that seem to have disappeared and gotten lost along the way.
This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“See, I will beckon to the nations,
I will lift up my banner to the peoples;
they will bring your sons in their arms
and carry your daughters on their hips.
Kings will be your foster fathers,
and their queens your nursing mothers.
They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground;
they will lick the dust at your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
those who hope in me will not be disappointed.”
Can plunder be taken from warriors,
or captives be rescued from the fierce[c]?
But this is what the Lord says:
“Yes, captives will be taken from warriors,
and plunder retrieved from the fierce;
I will contend with those who contend with you,
and your children I will save.
I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;
they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine.
Then all mankind will know
that I, the Lord, am your Savior,
your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
Even the lame shall
carry away plunder. Kings and queens will serve us, not because of who we are but because of who lives in us. And, finally, evil will destroy itself (“on their own blood”), as a result of what it is.
Isaiah 50
<snip>
The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears;
I have not been rebellious,
I have not turned away.
I offered my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face
from mocking and spitting.
Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,
I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
and I know I will not be put to shame.
He who vindicates me is near.
We recall the scourging of Jesus here, as well as an anticipation of Luke 9, where Jesus “steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem” (KJV)
[4]
<snip>
Let the one who walks in the dark,
who has no light,
trust in the name of the Lord
and rely on their God.
Moving from the suffering servant to the ones in darkness, the promise is that trust in the character of the Lord will guide them. This anticipates Jesus statement in John 9, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
<snip>
Isaiah 51
“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness
and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
and to the quarry from which you were hewn;
look to Abraham, your father,
and to Sarah, who gave you birth.
When I called him he was only one man,
and I blessed him and made him many.
Since neither myself nor many of my readers are descendants of Abraham and Sarah, this opening is included mostly for the poetry, especially the rock…cut and quarry…hewn.
The Lord will surely comfort Zion
and will look with compassion on all her ruins;
he will make her deserts like Eden,
her wastelands like the garden of the Lord.
Joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the sound of singing.
Standard good news, and who doesn’t live in a desert emotionally too much of the time? I hope to learn genuine thanksgiving and pleasing singing.
“Listen to me, my people;
hear me, my nation:
Instruction will go out from me;
my justice will become a light to the nations.
My righteousness draws near speedily,
my salvation is on the way,
and my arm will bring justice to the nations.
The islands will look to me
and wait in hope for my arm.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
look at the earth beneath;
the heavens will vanish like smoke,
the earth will wear out like a garment
and its inhabitants die like flies.
But my salvation will last forever,
my righteousness will never fail.
In the parlance of 1950s burger shops, we have “the works” here: no longer limited to Abraham’s biological offspring, justice will go to the nations while islands—a symbol of unknown cultures—will see the Lord and wait for his arm…and then then promised end of the universe, yet his salvation will last forever.
“Hear me, you who know what is right,
you people who have taken my instruction to heart:
Do not fear the reproach of mere mortals
or be terrified by their insults.
For the moth will eat them up like a garment;
the worm will devour them like wool.
But my righteousness will last forever,
my salvation through all generations.”
We hear these lines echoed by Jesus, don’t we, when he admonished us to seek the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness, which are permanent, unlike corruptible textiles, no matter how fine?
<snip>
Those the Lord has rescued will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
And so begins another promise of deliverance.
“I, even I, am he who comforts you.
Who are you that you fear mere mortals,
human beings who are but grass,
that you forget the Lord your Maker,
who stretches out the heavens
and who lays the foundations of the earth,
that you live in constant terror every day
because of the wrath of the oppressor,
who is bent on destruction?
For where is the wrath of the oppressor?
The cowering prisoners will soon be set free;
they will not die in their dungeon,
nor will they lack bread.
Promised is deliverance from human oppressors, which much of the world needs, while some of us need deliverance from the intangible emotions that both guide these oppressors and also oppress us mentally and emotionally. There’s more than one way to be a captive, but no matter the kind, the Lord promises to deliver us. What, then, when deliverance doesn’t appear? Read on…
<snip>
Rise up, Jerusalem,
you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord
the cup of his wrath,
you who have drained to its dregs
the goblet that makes people stagger.
<snip>
Therefore hear this, you afflicted one,
made drunk, but not with wine.
This is what your Sovereign Lord says,
your God, who defends his people:
“See, I have taken out of your hand
the cup that made you stagger;
from that cup, the goblet of my wrath,
you will never drink again.
I will put it into the hands of your tormentors,
who said to you,
‘Fall prostrate that we may walk on you.’
And you made your back like the ground,
like a street to be walked on.”
While God is powerful, the people do not experience his help. Even their children do not help them (an omitted passage). They are drunk and staggering, not on wine but on the wrath of God, that is, on the
the absence of God. Whether God is truly absent (might be an impossibility) or apparently absent, the promise is that we will drink from that cup
no longer.
Isaiah 52-53
Awake, awake, Zion,
clothe yourself with strength!
Put on your garments of splendor,
Jerusalem, the holy city.
The uncircumcised and defiled
will not enter you again.
Shake off your dust;
rise up, sit enthroned, Jerusalem.
Free yourself from the chains on your neck,
Daughter Zion, now a captive.
Renewal requires knowing one’s identity and one’s condition. To ignore identity results in isolation and despair. To ignore one’s condition results in apathy and inertia. The identity is strength, splendor, and holiness. That’s what we are, who we are. To actually think of ourselves that way will change our behavior. But if we are “now a captive,” we must acknowledge that condition, lest we sink into denial, living a split life (in theory, I’m doing great, in practice, terribly). Let the condition anger you so much that you shake off your dust, rise up, and sit enthroned.
For this is what the Lord says:
“You were sold for nothing,
and without money you will be redeemed.”
Being sold for nothing is the same as “stolen.” Just as sin, sickness, and addiction have stolen us, so without negotiating with them, God will bring us back. There are no deals to be made. The oppressors have stolen from—and therefore mock—the rightful owner of humanity (“you were bought at a price” the New Testament states). The agents that steal us are blaspheming God—all defeat is blasphemy. All sickness and all death are an insult to the redeemer’s existence. The addicted, sick, or dying person isn’t the one blaspheming. It’s the enemy that does that. The person is the victim that God longs to redeem. Death is the final enemy that Christ conquered but the will not be vanquished until the end of the present world.
For this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“At first my people went down to Egypt to live;
lately, Assyria has oppressed them.
“And now what do I have here?” declares the Lord.
“For my people have been taken away for nothing,
and those who rule them mock,”
declares the Lord.
“And all day long
my name is constantly blasphemed.
Therefore my people will know my name;
therefore in that day they will know
that it is I who foretold it.
Yes, it is I.”
The message of redemption breaks through, changing everything:
How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion,
they will see it with their own eyes.
Burst into songs of joy together,
you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
<snip>
The vision of redemption inspires one more servant song, prophesying the redemptive sufferings of Christ. It’s not that God needed to expunge his anger on Christ, but that humanity needed to expunge its anger on God. There is nothing to add to (or take away from) the words of the song:
[5]
See, my servant will act wisely[b];
he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
Just as there were many who were appalled at him—
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
and his form marred beyond human likeness—
so he will sprinkle many nations,
and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
and what they have not heard, they will understand.
[Isaiah chapter 53:]
Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 54
<snip>
The snipped verses do provide good news by describing God’s people as a wife who was both widowed and rejected but now “with everlasting kindness [the Lord] will have compassion on” his people.
“Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
<snip>
“. . . no weapon forged against you will prevail,
and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.”
These are the passages to remember and to declare!
<snip>
Isaiah 55
The entire chapter strikes me as a gentle call to a much better life. It’s one I memorized as a teenager.
“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a ruler and commander of the peoples.
Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations you do not know will come running to you,
because of the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor.”
Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
for an everlasting sign,
that will endure forever.”
Isaiah 56
This is what the Lord says:
“Maintain justice
and do what is right,
for my salvation is close at hand
and my righteousness will soon be revealed.
Blessed is the one who does this—
the person who holds it fast,
who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it,
and keeps their hands from doing any evil.”
There’s no getting around justice in Isaiah, including the reference to the Sabbath, which, like
fasting, was always intended to extend justice. It was made for man, not the reverse. When we honor the Sabbath, we take time to treat everyone especially well. Yes, our typically stressful selves, but also others, as Jesus did, going out of his way to heal on the Sabbath.
Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”
And let no eunuch complain,
“I am only a dry tree.”
For this is what the Lord says:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me
and hold fast to my covenant—
to them I will give within my temple and its walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that will endure forever.
Nearly any man would regret being a eunuch, but grace is here, not only for the literal eunuch but for all of us who have failed to produce the things we intended, the things that the locusts have devoured.
And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord
to minister to him,
to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
and who hold fast to my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain
and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations.”
One scandal of the gospel during acts of the apostles was the inclusion of gentiles to the kingdom. Here, as in
Isaiah 49 and elsewhere, “all nations” are welcomed.
<snip>
The chapter ends with harsh rebukes against “Israel’s watchmen.” The final lines, however, echo a dismal state of the modern mind so well that I let them have the last word:
“Come,” each one cries, “let me get wine!
Let us drink our fill of beer!
And tomorrow will be like today,
or even far better.”
Isaiah 57
The righteous perish,
and no one takes it to heart;
the devout are taken away,
and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away
to be spared from evil.
Those who walk uprightly
enter into peace;
they find rest as they lie in death.
Not the kind of good news I look for, normally, this is something to knock one out of one’s socio-economic bubble of security: life can get so bad that death is a blessing. This is echoed in the Book of Revelation, when people will beg the mountains to fall on them in order to escape the terrors.
<snip>A gruesome description of what the dying righteous are escaping: indiscriminate sex, child sacrifice, and idolatry—followed by token works of righteousness that fail to make ammends.</snip>
But whoever takes refuge in me
will inherit the land
and possess my holy mountain.”
And it will be said:
“Build up, build up, prepare the road!
Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.”
For this is what the high and exalted One says—
he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
The Lord commands some agent to remove obstacles—is this the people removing their own obstacles, or some other agent/angel/ally? Either way, the spirit of the Messiah who will not break a bruised reed or smother a smoldering wick reveals itself again. Though high and holy, he is close to the broken hearted and lowly.
<snip>
Isaiah 58
<snip>
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Contrary to what we usually think of when we think of fasting (time for me to be miserable and maybe get divine attention that way…), this chosen fast is to focus on others in need…it’s not our deprivation that brings the kingdom but our care for others. Extend grace to others and you are able to receive for yourself more grace….
<snip>Many promises of God’s restoration of Israel, but I’m starting with…</snip>
<snip>Passages represent God as “our Father,” which is promising, but also as a conquerer spattered with his enemies’ blood.</snip>
<snip>Skipping over the important “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.”</snip>
<snip>Skipping over wonderful poetry that describes how a ritual performed in the wrong spirit is worse than no ritual at all (“whoever sacrifics a bull is like one who kills a person”).</snip>
Not only the servant songs but the multitudinous passages concerning God’s healing and deliverance warrant the label of the fifth book of good news.