Old Testament for December 31, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
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OBSERVE:

The Book of Isaiah has sometimes been referred to as the Fifth Gospel, although it is an Old Testament book. Christians have especially revered Isaiah because of the frequent references to the Hebrew prophetic oracles that are found in the New Testament Gospels, as well as several epistles.  New Testament writers have mined Isaiah for its treasury of prophecies. References to Isaiah occur in the New Testament a total of eighty-five times.

Many scholars believe that Isaiah 61:10-62:3 (our lectionary reading) was not written by the original Isaiah, the historic prophet who lived in Jerusalem in the eighth century B.C.  These scholars believe that there were at least three different writers of the book we know as Isaiah:

• Proto-Isaiah (i.e., First Isaiah, who wrote and was the subject of Isaiah 1-39)
• Deutero-Isaiah (i.e., Second Isaiah, who wrote Isaiah 40-55)
• Trito-Isaiah (i.e., Third Isaiah, who wrote Isaiah 56-66)

They argue that the works of multiple prophets were collected and edited as one work.

From the perspective of the Christian church, this misses the point.  The Scriptures are the church’s book, intended to reinforce the revelation of God to his people, and to inspire faith.  The historical-critical method employed by Biblical scholars is interesting, but it risks the deconstruction of doctrinal foundations when it becomes the primary consideration of the text. More on that a little later.

In its present context, Isaiah 61:10-62:3 is a psalm of great joy.  The central metaphor is that of a wedding — the garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness, which are themselves metaphorical, are compared to the garland of a bridegroom and the jewels adorning a bride.  The prophet is decked out for celebration, as if for a wedding.

The prophet then transitions to a new metaphor, comparing the agricultural fruitfulness of the earth and the garden to the springing up of God’s righteousness:

 For as the earth produces its bud,
and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring up;
so the Lord Yahweh will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

We see one of the frequent themes of Isaiah — that Yahweh’s blessings aren’t meant merely for Israel, but also for all the nations.  The nations is a Biblical term for the Gentiles — God’s covenant is inclusive, not exclusive.

Nevertheless, Zion and Jerusalem continue to hold a central place in this scenario, as a source of spiritual enlightenment:

For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace,
and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,
until her righteousness shines out like the dawn,
and her salvation like a burning lamp.

Though the blessings of salvation are to be extended even to the Gentiles, those blessings emanate originally from Jerusalem — i.e., the Jews.

And other nations and their political systems — all kings — will be aware of the centrality of Jerusalem.

The metaphors Isaiah uses describe the royalty inherent in Jerusalem — perhaps hearkening back to the royal dynasty of David himself:

 You will also be a crown of beauty in Yahweh‘s hand,
and a royal diadem in your God‘s hand.

APPLY:  

We never forget the intimate connection of the Old and New Testament when we read the Scriptures.  The restoration and salvation of Israel prefigure the restoration and salvation of even Gentiles, which describes the vast majority of Christians today.

On this Sunday, which is the first Sunday after Christmas, we share in the same joy that the exiled Israelites must have experienced when they returned from Babylon to Jerusalem.  Christians, who have been exiled by our “fears and sins” have been released by the coming of Jesus into our world and into our lives.

We are the bride of Christ — the church — and we rejoice in our union with him. We grow the fruit of righteousness in the fertile soil of God’s garden. Christ has become the light and lamp of our lives. And because we are now co-heirs with Christ, we are regarded as royalty because we are his brothers and sisters. As the Apostle Peter declares:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

RESPOND: 

I promised to return to the discussion about the identity of Isaiah. The bottom line is, what difference does it make?  The writers of Scripture weren’t concerned with getting credit for their writing — they were bearing witness not to themselves but to the Living God.  It is their words and their witness that matters, not their identity.

As an English major, I was only mildly interested in the heated debates about the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays.  Some scholars have questioned whether the Bard of Avon wrote all of the plays attributed to him.  Some have suggested that Christopher Marlowe wrote some, or Walter Raleigh, or even Queen Elizabeth herself!

We won’t ever really know — and it doesn’t matter.  In this case, as in the case of Isaiah, the message is more important than the messenger.

Lord, you have come into our world, and we rejoice — like a bride and bridegroom at a wedding. Our own lives bear fruit in righteousness and praise because you are with us. Your light guides us. And we are your royal heirs, as sisters and brothers of Christ.  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“v11-Soil-Seed-Garden-Grow-Spring-Up” by Lex McKee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.