Old Testament for December 17, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

A famous preacher has said that the purpose of preaching is to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.”  In this passage, the purpose of Isaiah is to comfort those who have been afflicted.

As part of the section of Isaiah called by some the “Third Isaiah” this passage is possibly written after the exile of the Jews from Jerusalem, which occurred in 587 B.C., at the hands of the Babylonians.

The prophet is claiming divine inspiration for his oracle:

The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me;
because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble.

Therefore, what follows describes the focus of his ministry — the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, the prisoners.  This confirms his word of comfort to those in exile.

There is also the reference to the Year of Jubilee declared in Leviticus 25 — that is, the year of the Lord’s favor that occurred every 50 years. In this year slaves were freed and the possession of ancestral land reverted to its original owners.  This would be very poignant to people who were captives and exiled from their homeland.

He calls for a time of celebration, signified by festive symbols:

to provide for those who mourn in Zion,
to give to them a garland for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…

And the rebuilding of cities that have been destroyed confirms the interpretation that the Prophet is envisioning a return of the Jews to their homeland, where they will rebuild what has been razed.

Yahweh himself then speaks, in verses 8-11.  Yahweh makes it clear that his standard of righteousness for the returning community is extremely high:

For I, Yahweh, love justice.
I hate robbery and iniquity.
I will give them their reward in truth,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

The language that Yahweh uses is restorative.  He will be restoring the covenant that Israel had broken.  This was the covenant established in obedience to the law, that guaranteed a holy heritage in the past, and will restore that legacy:

Their offspring will be known among the nations,
and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge them,
that they are the offspring which Yahweh has blessed.

Isaiah’s oracle then returns to symbols of celebration.  He describes the scene in terms of a wedding:

 I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh!
My soul will be joyful in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation.
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Weddings, and wedding feasts, are a frequent symbol in Scripture of the eschatological hope of Israel and the New Testament church.  Here, the bridegroom and bride represent the joyful community of exiles who will return to their ancestral home in Israel.

Finally, Isaiah compares the restoration of Israel to a fertile garden, which will benefit not only the chosen people but all nations.

The bottom line, is that the restoration of Jerusalem will be as prosperous and peaceful as it had been devastating and violent when Judah was destroyed in 587 B.C.

APPLY:  

While we can easily see the post-exilic hope of return for Israel, we have to ask ourselves why this passage shows up in our Advent cycle of readings.  While there are people and ethnic groups that can testify to feeling like exiles from their homeland, why does this particular passage speak to all of us?

The answer is found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 4. Jesus returns to his hometown in Nazareth and, as is the custom on a Sabbath day, attends synagogue. As a visiting rabbi, he is given the scrolls of the prophets. He reads publicly from this great text:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the broken hearted,
to proclaim release to the captives,
recovering of sight to the blind,
to deliver those who are crushed,
and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (Luke 4:18-19).

This must have been a comforting text, to the Jewish brethren of Jesus in the synagogue. Since the defeat of the Hasmonean kings by the Romans in 63 B.C., Israel had been occupied territory, and they had been like exiles in their own land.

So, the congregation that day may have expected Jesus to say a word about their future hope for deliverance — when one day the Messiah would come. But to their shock Jesus says very simply:

Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing (Luke 4:21)

In other words, they need wait no longer for the Messiah to come, who would bring good news to the poor, bind up the hearts of the brokenhearted, and free the captives.  He had come to do just that!

Instead of words of comfort, these had become words of either heresy or faith!  Either Jesus is who he says he is, or he is a fraud.  And subsequent events would provide conclusive evidence that Jesus is the real thing!

If Jesus is our prophet, who proclaims good news to the poor; if he is our priest who binds up the wounds of the brokenhearted; if he is our king who liberates all of us from our addiction to sin and our imprisonment to oppression, then indeed his words are fulfilled in our hearing as well!

RESPOND: 

When I hear the words of Scripture I can react one of two ways — I can simply listen as though they are the words of some ancient, dusty dead men that have no relevance to me; or I can realize that those words come alive when I hear them in faith.  If the latter, then Jesus proclaims good news to my poor spirit, binds up my broken heart, and releases me from captivity to sin and death!

Our Lord, may I listen for your living word in my own heart, and know that I too have been liberated and healed.  You have fulfilled your promises for me and all who trust in you. Amen.  

PHOTOS:
“Isaiah 61” by Tim Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for December 13, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

A famous preacher has said that the purpose of preaching is to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.”  In this passage, the purpose of Isaiah is to comfort those who have been afflicted.

As part of the section of Isaiah called by some the “Third Isaiah” this passage is possibly written after the exile of the Jews from Jerusalem, which occurred in 587 B.C., at the hands of the Babylonians.

The prophet is claiming divine inspiration for his oracle:

The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me;
because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble.

Therefore, what follows describes the focus of his ministry — the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, the prisoners.  This confirms his word of comfort to those in exile.

There is also the reference to the Year of Jubilee declared in Leviticus 25 — that is, the year of the Lord’s favor that occurred every 50 years. In this year slaves were freed and the possession of ancestral land reverted to its original owners.  This would be very poignant to people who were captives and exiled from their homeland.

He calls for a time of celebration, signified by festive symbols:

to provide for those who mourn in Zion,
to give to them a garland for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…

And the rebuilding of cities that have been destroyed confirms the interpretation that the Prophet is envisioning a return of the Jews to their homeland, where they will rebuild what has been razed.

Yahweh himself then speaks, in verses 8-11.  Yahweh makes it clear that his standard of righteousness for the returning community is extremely high:

For I, Yahweh, love justice.
I hate robbery and iniquity.
I will give them their reward in truth,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

The language that Yahweh uses is restorative.  He will be restoring the covenant that Israel had broken.  This was the covenant established in obedience to the law, that guaranteed a holy heritage in the past, and will restore that legacy:

Their offspring will be known among the nations,
and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge them,
that they are the offspring which Yahweh has blessed.

Isaiah’s oracle then returns to symbols of celebration.  He describes the scene in terms of a wedding:

 I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh!
My soul will be joyful in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation.
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Weddings, and wedding feasts, are a frequent symbol in Scripture of the eschatological hope of Israel and the New Testament church.  Here, the bridegroom and bride represent the joyful community of exiles who will return to their ancestral home in Israel.

Finally, Isaiah compares the restoration of Israel to a fertile garden, which will benefit not only the chosen people but all nations.

The bottom line, is that the restoration of Jerusalem  will be as prosperous and peaceful as it had been devastating and violent when Judah was destroyed in 587 B.C.

APPLY:  

While we can easily see the post-exilic hope of return for Israel, we have to ask ourselves why this passage shows up in our Advent cycle of readings.  While there are people and ethnic groups that can testify to feeling like exiles from their homeland, why does this particular passage speak to all of us?

The answer is found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 4. Jesus returns to his hometown in Nazareth and, as is the custom on a Sabbath day, attends synagogue. As a visiting rabbi, he is given the scrolls of the prophets. He reads publically from this great text:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the broken hearted,
to proclaim release to the captives,
recovering of sight to the blind,
to deliver those who are crushed,
and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (Luke 4:18-19).

This must have been a comforting text, to the Jewish brethren of Jesus in the synagogue. Since the defeat of the Hasmonean kings by the Romans in 63 B.C., Israel had been occupied territory, and they had been like exiles in their own land.

So, the congregation that day may have expected Jesus to say a word about their future hope for deliverance — when one day the Messiah would come. But to their shock Jesus says very simply:

Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing (Luke 4:21)

In other words, they need wait no longer for the Messiah to come, who would bring good news to the poor, bind up the hearts of the brokenhearted, and free the captives.  He had come to do just that!

Instead of words of comfort, these had become words of either heresy or faith!  Either Jesus is who he says he is, or he is a fraud.  And subsequent events would provide conclusive evidence that Jesus is the real thing!

If Jesus is our prophet, who proclaims good news to the poor; if he is our priest who binds up the wounds of the brokenhearted; if he is our king who liberates all of us from our addiction to sin and our imprisonment to oppression, then indeed his words are fulfilled in our hearing as well!

RESPOND: 

When I hear the words of Scripture I can react one of two ways — I can simply listen as though they are the words of some ancient, dusty dead men that have no relevance to me; or I can realize that those words come alive when I hear them in faith.  If the latter, then Jesus proclaims good news to my poor spirit, binds up my broken heart, and releases me from captivity to sin and death!

Our Lord, may I listen for your living word in my own heart, and know that I too have been liberated and healed.  You have fulfilled your promises for me and all who trust in you. Amen.  

PHOTOS:
“Isaiah 61” by Tim Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.