START WITH SCRIPTURE:
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OBSERVE:
In ancient times, many kingdoms that were encompassed with mountains had a kind of “early warning system,” long before the radar stations and satellites of our day.
Watchmen were stationed on the mountains, watching the mountain passes and the distant roads, scanning the horizons. If they saw invaders approaching, they sent messengers to the capital to give warning. Sometimes there were a series of watch-stations in the mountains. When an army was sighted, a large bonfire was ignited, and then the next station would ignite their bonfire, and then the next, so that the signal could be seen from miles away.
In this case, however, the “Invader” is not a dreaded enemy. In this oracle, the news that the watchman brings is good news. It is such good news that the prophet extols even the messenger’s feet!
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news…
Here in a nutshell is the good news that the messenger proclaims. He is one who:
publishes peace,
who brings good news,
who proclaims salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
We are reminded of Isaiah’s times. He is speaking to people who had been ruled by a succession of kings in Israel and Judah — some of them good and well meaning, but most of them either incompetent or evil. And very likely these are people who have experienced invasion from Assyrian and Babylonian armies, and even exile. The thought that God would once again reign over them was a source of joy.
Thus the watchmen are described as singing their message!
Your watchmen lift up their voice,
together they sing;
for they shall see eye to eye, when Yahweh returns to Zion.
And Isaiah summons even this devastated city of Jerusalem, which has seen so much suffering, to sing for joy:
Break out into joy,
sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem;
for Yahweh has comforted his people.
Most likely, this oracle celebrates the eventual return of Jews from exile. God has redeemed Jerusalem from their captivity. Like hostages, their freedom has been purchased by a God willing to ransom them.
However, Isaiah’s vision is not limited to the Jewish exiles. God’s promise of salvation includes even the nations (the gentiles):
Yahweh has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations;
and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
APPLY:
The message of deliverance is immensely welcome to those who have been in captivity. Of course this was a message of hope to the exiled community of the Jews in Persia.
However, the Christian reader also sees a broader application. The Apostle Paul applies this oracle to the preaching of the Good News of Jesus Christ. He asks a series of questions that emphasize the importance of the messenger, and concludes with his quotation from Isaiah 52:7.
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News of peace,
who bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:14-15).
And Paul also emphasizes the same theme that Isaiah stresses — that this promise of salvation is for all people!
The messengers and the message bring the good news of the coming of Jesus, and his promise of salvation.
RESPOND:
There is an old Negro Spiritual that has become identified as a Christmas carol:
Go, tell it on the mountain,
Over the hills and everywhere
Go, tell it on the mountain,
That Jesus Christ is born.
The carol describes the shepherds who watched their fields by night. And we are reminded by Luke’s Gospel that after the shepherds received their visitation from the heavenly hosts, and then hastened to see this newborn child, this is what they did:
When they saw it, they publicized widely the saying which was spoken to them about this child. All who heard it wondered at the things which were spoken to them by the shepherds (Luke 2:17-18).
Receiving the Good News of Jesus Christ makes us his messengers as well. When we receive good news, the most natural thing in the world is for us to share that good news with others. That is why every Christian is an evangelist.
Lord, thank you for the Good News of Jesus Christ and his salvation. And thank you for the ‘beautiful feet’ of those who shared that Good News with me long ago. Enable me in turn to share that Good News as well. Amen.
PHOTO:
“Submitted by Naomi Green” by WELSTech Podcast has been dedicated to the Public Domain.
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