PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

One random thought that I had while I was reading this chapter is found in vs.12 where Isaiah has the Lord say to us: “You are my witnesses.”  So, Stacy and I served for 4 years within the Waldensian Church in Italy.  A very well known Italian author wrote about this church in a book entitled: “You are my witnesses.”  I am not encouraging you to buy it, but just showing it here to prove that it is a real thing: https://www.amazon.com/You-Are-My-Witnesses-Waldensians/dp/8870160890.

The story of the Waldensians is uplifting.  A small pre-Reformation group that formed 300 years before the Reformation and believed that the Bible should be readable to all and that all people had a right to interpret the Bible. They were persecuted and fled from Southern France to the Northern Alps in Italy.  As Waldensian Pastors in Italy, keep in mind these churches ministered to Italians and were in Italian and not to English language folks, we were daily aware that we were in the minority and that as Protestant in Italy you  were constantly subjected to misunderstandings and assumptions which were at times very hurtful.  

But there was also a sense of pride that this small minority was a significant minority as it established hospitals and schools and churches across the country.  My two oldest daughters were born in a Waldensian hospital in Southern Italy.  So when I read Isaiah tell us that we are the witnesses that the Lord has to use, I think, right you are.

Other verses in this chapter that are significant are found in vs.18-19 where we find that the Lord is doing a new thing.  He describes this new thing as making a way in the wilderness (we have seen this John the Baptist thing already a number of times) and making rivers in the desert.   These two examples are picked up today as examples of ways in which God is doing new things among us which often times conflict and contradict what has been church orthodoxy for a number of years.  I’m not really on board with that, although I do believe that God has done and will do new things, but they will not conflict and contradict His Word.  Just sayin…

Once again a very significant chapter in Isaiah.  This is the Scripture that Jesus read while he was in his home synagogue in Nazareth.  There is talk about liberating the poor and the oppressed in this chapter.   There is talk in this chapter that would automatically label the person saying it as a bleeding heart whose only concern is pie in the sky.  But it is Scripture and it is powerful and it leads us to reconsider, I hope, the priorities that we have set as a culture.

This is also considered a suffering servant Scripture.  There are number of them in Isaiah that describe a suffering servant that is supposed to be predictive of who Jesus came to be.  I find it fascinating the way in which the Messiah, Jesus, was portrayed.  He was seen in vs.1-4 as someone who has the Spirit of the Lord upon him.  Now notice this progression of thought.  He is seen as someone who brings justice to the nations, so by default our mind goes to someone who is strong and governs with strength.  But then it is followed up with he will not cry or lift up his voice.  It states that a bruised reed he does not break.  He will not even quench a dimly burning wick.  His meekness is exemplary, and yet in vs.3 it concludes that thought by saying that he will faithfully bring forth justice.

How does someone who doesn’t speak loudly, someone who is not boastful, someone who doesn’t toot their own horn, someone who doesn’t make other people look bad, someone who doesn’t insist on their own way govern effectively?  Don’t you have to be pompous and strong, and braggadocios in order to get something done?  Don’t you have to insist on your own way if you want to get anything accomplished?  Apparently the Christly example that we have which actually works says all of those things are self defeating.   We could potentially be seeing it played out right now in our historical moment in which we find ourselves.  

Servant leadership is seen as the way to lead in all avenues of life.  What a thought.

God is once again declaring His place as the Creator and what that means in respect to who we are as the creature.  If you look at vs.4 you can see the author state: “I, the Lord, am first, and will be the last.”  That should sound a lot like what we read in Revelation 22:13 where Jesus says: I am the Alpha and the Omega, I am the the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”  That is certainly who God is, and certainly who we are not.

But in the midst of clarifying roles and positions, God still advocates for us and says that he will put all of our enemies to shame.  That’s nice.  On the one hand he tells Jacob not to fear, but on the other hand he calls Jacob a worm.  On the one hand he tells Israel that he will help them and on the other hand he calls them an insect.  He also states that he does not forsake those who are poor and needy.  

This is a chapter that requires extensive time to get the whole import of it.  It is hugely powerful, hugely.  Let’s start from the back and work our way forward.  First, look at vss.27-31, these are verses that I read at every celebration of resurrection that we have.  I love this one line: “Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk  and not faint.”  It is simply powerful,  and encouraging, and leads you to a place where you really do believe that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

But then if you go back to the beginning of the chapter you find classic Lenten Scriptures that ask God to comfort His people because they have already paid their price for their sins.  The author states that Jerusalem has served her term and that her penalty is paid.  She will get back double of what was taken from her.  In the Jewish law you received double back from someone who stole from you.  So the assumption is that she was robbed.  But then we get the words of John the Baptist who cried out in the wilderness just like the Gospels say that he does.  This is a Scripture that is used often and completely to depict a time (Advent or Lent) when we are waiting for the coming of the King of Kings.  

But notice that the time of waiting is not just waiting, it is a time of preparation for the way of the Lord.  We have to be at work to prepare ourselves and to prepare the world for the coming of the King.  There is so much in this chapter that as I look over each verse after I’ve read it I want to say more.  There is an emphasis that our lives are but grass which the Lord can blow over at any moment.  What a sobering, true statement.  Dwell in this Scripture this week.  Soak it in and allow it to shape and mold you.

The only thing I can say is that I really don’t like Hezekiah all that much.  What we read in this chapter is that the prophecy for Hezekiah is that his children will be carried away to Babylon along with the entire population and his sons will be castrated and forced into prostitution and slavery.  Hezekiah does the math and realizes that while this may very well happen, it will not happen until after he is long dead.  His reaction?  At least there will be peace and security in my reign, too bad for my kids.  Yeah, not a great example of a father figure.

The problem is that Hezekiah received some visitors who came to wish him well after his miraculous recover and he basically gave them the 50 cent tour of his kingdom.  As a result they saw value in it.  These visitors were from Babylon and they liked what they saw.  I guess I can also say that not only do I dislike him, but he really isn’t the brightest bulb in the box.  The Scripture says that he specifically showed them all of his treasures, which were massive, and all of his defenses, which apparently were lacking.  

So, if you are ever feeling a bit sickly go ahead and take a lump of figs and apply them to a boil and voila`, you’ll feel much better, it might even take you away from the edge of the grave.  At least it worked for Hezekiah in this Scripture.  God told him that he was going to die, no other options.  But Hezekiah turned to the Lord and prayed to the Lord and asked for relief and he wept bitterly.  He pointed to his faithfulness in life and that should count for something.  We know better, but God does add exactly 15 years to his life because he had heard his prayers.

In fact, Isaiah will send him a sign that is not easily interpreted in the Scripture.  It seems to imply that Isaiah will turn back time ten steps, which is an unspecified period of time.  But it works and Hezekiah feels well enough afterward to write from vs.9 and following.  He is determined that this will not beat him and that one day soon he will be able to sing to stringed instruments.  His declaration in vs.20 is that: “The Lord will save me.”

That ought to be our declaration of confidence before the Lord as well.  

We find ourselves in a story that is historical, so stay with it until the bitter end.  Hezekiah is the king of Judah, or we can call it Israel, it is the Southern Kingdom, but we will call it Israel anyway, easier to understand that way and somewhat historically correct as well.  The king of Assyria sent his messenger in the previous chapter basically to mock the God of Israel and to threaten total destruction if they don’t surrender.  So King Hezekiah goes to contemplate what surrender would look like and calls in all of his religious leaders to help him figure out what he should do.  

Isaiah’s voice (remember Isaiah was a prophet of Israel so he would have been called in to give advice) comes out loud and clear in this time and he tells the king of Israel that the Assyrian King will not enter Jerusalem so he can take heart.  As proof of this prophecy the angel of the Lord comes and strikes down all of the Assyrian army dead.  That was one way to prove that the Lord was in command.  King Sennacherib also heads home and there he is subjected to patricide where his sons kill him.  They flee and another son takes over.  

As I walked into the building today a member of the church grabbed me and said, how could the Lord just come and slaughter 185,000 people.  I have a real problem with that.  For some reason I don’t have a problem with that.  I don’t have a problem with the angel of the Lord coming and slaughtering all of the first born of Egypt.  I don’t have a problem with the angel of the Lord slaying Ananias and Sapphira when they lie to the Holy Spirit in Acts of the Apostles.  It isn’t that I welcome death and murder, no, it isn’t that.  It is that I understand who is in charge and when God acts, well, God acts.  I keep being reminded in my own life that I am just the clay and I am very comfortable not asking the potter what in the world is He doing, even when I have no idea what He is doing.  

This is a hurdle that not everyone gets over, I understand that.  But I think it is one that everyone has to get over at some point in life.  We often use our own measuring sticks to ascertain the morality of God.  That simply does not work.  We can’t judge God to be unrighteous according to our own system of values, no matter how self-evident they may be.  God simply cannot be held to any standard at all.  God is the one who has created the standard and against that God is not to be measured.

So we have an exact date and time for when this event, this confrontation, took place in the Israelite history.  We know that this took place in 701 when the Assyrian King Sennacherib defeated Hezekiah and the people of Judah.  Now, you wouldn’t know that from reading this chapter or the next, but we do see that Hezekiah did stand up to the Assyrian king and trusted that God would deliver.  We also know that historically even though Judah was overcome, somehow Hezekiah was able to retain his throne even though his own daughters were taken away in captivity.  

Some details that might be interesting.  The term “the Rabshakeh” means literally the cup bearer of the king, so someone who was sent as a messenger of the king, someone who was close to and important to the king.  He mocks the alliance that they had with Egypt which quickly crumbled.  We also know that at this point they had an alliance with Babylon against Assyria, but Babylon quickly fell leaving Israel all alone to defend themselves.  He mocks the gods of the other nations that had fallen to the Assyrians and wondered why the Israelites thought they were any more special than these nations that had succumbed and whose gods had also been captured.  

It is interesting that the appeal of the Jewish leaders was that the envoy would not speak Hebrew out of concern that the regular old people of the city would be able to understand it.  That request just emboldens him even more.  Aramaic was used as the language of diplomacy and it was a language that would not be able to be understood by the regular old people within the city.  But the envoy mocks that request as well and tries to strike fear within the people of the city.  You have to get to the people if you want to conquer a nation.  It is not enough to defeat the soldiers, you have to defeat the people as well.  

It is obvious that those who brought the word to Hezekiah were concerned, enough concerned to tear their clothes.  The question remained for everyone involved was when was the last time that reliance on the Lord actually worked.  We have a whole Scripture full of examples.  But when we are faced with seemingly overwhelming odds they seem, well, overwhelming.

This is a breath of fresh air as we read about the promise of the new day that will come where there will be singing and rejoicing.  God will strengthen the weak hands and he will be present with us so that we do not need to fear.  If you look at vs. 5 it should sound similar to what Jesus says when he preaches in his home town synagogue in Nazareth in Luke 4:17-21 where he speaks about giving sight to the blind from the scroll of Isaiah.  Now that Scripture in Luke and what Jesus says in the synagogue is actually taken from Isaiah 61 and 58.  This should tell us that this theme of liberation and this theme of ministering to the most marginalized in our community is something that Jesus commands us to do.  

But back to Isaiah…I love the image of a highway in the wilderness, something that is also a consistent motif in Hebrew Scripture as the people of Israel wandered in the wilderness and had no highway or no way out at all.  The image of the burning sand becoming a pool and the thirsty ground a spring of water is refreshing.  I can think of no other image that a person stuck in the wilderness would want.  

It is interesting that this path and this vision is limited just to the people of God.  No one unclean would ever be allowed on it.  No threat to people would be allowed on it, like a lion for example.  There will be a glad reunion as people come back to the temple rejoicing that the process of restoration begun long ago is now completed.  Listen to the end of this chapter in Isaiah and take refuge/consolation in what is written.

“And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

So you blink and all of a sudden you start reading about the sword of the Lord which is consumed with blood and fat from the carnage that He has enacted.  The wrath of the Lord in this Scripture is especially focused on Edom who is a neighbor of Israel\.  If you look at the map that I included in chapter 13 you’ll see where Edom resides, just to the southeast of Israel.  Edom was an arch enemy of the Israelites and they were starting to lose their ferocity with the encroachment of nomadic tribes in the area during Isaiah’s time.  They were responsible for the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem so Isaiah saves some of his harshest words for Edom.  

Isaiah also has a number of examples from nature that are fascinating.  If you look at vs.11 you see the hawk, hedgehog and owl and raven present.  Unfortunately it is not the best kept Hebrew so this verse is a bit more of a guess than us actually knowing that these animals were originally mentioned by the author.  But then he does mention a whole variety of animals that will be present in the waste and wilderness that is created by the action of the Lord against Edom.  We find mentioned jackals, ostriches, wildcats, hyenas, goat-demons (?), owl, and buzzards.  A real Noah’s ark of unwanted animals.

If you look at vs.14 you will see Lilith mentioned.  She was a hostile goddess associated with the religion of the Edomities, which was Sumerian mythology.  Interestingly enough later on she becomes in Hebrew lore the first wife of Adam.  I never knew that Eve was Adam’s second wife…Again, none of this is Scriptural, but Lilith would have been known by the people of Israel and she would have been feared.

If you look at vs. 16 you will see a command to read from the book of the Lord because God has commanded us to and his spirit will draw us  closer to him.  I’m just listening to this song now, I’m really into it.  For some reason, it seems to fit here.  The Spirit of the Lord can and should be upon us.