CHAPTER 20
It’s another brief chapter – in prose, not poetry
(alas). It’s just Isaiah warning
against trusting in Egypt and Ethiopia.
Again, it’s just focusing on international relations, circa 8th
century BC. Yawn.
CHAPTER 21
Now for a vision on the fall of Babylon. Sure, it’s about
time we got to them. We’ve checked the
box for pretty much everyone else. This one is a bit oddly disembodied. Once again, we get a long preamble, but
there is no depiction of the ruined Babylon.
Instead, you just get a rider telling the news– “Here he comes – a
single chariot – a pair of horses. He
calls out and says, `Fallen, fallen is Babylon!’” There’s a little more, but it’s more a dimly heard third hand
account.
Then we’re told of places called Dumah and “In the
Steppe.” These places are apparently
in/by the Arabian desert. Again, this
is a case where the Bible is getting into details about a place we don’t know
about and don’t really care about.
CHAPTER 22
This is another vision – it’s called “The Valley of
Vision.” I wish I knew what to tell you
about it, but it all seemed hazy and hard to follow. The loss of a central narrative makes this portion of the Bible
tricky. The fact that these visions are just jumbled together from over however
many decades doesn’t help much either.
The opening is standard prophecy of doom stuff. I get the feeling it refers to the siege of
Jerusalem as it talks once about “the City of David.” Yeah, that’s Jerusalem.
And you get a very famous line midway through: “Eat and
drink, for tomorrow we die!” Yeah, the
famous line is “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may die” but it’s
clear that line (from Shakespeare, I think) comes from this one). I’d love to analyze it a bit more, but the
context here is just so damn murky.
CHAPTER 23
Now we get visions of the towns of Tyre and Sidon. Not surprisingly, the visions sound
bad. “On that day, Tyre will be
forgotten for seventy years.”
Fortunately, this chapter seems to end this section of
Isaiah. I didn’t get much from it.
CHAPTER 24
This begins a series of four chapters on the
apocalypse. On the one hand, this feels
a bit old, because we’ve already gotten the general gist of things from
previous chapters: God will punish the world for its sinfulness, but when the
horror show is over, it’ll be awesome.
The apocalypse will be a purifying experience that will create paradise
on earth. Yeah, I know. We’ve already heard that.
But … Isaiah’s way with words is so great sometimes! As always, try to imagine someone like
Martin Luther King Jr. speaking in the following section: “People and priest
shall fare alike: servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller,
lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.”
It’s nothing deep and it’s just a basic description, but I just love the
series of contrasting parallels. Stuff
like this has a big impact on many preachers, including King.
Isaiah also says, “The earth is polluted because of its
inhabitants” – Hey, an environmental bit in the Bible! Well, maybe not, as the verse continues,
“for they have transgressed laws, violated statutes, broken the ancient
custom.” Oh. But it did sound mighty green there for a second.
CHAPTER 25
It’s more of the same.
Doom and gloom will come – but it’ll be the bad guys who suffer. God is the guy who bullies the bullies. Isaiah says of the Lord of Hosts: “For you
have been a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress.” He looks after the little guys. He’s a supernatural Tom Joad.
Also, one thing I should note about Isaiah and
Christianity. Not only is Isaiah a
forerunner of Christ because he prophesies of a coming messiah. Also, the theology is similar. A horrible time will come, but it will
purify things and lead to a better world for all? That’s the last book of the New Testament. I’m shaky on the exact theology of Christ
himself, but I think this is similar to what Jesus and/or St. Paul said would
happen. So Isaiah doesn’t just say Christ is coming – he gives Christ some of
his main ideas.
CHAPTER 26
Yeah, however well written it is (and even better I’m sure
it sounds when spoken), it is repetitive. As near as I can tell, it’s the same
message time after time in Chapters 24 to 27.
It’s actually pretty nasty at times. Isaiah says of God and humanity in the
coming apocalypse: “Dead they are, they cannot live, shades that cannot
rise. Indeed, you have punished and
destroyed them and wiped out all memory of them.” Yeah, that’s pretty nasty.
But, like all of these chapters, the moments of darkness are
contrasted with moments of light.
CHAPTER 27
Another chapter on the apocalypse. This time, God has his own pet monster, Leviathan. Yeah, that just seems weird that God has his
own pet monster. But oh well. …
We’re told (again) that God will replenish things with the
seeds of Jacob after the apocalypse.
Hold on a second – why does God thing that’ll work? Why does God think he’ll get the happily
ever after.
He’ll have an apocalypse and it’ll all work out fine? Guess what – he already had his apocalypse
and it didn’t work out fine. Noah. The Flood.
All that. That was an apocalypse. He wiped out all the wicked people and
started over with the God – just as he intends to do here again. Fat lot of good that did him. People moved away from him.
He tried to start over with just one chunk of humanity –
Abraham and his kin. Lot of good that
did. The first generations started out
fine, but then they move away from him.
So now the plan is to blow it all up and pray it back together? Well, given how that has never worked, why
would he want to try it again?
He’s given people free will. As one of those people, I say, “Thanks!” But this free will thing pretty much ensures
that the wonderful and majestic happily ever after Isaiah foretells will never
happen. People don’t do happily ever
after.
Click here for the next chunk of Isaiah.
Click here for the next chunk of Isaiah.
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