CHAPTER 40
OK, now comes the Second Isaiah. Officially, everything in this book goes to one prophet:
Isaiah. But in one of the few moments
of essentially universal agreement among Biblical scholars, there is no way
that’s so.
The first 39 chapters come from a prophet who we’re told got
the call in 742 BC and survived the big siege of Jerusalem 20 years later. But the guy behind Chapters 40-55 is living
in the Babylonian Captivity, which began decades after the siege. Well, maybe he just lived a long time –
except that he’ll name check Cyrus the Great of Persia, who is the man that
ended the siege. Folks. The Captivity
last over 70 years and didn’t begin until maybe 40 years after Isaiah got the
call, and he was an adult when the got the call and … yeah, that doesn’t add
up.
Also, nowhere at all in Chapters 40-55 is Isaiah ever
named. Whoever had these visions never
thought to tell us his name. If you
think about it, that makes sense. He’s living in Babylon and foretelling the
collapse of Babylon. Yeah, that might
not fly. So he stays anonymous. Then later on, it sounds similar to Isaiah
of old, and so all gets run together.
It also explains why Chapters 36-39 are where they are. They are this weird historical addendum upon
the prophecies. Why put an addendum in
the middle of the book? Because it’s an
addendum to the original Isaiah, before you get into the Second Isaiah.
Here, Second Isaiah says that the Lord will save his people. They’ve done their time, the big man has had
his wrath – but it’ll all be good soon.
In the mean time, make sure you don’t fall into the trap of worshipping
false idols. Yeah, God still really
hates that.
CHAPTER 41
God is praised as the liberator of Israel. This is just what people want to here while
living in Babylon. All before God are
unimportant. All other rulers are
nothing: “Ah, all of them are nothing, their works are naught, their idols,
empty wind!”
God even gets in some digs at the Children of Israel as
well: “Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you maggot Israel.” Hey – that’s mean. It’s a strange way of addressing the people he’s here to save. Even when God spoke in the whirlwind to
chastise Job he didn’t talk like that – and he was doing his damnedest to Big
Time Job there. The God of Second
Isaiah, like the God of First Isaiah, can be a wrathful God still.
CHAPTER 42
This is one of those chapters Christians really like. It foretells a servant of the Lord who will
come, a servant who, “shall bring forth justice to the nations.” It’s not really clear here if the servant is
a person or a group or what, but if you’re into the New Testament, an obvious
answer is Jesus Christ. Then again, if
you’re a Jew, it isn’t necessarily Christ.
In the second half of the chapter, God promises to look
after Israel and restore them.
CHAPTER 43
God keeps talking about Israel, and what his promises for
them are. Frankly, this is a side of
God I don’t much care for. Aside from
being vengenceful and occasionally genocidal, the God of the Old Testament
tends to be rather parochial, and that’s what he is here. He tells the Hebrew through Second Isaiah
that: “I give Egypt as ransom for you, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for
you. Because you are precious in my
eyes and honored and I love you.” Yeah,
screw all of them other peoples out there.
This narrowness of God’s visions works in the context of the
ancient Near East, where all civilizations and tribes and cities think they
have their own protector God. But those
groups see their God as one among many God.
Now the Hebrew have decided that their God is the only God. He’s the all-mighty God. He is the creator of all God. He is the God that all people should fear
and obey. But he’s still just their
God. There is something there that just
doesn’t add up. Christianity will come
around later to resolve that dilemma, but here God still has a Chosen People, a
concept I have no use for.
CHAPTER 44
God keeps going on.
Since we get no info on the prophet Second Isaiah, all of this section
of the Bible is just God talking through the prophet/vessel.
Mostly, false gods are denounced. God takes an approach made previously in the Bible, but never as
effectively as here. A man cuts down a
tree, puts half of the wood in the fire and carves the other half of the wood
into a god, then worships that carving.
Doesn’t that sound silly to anyone else? Well it sure sounds silly when you put it that way. Similar points are made throughout the Bible
– heck, it’s made in Chapter 40. But
Chapter 44 really nails it, I think.
Oh, and at the end the chapter takes a new direction: the
prophet name-drops Cyrus of Persia.
Yeah, that’s a good sign that this has to be a different prophet. People just don’t live that long.
CHAPTER 45
Cyrus will be God’s instrument of justice. And that let’s God gave some nifty rhetoric
on justice: “Let justice descent, you heavens, like dew from above, like gentle
rains let the clouds drop it down. Let
the earth open and salvation bud forth; let righteousness spring up with
them!” Yeah, any preacher worth a damn
must spend quality time with the rhetoric of Isaiah.
Actually, this chapter goes a few different directions. After noting the justice to come, God flips
it around by noting how he’ll put people in their place as well. Some might think they have the right to
question him, but God squashes that, saying: “Woe to anyone who asks a father,
`What are you begetting?” or a woman,
`What are you giving birth to?’ Thus
says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, his maker: Do you question me about my
children, tell me how to treat the work of my hands? It was I who made the earth and created the people upon it. It was my hands that stretched out the
heavens.” He’s God so he gets to determine
things. It’s comes with the
territory. Yeah, that makes sense.
But then he goes back to being a parochial God, who might
rule over all but really only cares about the Hebrew. He tells them, “The earnings of Egypt, the gain of Ethiopia, and
the Sabeans, tall of stature, shall come over to you and belong to you. They shall follow you, coming in
chains.” Sigh. Oh, and you were doing
so well, chapter. You were doing so
well until there.
CHAPTER 46
This short – 13-verse chapter – is about the gods of
Babylon. Short version: screw them,
they ain’t real. There is God and that’s it.
CHAPTER 47
Now that we’ve dismissed Babylon’s gods, let’s talk about
Babylon’s fall. It relates to their
gods, of course. Babylon was only
successful because God wanted to use them as an instrument to punish his people
with. Well, they did that and take all
the credit for themselves and their phony gods. So screw them.
One line I found interesting – God says to the Babylonians:
“Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray.” That fits with the story of Solomon – very wise, but not very
faithful – but sounds rather strange right after all those Wisdom Books. In Proverbs and Wisdom and Ben Sira and
others we heard wisdom praised to the heights.
It was the best thing this side of God, or as great as God. It’s God’s best gift to us.
But there, wisdom was a way to understand God and his world. Here? Wisdom is just a way to gain knowledge, not necessarily about God. And the Babylonians have used it like that. Whereas most of the Bible seems to embrace learning, this is a throwaway line that can used for those who opposed secular humanism.
Click here for the next bunch of Isaiah.
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