CHAPTER 56
I like this chapter.
It goes directly against one of my least favorite Old Testament
themes. At times in the Old Testament
(including portions of Isaiah), God is far too parochial. He might be God of it all, but he only has
his Chosen People that he cares about.
Anyone not descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob can go stick it.
This takes the opposite approach. Anyone from foreign nations who is down with God is cool. Well, Isaiah puts it a tad more eloquently
than that: “Any foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to minister to him,
to love the name of the Lord, to become his servants. All who keep the Sabbath without profaning it, and hold fast to
my covenant, them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my
house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifice will be acceptable
on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
A house of prayer for all peoples? Now that is a Lord worth rallying behind. And again – that’s very much a
Christian-type of sentiment in a book filled with them.
CHAPTER 57
This starts off with Isaiah ranting against the wicked, but
midway through he shifts gears. The
shift begins when he says, “But whoever takes refuge in me shall inherit the
land.” Boom – another Christ-like
link. “Inherit the ____” will be the
main construction of the Sermon of the Mount.
God has another line a little later that I just love: “I
dwell in a high and holy place, but also with the contrite and lowly of
spirit.” That sounds like a good plan,
God. It’s those people feeling contrite
and lowly most in need of your aid.
God also gets off a nice line about the wicked: “But the
wicked are like the tossing seas which cannot be still. Its waters cast up mire and mud. There is no peace for the wicked, says my
God.” Ever felt pissed and self-destructively
angry? You feel like a tossing sea when
you get in that kind of mood.
CHAPTER 58
This one is all about justice and righteousness. It’s not just what you do, but how you do
it. God begins by upbraiding those who
fast for the wrong reasons. They fast
just like they’re supposed to but then are upset at God for not getting instant
gratification. Isaiah tells them, “Do
not fast as you do today, to make your voice heard on high.” Yo – the purpose of fasting isn’t for your
own ego. Even worse, some guys driver
all their laborers really hard on the day of fasting. Man, that ain’t kosher.
Isaiah comments, “Is it not sharing your bread with the
hungry, bringing the afflicted and the homeless into your house, clothing the
naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own flesh?” This is what you’re supposed to do – you’re
supposed to help out your fellow man; the lowlier, the more in need of helping.
That is just the prophet getting warmed up. He gets to his big finish, which is one of
the Bible’s best statements on justice: “If you remove the yoke from among you,
the accusing finger, the malicious speech; if you lavish your food on the
hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then your light shall rise in the darkness,
and your gloom shall become like midday.
Then the Lord will guide you always and satisfy your third in parched
places, will give strength to your bones and you shall be like a watered
garden, like a flowing spring whose waters never fail.” Yeah, nice way of putting it, Isaiah.
CHAPTER 59
This is standard stuff.
The people have sinned and therefore they’re being justly punished. It’s the same old same old. “The Good Book”
by David Plotz has a great line about Isaiah.
He said it’s filled with a lot of the Bible’s junk DNA. You get all these statements and curses and
comments about God and man – it isn’t bad, but you hear it over and over and it
gets repetitive.
There is one great line in this chapter. Discussing how the people act now that God
has hidden his face from them, Isaiah notes, “We stumble at midday as if at
twilight.” Yeah, that’s well put.
CHAPTER 60
This is a very upbeat chapter about Jerusalem and how
awesome it will be. Everyone will come
and pay homage – not just the Jews, but all will, “gather and come to
you.” (With you meaning God,
naturally). There is a trace of
foreshadowing the New Testament when we’re told, “All from Sheba shall come,
bearing gold and frankincense.” Those
along with myrrh will be given to the baby Christ, of course.
The main theme is that paradise will come. All glory will happen.
It’s interesting, because I’ve been told – including by the
opening notes to Isaiah in this very Bible – that Chapters 56-66 are from Third
Isaiah, the period after exile ended.
Maybe, but so far I’m not seeing it.
I’m seeing a bunch of talk about Jerusalem once the exile ends, but it
isn’t really clear that the end of exile is an accomplished fact or if it’s
just wishful thinking. Frankly, it
sounds more like the former. I’m
probably missing something. The Bible
scholars know this material a lot better than I do, clearly. But so far, everything I’m reading could’ve
been written/spoken back in Babylon.
CHAPTER 61
This one gets off to a rousing start, as we’re told a bearer
of good news has been sent to, “bring good news to the afflicted, to bind up
the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, release to the
prisoners.” Yeah, this sounds like news
that they’ll be allowed to leave Babylon, but it never clearly says that.
Also, the line about “bring good news” is a bit St.
Paul-esque. He’ll always go around
proclaiming the good news, but in his case it’s Christ.
It’s a short chapter thanking God for deliverance. So I suppose the Babylonian Captivity is
coming to an end – but it never quite says that.
CHAPTER 62
It’s more good news that I guess refers to the end of the
Captivity, but never quite comes out and says so. It’s about Zion/Jerusalem, and how it’ll now have a new
name. It’ll no longer be “Desolate” or
“Forsake” but not “My Delight is in her” and “Espoused.”
Part of my problem with assuming that this means the
captivity is over is that throughout we’ve seen Isaiah refer to the future as
if it’s ongoing, so you really can’t tell wishful prophecies with actual reality.
CHAPTER 63
This one gets off to a start that is distinctive and
gruesome. Hark – there is a rider in
the distance! A lone rider coming from
Edom! Who can it be and what has he
done?
It’s God. And he’s
just come back from Edom after chewing gum and kicking some ass – and he didn’t
bring any bubble gum. He’s covered in
blood from all the people of Edom he slaughtered. Um……hurrah? The footnotes
say that the Edomites pillaged the Hebrew lands when they were sent to
Babylon. So this is just a revenge
fantasy.
The only takes six verses, but the rest of the chapter is
more junk DNA.
CHAPTER 64
Now this one is totally at odds with the theory that the
Hebrew are back in their Promised Land.
Here, there is a big plea to God to remember his people and be nice to
them again. We’re told, “Do not be so
very angry, Lord, do not remember our crimes forever; look upon us, who are all
your people! Your holy cities have
become a wilderness; Zion has become wilderness; Jerusalem desolation!”
That’s a lot more specific than anything that makes it sound
like their back in town. All the back
in town stuff sounds so overblown that it seems unrealistic. But this sounds like they are still stuck in
Babylon.
CHAPTER 65
It’s more of the same.
After 64 chapters, it’s hard for Isaiah to be too original, even if this
is the second or third prophet covered in the chapter.
The entire chapter is from the point of view of God
talking. He promises to treat the good
people well, and the bad people poorly.
This is another moment where the Bible ignores everything in Job and
acts like the future will be a purely moral wonderland.
Well, I’ll give it credit for some nice rhetoric, as God
says through Isaiah: “My servants shall eat, but you shall go hungry. My servants shall drink, but you shall be
thirsty. My servants shall rejoice, but
you shall be put to shame. My servants
shall shout for joy of heart, but you shall cry out of grief of heart and howl
of anguish of spirit.” The “you” in
every case is the people violating his laws.
But you probably figured that out on your own.
Oh, and at the end of the chapter, some of the most famous
lines previously given in Isaiah are rehashed: “The wolf and the lamb shall
pasture together, and the lion shall eat hay like the ox, but the serpent’s
food shall be dust.” Well, it starts
off nice – but then God had to take a swipe at the snake. I guess God still holds a grudge ever since
Eden. He is sick of these motherfucking
snakes on this motherfucking planet.
CHAPTER 66
The longest non-Psalms book in the Bible ends on a rather
threatening note. God warns people,
“For see, the Lord will come in fire, his chariots like the stormwind; to wreak
his anger in burning rage and his rebuke in fiery flames. For with fire the Lord shall enter into
judgment, and, with his sword, against all flesh, those slain by the Lord shall
be many.” Jeepers, the boss sure is
cheesed.
And it’s weird because the main thrust of the last chapters
is positive – going back to Jerusalem and all of the positive things that’ll
come. But you can’t just give people
the sunny side. You need the rod to go
with the carrot, and so we’re reminded of the dangers that can come from
angering the Lord.
The book ends with people coming to Jerusalem and we hear
from God: “They shall go out and see the corpses of the people who rebelled
against me. For their worm shall not
die, their fire shall not be extinguished, and they shall be an abhorrence to
all.” That’s how the book ends, with
God warning that those who disobey will just be left to rot in the fields as
abhorrence.
Isaiah has his moments, but he’ll never make it as a
Hollywood screenwriter with a curtain closer like that.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Whew! This is a long
sucker. It has some really strong
moments, too. It has great moments of
rhetoric and passion. This has some
memorable visions of the future – a horrible period followed by a purified
world for the survivors. There are
plenty of times when the book sets up Christianity, and those are often among
the best parts of it.
But there is a ton of Biblical junk DNA. You get entire chapters of curses for people
who no longer exist. You get Isaiah
weighing in on international diplomacy from nearly 3,000 years ago. Most of all, you get tons of repetition, as
the same basic points get made time and time and time and time and time
again.
Overall, it’s a good book, but it’s really hit or miss. It’s a great 15-20 chapter Biblical book
spread out of 66 chapters.
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