In this Advent season I want to reflect on various passages from Isaiah 40-55. These are some of my favourite sections of Scripture. As I do, I want to pay close attention to the texts I pick, perhaps deal with any questions they raise, and then focus on how they speak to our hearts as God’s people today. So these reflections will have a mixture of emphasis, but I hope will show something of what it means to listen to the text and allow it to speak to heart and mind.
We begin with the famous words of Isaiah 40:1
Comfort, comfort my people says your God
Isaiah 40:1
Famous words, perhaps words it is hard not to hear accompanied by Handel’s music. Yet vital words for a people crushed and broken, as the first hearers of these verses would have been – read Lamentations, or a Psalm such as Psalm 137 to understand how God’s people felt at this point – to hear. At this point in Israel’s story they are exiled, in Babylon. Jerusalem is ruined. Nebuchadnezzar carried off the gold from the temple and burnt it to the ground. Humanly speaking all hope is gone.
Yet God’s word to his exiled people is one of comfort. Comfort spoken through a messenger. As we read the start of Isaiah 40 it almost a new commissioning of the prophet. Which is perhaps not surprising as the prophet is speaking into an entirely new situation, some 100 years or so later than the events narrated in Isaiah 36-39.
Either these are words written down by Isaiah a hundred years or so before the events for which they are relevant, or they are words of an anonymous prophet, yet one who knows the words of Isaiah so well that he carries on in a similar language and style, which are taken to be of such a piece with the first prophet Isaiah that their words are bound together in one book.
Much ink has been spilt over these questions – and you can find good commentators willing to argue for either view. I retain an attachment to the idea that these words were given to Isaiah in Jerusalem, perhaps in the dark early days of Manasseh’s reign, and sealed up for the future generations to come. But equally, I don’t see any major problems with Isaiah 40-55 being the words of a later prophet (and perhaps 56-66 as another), as long as the idea that God declares the future to his people before it happens is retained (we’ll come on to the importance of that in a later post).
Whichever view you take, here this prophet, Isaiah or his successor, is called to bring a message of comfort to God’s broken and exiled people. The exile, shocking as it was, is not the end. God’s last word is not judgement. There is a hope. The prophet is told to speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Literally translated this is “Speak to the heart of Jerusalem”
The heart here, in the world of the Bible, is not simply emotions as we would say today. The heart is the control centre of the whole body. It is mind and heart together. Thought and emotion. The essence of the person. God’s word address the heart. God’s word strikes to the centre of our beings. And directed at the heart is the message of the prophet:
and proclaim to her
Isaiah 40:2
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
The message to these broken exiles is that Judah’s sin is dealt with. Her hard service, or warfare, is completed or filled. Her sin is pardoned or even accepted. Somehow she has found acceptance/favour from God.
She has received double for all her sins. It isn’t that she has received double the amount of the punishment that they deserved. The word double here may well be related to a sense of an exact match, of fabric folded over double. Judah has received just the right punishment.
Her punishment is fitting – when Israel took over the land she was warned not to follow the way of the Canaanites, and that if she die she would be expelled from the land. We hear a lot about the conquest and problems associated with it – but one thing always worth keeping in mind is that the Israelites were always warned that if they followed Canaanite ways (idolatry, immorality, oppression etc) they would face the punishment of being treated as they had treated the Canaanites.
And that fitting punishment has happened and is done with. A new chapter is about to begin. A new start is offered. That is the comfort on offer. The announcement of pardon and forgiveness. The announcement of living in the light of Yahweh’s favour.
That is the announcement of Advent. We will see how this works out as the chapter unfolds. But we need to see that for Judah living in Jesus’ day these words of Isaiah sounded a bitter sweet note. A note of great hope yes, but also a note of longing. A longing for the bold promises of Isaiah 40-55 to find fulfillment. For Israel still lived under foreign occupation. It felt like she was still living in the time of punishment of her sin. She needed deliverance. A way of forgiveness. A way of new hope.
For us too there is that note of longing as we come to Advent. We live in a world where it does not yet look like we enjoy Yahweh’s favour. We live in a world where it looks like we are still paying for our sins. A world where we are in exile.
Into that gloom comes the joyful sound of Yahweh speaking a word to our hearts. A word of forgiveness. A word of acceptance. A word that sin is dealt with. A word of a new start, and a fresh dawn. This advent pause and let the word be spoken to your heart. Let God speak the words you need to know and hear. Hear the word of comfort, let that word strengthen your heart with the assurance that God accepts you and welcomes you to come near.
How is your heart right now? Where do you need to hear God’s word of comfort?
In my own heart I sense that need to hear God’s word of comfort. We have moved the length of England. We are literally experiencing more darkness than we did before. We haven’t been able to get up into the mountains these last couple of weeks. Moving is not easy, and we have moved a lot.
The job I have moved to is fulfilling, and exciting in so many ways – and being physically present has made a huge difference to how I understand and can carry out my role. But the upheaval for us all in every other area of life right now is massive.
As I look back over my life there are a myriad of decisions that have led to this point – some decisions have been good – others not so good. Somethings I have not done that I could have done from ignorance, others from weakness, and some of my deliberate choosing.
Yet none of those things have closed the door to the possibility of God at work in our lives in the muddle and confusion of the here and now. Just as God had not given up on his people in Isaiah’s day, so he has not given up on us – on me, and on you, in this day.
Whatever the darkness and despair and gloom look like for you, there is a word of comfort. A word speaking directly to your heart. A word from God. A word that proclaims that his anger is done. A word that proclaims that he is coming. A word that shows who he is. A word that shows that who he is, is exactly who I need, and who you need right now.
As we move into the rest of Isaiah 40 we will see more of who this God is, and of the comfort that the very being of God brings to us. God is the one who is, the one who was, and the one who is to come. And there is nothing we need more than to see afresh this Advent our God.
Joshua's Tree Rooted 