Isaiah 8-39
Our second section from Isaiah, read during weeks three and four of Great Lent, is quite large. It contains a myriad historical and social circumstances, and various oracles of God directed towards different parties. Here, we can see the prophet speaking the word of God to His people—both the northern and southern kingdoms—as well as to the nations round about. As with the first seven chapters, the prophecy moves back and forth from good news to bad news, alternatively chastising and comforting those who hear it. Major themes include not fearing circumstances but trusting in God, the strength of God’s anger as well as His mercy, the importance of humility, the truth that God is unique, and God’s plan for a saved remnant that they will return to the land that He has given to them. From time to time, there are also special passages that glisten like jewels, pointing forward to God’s appointed time at the end of the age, when He will visit the world in a dramatic way, and change all things, even for the Gentiles who trust in Him.
The section starts by reminding us that, though the prophets originally spoke their messages orally, this is a written compilation of prophecies, to be put, by God’s own order, in “a large new book” and kept in perpetuity by His people (8:1-5). Through God’s word, the people will remember that “God is with us.” Though the nations round about –both the smaller ones like Syria, and the larger empires like Assyria and Babylon—may instill an understandable fear, the people are told to be brave, and to “fear” God in a holy way instead, trusting in Him. They are to “wait for God” (8:17), and “sanctify the Lord” (8:13; 29:23) in their minds and hearts, for He promises to both discipline and to restore them. Though moments of concern will inevitably come, this is “only for a time” (8:23). Despite the bad news all around, the prophet gives great hope: “Death prevailed and swallowed them, but again God wiped away every tear from every face; He took away the disgrace of his people from the earth, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (25:8). On top of this, what He promised has now been written down in a book!
Isaiah spends much time addressing the surrounding circumstances at various points, and how the pagans both threaten and seduce God’s people away from the truth. However, the sober truth is that the one who hears Isaiah’s word should cultivate an appropriate “fear of the Lord,” because our God speaks about both judgment and mercy in this book. Sometimes today we hear that the idea of “God’s anger” is a mistaken human notion, and that this is only how it seems when a person comes unprepared into the love of God. It is absolutely true, of course, that God is all-loving! But He is also perfect truth and righteousness, and so His love also involves judgment—an anger or wrath not born of hatred, but out of His perfect holiness, and expressed in order to right wrongs and to drive us back to Him. Four times in chapters 9 and 10, we hear the refrain, “For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is still uplifted.” This clear word concerning God’s continuing anger studs the ongoing oracles in Isaiah concerning God’s judgment against both the attacking Gentiles (9:11), against His own people who refuse to turn to Him (9:16) against those who use written words to exploit the poor and render false human judgements (10:1-4), and against the savage Assyrian empire (10:5 ff).
Then, the prophet gives explicit words and visions of judgment against Babylon (chapter 13-14), Moab (chapters 15-16), Damascus (chapter 17), Egypt (chapter 19), Edom (21:11-17), Tyre (chapter 24), and even His holy city, Zion, or Jerusalem, also called “Ariel,” the Lion of God (chapters 22, 28, and 29). None of God’s anger is expressed in a pique, or in vengeance, as is the case with human anger: rather it is His instrument by which He rights what is wrong and eventually restores justice. The prophet describes God’s strong actions in this picturesque way: “In that day, God will bring His holy, great, and strong sword upon the fleeing dragon serpent, the perverse dragon serpent that flees; and He shall destroy the dragon” (27:1). Then Isaiah goes on to explain that once this serpent is destroyed, “lawlessness will be removed from Jacob” and the city will once again be beautiful (27:9,13).
Nor is God’s just anger the last word! Throughout there are signs that His mercy endures forever, and by the time that we arrive at chapter thirty, we hear these words of favor:
For a holy people shall dwell in Zion, and Jerusalem cried with wailing, “Have mercy on me.” He will show that mercy on you at the sound of your cry. When He sees this, He will listen to you…You will …remove your idols. Then there will rain for the seed of your land, and the bread of produce of your land’s increase will be plenteous and rich… On every high mountain and on every hill there will be streams in that day…the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, when the Lord heals the wounds of His people and the pain of your plague (30:19-26).
God’s mercy always involves healing, for we are in need of a Physician, not simply a judge who acquits us of guilt.
But in order to receive God’s mercy, to be open to it, we must acquire humility! God knows this well, and so looks forward, through Isaiah, to not only the time when Israel’s enemies will be thwarted, but especially to the time when some of God’s people will turn back to Him, humbly. Chapter 26 is quite clear in this regard, speaking to those who take pride in Jerusalem, and reminding them that the city is only great insofar as its inhabitants honor God. We are given a picture of the future Zion, with its remnant of faithful citizens calling for the city gates to be left open for the righteous to enter it: “They hope forever in you, O Lord, the great and eternal God, who humbles and brings down those who dwell on high…The feet of the gentle and the humble shall tread them underfoot. The way of the godly is straight, and the way of the godly is prepared. In the path of your judgment, O Lord, we wait for you” (26:2-8). With humility comes the ability to hear God and to acknowledge His ways, even to delight in all that He has done, is doing, and will do for us.
For there is only one true God, the one who will bring it about so that “The dead shall rise up, and those in the tombs shall arise” (26:19). The One who created, the One who works throughout history and through our lives, is the one who both judges and extends mercy. And so the prophet cries, as we cry in the closing part of our Orthodox vigil, “O Lord our God, possess us; O Lord we know no other beside you; we call upon your name” (26:13). He alone can give and restore life, he alone can bring Israel, and bring us today, through difficult times. He alone can slay the Dragon who would consume us, the enemy without, and remove the dangers within—whether our own rebellious thoughts, or those close to us who sadly would do us harm.
In the end, like God’s ancient people, we look to him to restore us fully, and to put us in “a beautiful vineyard,” a land radiating His glory and goodness and security. So there are these luminous passages from chapters 8 through 39 which look forward to that time, and to God’s manner of bringing it about for us. The most famous is, of course, in chapter 9, where we hear about the great light that God will bring to those who walk in darkness, and about the Child: “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called the Angel of Great Counsel…Of His peace there is no end. His peace shall be upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order and establish it with righteousness and judgment, from that time forward and unto ages of ages. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this” (9:5-6).
We know now, indeed, that the prophet’s glimpse of light was fulfilled in the Child of Mary, the Son of God, who brings the only true peace from God the Father, and whose kingdom is forever, for He was with the Father before time even began! The glimpse of hope continues two chapters later, where we hear about “a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower grow[ing] out of his root” (10:1), upon whom will rest the sevenfold Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, godliness, and fear of God. Many Church fathers have written about the sevenfold operation of the Holy Spirit, but perhaps none as eloquently as St. Gregory the Great, whose Pre-Sanctified Liturgy we celebrate throughout this season. He says, “seven children are born to us when, through the conception of a good thought, seven virtues of the Holy Spirit arise within us” (Morals on the Book of Job 1.1.27). Elsewhere, he likens the qualities to a series of steps:
There are seven steps to the gate because the way to heavenly life is opened to us through the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah locates this sevenfold grace in our Head himself, or in his body which we are: “The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and piety, and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord will fill him.” He is speaking here from the perspective of heaven, clearly numbering the steps in descending rather than ascending order: wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, piety and fear. Because it is written, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” the way consists beyond doubt in ascending from fear to wisdom, not in regressing from wisdom to fear, for wisdom surely has perfect charity. It is also written: “Perfect charity casts out fear.” The prophet, therefore, because he reasoned from heavenly realities to the lower things, began with wisdom and descended toward fear. (Homilies on Ezekiel 2.7.7)
And elsewhere, St. Gregory calls attention to the fact that in the Old Testament we have 10 commandments, but in the New Testament we have the seven graces of the Holy Spirit (Forty Gospel Homilies 24). External laws, necessary because of our fallen human condition, are now replaced by the sharing of God the Son’s very own nature with us—His wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, piety and fear. We are made the friends of God, and this is all possible because of the One who took on our nature. Because of what He has started for us, we look forward to a life that is hardly imaginable: the wolf will eat with the lamb, the leopard sleep with the goat, and even a little child will be able to tame wild animals. “They shall not hurt nor be able to destroy anyone on [God’s] holy mountain, for the whole world shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the water covers the seas” (11:9). The Jewish people hoped for rescue from oppressors, but God’s plan is even greater, so that “the Gentiles shall put their hope in Him” (11:10).
This is the vision for which we still yearn, though its day is closer now than it was to Isaiah. We have seen the Child, we have received the Spirit, we have been joined to a Church in which there is neither Jew nor Gentile, for we are one in Christ. And yet, all is not yet accomplished, and we await the day of His coming. Similarly, in Isaiah’s day, after all these marvelous visions and words from the Lord in chapters 1-39, even the king of the time to whom the prophet spoke did not yet understand or accept it all. He has, by listening to God and the prophet, escaped the threat of Assyria for his own land of Judah. Yet these chapters end on a bit of a dark note, with another future threat hanging over his land. Hezekiah has boasted of his great city of Jerusalem, and shown its marvels to emissaries from the king of Babylon. As a result of his pride, Babylon now has Judah in its sights, and the prophet tells Hezekiah that Babylon will come and oppress his land. We are shocked as readers to hear the king say, “the Lord’s word is good,’ because he knew that this was coming upon his descendants, in the future, and not upon him and his own time. We might think that the king is simply resigned to God’s will: but he has already prayed for help against Assyria. Why be so heartless now concerning the future fate of his kingdom? Perhaps he is fatigued. Perhaps he has little imagination. Perhaps he is simply, at this point self-centered. The ancient historian Eusebius sees it this way:
God did not approve of Hezekiah’s choice; for to have asked for himself, but to have made no account for the people, appeared blameworthy to God; wherefore the prophet says next: Comfort, comfort my people, says God; for if this man, he says, being a lover of self, took thought and prayed for himself, but made no mention of the people, yet God, caring for his own people, commands those who are able to do so to comfort them. (Eusebius, Commentary on Isaiah chapter 39)
In contrast to Hezekiah’s lack of concern for the future kingdom, God does care, and says so. The king cares only for “peace and righteousness in [his] days” (39:8). God sees the big picture, and will begin his words in chapter 40 with “Comfort, comfort My people. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and comfort her!” So many stances of God are seen in the first two parts of this prophecy, which we have read for the last four weeks, including God’s judgment. In the end, though, it is His mercy, love and comfort that stay in our memory and imagination. And these are wonderful gifts for us at Great Lent! Lord, have mercy!
Edith M. Humphrey 