You Can Read the Bible Guided Podcast

I concluded yesterday’s Daily Reader by pointing out that the prophet’s eye seems to be fixed on something beyond the immediate.  “From this time forth,” the LORD declares in chapter 48, “I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known.”  The prophet foresees a day when “My salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed.”  This day, and the Servant who will inaugurate it, are the subjects of today’s reading. 

The passage is bookended by a rebuke of Israel’s leaders, who despise the name of the LORD “continually all the day,” and act as shepherds but “who have no understanding,” for “they have all turned to their own way, each to his own gain...”  But in between these reprimands the LORD introduces the Servant, one who “will act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted…”

However, chapter 53 sets a key contrast between this servant and those who turn to their own gain.  His lot will be to suffer: “despised and rejected by men: a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief… wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities…”  This the servant will give willingly, for “it was the will of the LORD to crush him… by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous…”

And the recipients of this salvation will not simply be of Israel, for the Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares: “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”  Therefore, “Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, ‘The LORD will surely separate me from His people…” 

As you listen today, pay attention to words and ideas that would have caused comfort to the oppressed in Jerusalem, to the exiled in Assyria and Babylon.  Listen also for those which strain credulity, about the promised servant, about how he would reign, and about what that reign would represent.   

Our verse for this week is Acts 1:8: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Isaiah 52 through 56.  Now let’s read it!

In today’s passage there are two significant patterns intertwining.  First, you’ll notice that there are quick scene changes between the LORD, the prophet, and the people – as though the three of them are taking turns on a stage, the spotlight shifting rapidly among them. At times the LORD is giving the words to repeat to Israel, as when He chastises them for their unfaithfulness: “Thus says the LORD:” in chapter 50, “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away?”  At others, Israel responds back to the LORD, “The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.”

And there are still other occasions when the prophet himself is speaking.  Initially the prophet grieves to the LORD: “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity…”  He later affirms His restoration, boldly proclaiming his commission to the people: “The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word those who are weary… The Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced… Who will contend with me?  Let us stand up together.  Who is my adversary?  Let him come near to me…”

A second significant pattern is the interweaving of temporal concerns and what seems to be a more universal salvation.  To Israel the LORD compares His love to that of a mother: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?”  Furthermore, Israel’s restoration is no overwhelming task for the LORD: “Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him.” 

But there is something yet more, for to the prophet the LORD declares:  “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to bring back the preserved of Israel.  I will make you a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”  Something bigger than even the restoration of Israel is coming, and in time her borders “will be too narrow” for her inhabitants.

Our verse for this week is Acts 1:8: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Isaiah 49 through 51.  Now let’s read it!

I mentioned a few days ago that many consider the second half of this book a collection of visions from Isaiah’s prophetic successors.  One reason for this is that the past five chapters have served as a 150-year bridge between the stories of Hezekiah and Judah and those of Cyrus and Persia… Just six decades after Hezekiah, Babylon earned its first defeat of Assyria’s army.  In 612 B.C., Nineveh fell, and three years later, the Assyrian empire was no more. 

From reading 2 Kings you know that Judah had chafed under Babylon’s dominance, even allying, again, with Egypt, in an attempt to withstand them.  In 2 Kings 25 we read that Jerusalem, under Zedekiah, withheld tribute, was besieged, and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar’s army.  But less than fifty years later, Isaiah’s promises about Babylon’s demise would be fulfilled.  Cyrus, commander of the Medes and the Persians, would make Babylon’s expansive rule a brief one.

Today’s oracles are addressed to Cyrus himself, to Babylon, and to Israel, the house of Jacob.   The LORD calls Cyrus “His anointed, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him, and to loose the belt of king… I will go before you,” the LORD promises, “and level the exalted places… I will give you treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places…”  This seems an odd promise – though not an unprecedented one – for the LORD to make to the ruler of Persia. 

The LORD’s twofold purpose is soon made clear, however.  This gift to Cyrus is given first “that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.”  Second, Cyrus is lifted up “For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen…”  The LORD asserts both that the Israel story is not over, and Cyrus did not accomplish this either by his own hand or with the help of other gods. 

To Babylon, the LORD is equally clear about both their successes and their eventual demise: “I was angry with my people; I profaned my heritage; I gave them into your hand; you showed them no mercy.”  He first reminds Babylon, and Israel, that Babylon’s gods “stoop; they bow down together; they cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity.”  He then tells Babylon that its security is fleeting, ill-placed:  “But evil shall come upon you, which you will not know how to charm away; disaster shall fall upon you, for which you will not be able to atone; and ruin shall come upon you suddenly, of which you know nothing.” 

This is important: Babylon was simply the tool with which the LORD punished Israel.  They say in their heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me” (which is exactly how the LORD had described Himself), and, however useful at one time, they will be delivered up for their sins.  They hold no special place in the LORD’s heart; that is reserved specially for Israel. 

Our verse for this week is 1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Isaiah 45 through 48.  Now let’s read it!

The reading today begins with “But now…”  Remember that yesterday the LORD had reminded Israel of His sovereignty, His selection of them, their rejection of Him, and finally His release of them to be plundered.  “But now…” says the LORD, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you.  I have called you by name, and you are mine.”  This is comfort, but there is much more. 

For the past few chapters, the LORD has been building His case on two complementary fronts.  First, that He, the LORD, is the only God worth paying attention to, and, second, that idols have not proven their effectiveness.  This sermon – and a thousand years of religious history – achieves a crescendo where these two points intersect in chapter 44, verse 6: Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of Hosts: “I am the first and the last; beside me there is no god.” 

To Abram the LORD said, “Go where I tell you.”  In the Sinai covenant He commanded: “Put no other gods before Me.”  Now through Isaiah, at least ten centuries after Abram was promised a great nation…at least six centuries after Israel was set aside for the LORD as  “… kingdom of priests and a holy nation…”  Israel is definitively told: there is no other,“…and you are my witnesses!” 

This pronouncement cannot be overstated.  The LORD had allowed Israel – and the nations – to witness both His own strength and idols’ impotence.  Not only has the prophet delivered a sermon, but history has delivered a sermon.  The LORD reminds Israel of their experience: “Who is like me?  Let him proclaim it.  Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people.  Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.”  Therefore, He insists that they: “Fear not, nor be afraid…”  This is as bold and unequivocal a statement as you’ll find in the Bible.  The LORD, calling on anyone to prove Him otherwise: “Is there a God beside me?” He asks.  “There is no rock; I know not any.”

Our verse for this week is 1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Isaiah 43 and 44.  Now let’s read it!

In today’s reading the prophet’s vision transcends the immediate concerns about Assyria and Babylon and exalts the LORD before His people.  The prophet’s voice in chapter 40 begins in the quiet mists, then launches to herald the coming king: “…Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”  He is commanded to “Go on up to a high mountain…lift up your voice with strength…say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!’”

Chapter 41 shifts to the voice of the LORD, who makes a bold assertion: “I, the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am He.”  This builds a claim that the LORD makes over the next few chapters: the God who chose Israel, who helps them, who winnows them, is the only God.  He challenges idols to: “Set forth your case…tell us the former things…tell us what is to come…that we may know that you are gods.” 

Chapter 42 begins a reset – almost as though a covenant is being re-established.  It begins with a reminder of the LORD’s sovereignty: “…who created the heavens and stretched them out…” then commends Israel to remember how it was chosen to be “a light for the nations.” However, the LORD has given them up to the plunderer, because they would not walk in His ways. 

Some believe that Isaiah is not responsible for all the oracles in the book that is his namesake.  This would not be unusual: the books of Samuel are named so because of their first big character, not because Samuel penned their entirety.  I mention this because I want you to notice some subtle changes in the literature from here forward.

First, we’ve lost the formula “And the word of the LORD came to me…”  that reflected a first-person intimacy, which is absent in the second half of the book.  Second, Assyria completely drops out of the story as an immediate character, as though they no longer exist or no longer matter.  And while Babylon takes Assyria’s place in the prophet’s mind, you’ll notice also that the prophet’s concerns range mostly beyond even them: to a time of restoration and peace, when Jacob’s people will outlast even these mighty kingdoms.  None of this necessarily forces Isaiah himself out of the picture; but it’s important to notice that the tenor and concerns have changed. 

Our verse for this week is 1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Isaiah 40 through 42.  Now let’s read it!