Lesson Focus:
Our king comes to smooth things out, to hold us in his
arms.
Catch
up on the story:
In the previous chapter, Hezekiah, the
current king of Judah, has just been told that some day soon a nation from the
north will come, invade his country and carry off his goods and even his
sons. Hezekiah interprets the news in a
selfish manner; he believes the news is good because there will be peace in his
time. What he misses, however, is that
all that he loves will be destroyed, even his sons!
There is, however, a very long time
between the end of chapter 39 and the beginning of chapter 40. Most scholars believe that the time between
the two chapters is around 150 years. In
that 150 years a lot has transpired. The
destruction that Hezekiah was told about has come to pass. The Babylonians have come, destroyed the
Temple and Jerusalem itself. The best
and the brightest of Judah have been carried off to exile in Babylon, while
those who remain are left to eek out an existence in a war-ravaged
country. God has been mostly silent
during this time and both the exiles and those who remain in the land lack
hope. 2 Kings 21-25 recounts some of the
events leading up to and during this 150-year time.
In the context of our journey toward
Christmas, this passage speaks good news to the question that was left
unanswered in the middle of chapter 64. The
prophet, speaking for God’s people, wonders if there can be any salvation
because the people have been in their sins so very long. The wondering question of that chapter turns
into a plea for God to remember his people who are the works of his hands. But first, we must wait. Finally, this week’s passage will speak words
of hope and joy for God’s people in their bleak and desperate situations. Yes, Isaiah proclaims, salvation can be found
because our king is coming. Proclaim it
from the top of the mountains!
Critical
Questions:
1. How does this text reveal to us the
nature and character of God/What is God doing in this text?
2. What
does holiness/salvation look like in this text?
3. How
does an encounter with this story shape who we are and who we should become?
The
Text:
During the long period of exile the
people expressed their grief, their hopelessness and their lack of
comfort. The first chapter of
Lamentations documents well the feelings of God's people. "She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears
on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her." (1:2),
"Her downfall was appalling, with no one to comfort her." (1:9), and
"Zion [Jerusalem] stretches out her hands, but there is no one to comfort
her." (1:17). God's people, because
of their sin and iniquities, find themselves lost and lonely in a strange land
without anyone to comfort her. The guiding and protective hand of God had been
withdrawn from them.
But our passage is a transition from
the bleakness and hopelessness of Isaiah 1-39 and Lamentations to the
hopefulness proclaimed by God himself.
The long silence has ended and now God speaks in the midst of his
people's brokenness. Most scholars agree
that Isaiah 40:1-11 takes place in the heavenly throne room with God and his
angelic council. There are at least
three groups present in this oracle.
First, and most obviously, there is God at the center of the speaking. Second, there is a representative of God's
divine council that speaks on behalf of God.
Finally, there is a human prophet figure that is charged with bringing
God's good news to God's people.
This session in the divine court begins
with an edict from God. No longer will
God's people seek and be unable to find comfort. Judgment and war for God's people are now
ended, there will now be divine comfort.
The longings expressed in the first chapter of Lamentations will now be
fulfilled. God declares, in verses 1 and
2 that those in his service will now speak comfort to his people. "Comfort, O comfort" in verse 1 is
a plural imperative: "you comfort."
It is the command of God to be executed, in part, by all of God's divine
government. It is not the offer of mere
solace. Rather, it is what one scholar
calls "transformative solidarity."
It is a powerful intervention on the part of God for his people that
creates new possibilities for life.[1] The God, who has acted as judge, and
rightfully so, will now come as one who comforts his people.
The command is issued to speak tenderly
to Jerusalem. The tone has changed. The theme of judgment and penalty has been
satisfied. She has done her time. In fact, God declares that God's people have
received twice as much judgment for her sins.
All that ends now. God now has
plans for Judah's return from exile.
Just as God's plans for Judah's judgment were concrete, so now are God's
plans for her restoration.
In verse 3 the voice changes. God is no longer the direct speaker, but is
spoken for by one the members of the divine council. This voice is beginning to explain how it is
that God's command for comfort will be fulfilled. The voice cries out
commanding that a highway be built in the desert. There are two interpretive possibilities
here.
The first is that the highway to be
constructed will be the road that brings the exiled people of God back to the
city of Jerusalem. Strong ties to the
Exodus narrative are present. As God, in
a very real and physical way, prepared the way for Israel to escape captivity
to Egypt by parting the Red Sea, so now God is calling for a path to be made
for his newly redeemed people to return to their home. The very features of the
earth will be manipulated so that God's people can return home. This highlights the unstop-able nature of God's
coming. Verse 5 declares that the glory
of God will be revealed in the construction of this highway and through the
progression of redeemed exiles on it. In
the same way that glory was brought to God through the Exodus, now glory will
be brought to God through this new act of exodus. And it will happen; the very mouth of God has
decreed it.[2]
The second interpretive possibility is
that the highway refers to the preparations for the coming of God in power to
rescue God's people. It was common for
roads to be built, the best possible roads, for the coming of a king in the
ancient world. The coming of a king was
a great and joyous occasion. After so
long an absence from the Jewish center of the world, Jerusalem, God is now
coming to take his place again in the Temple at Jerusalem. One scholar believes that the direction of
the highway is not from the north, from Babylon to Jerusalem, but from the
south, from Mt. Sinai to Jerusalem. As
God journeyed with his people to establish them in the Promised Land, God now
journeys to Jerusalem to reestablish his people.[3]
Perhaps both images are valuable to
us. God is certainly making a way for
God's people to return from exile and captivity to Jerusalem. A way will need to be made, if not a literal
highway, a figurative one, paved with political orchestrations enacted by God
so that God's people might return. At
the same time, God is returning to Jerusalem again, to re-establish God's
people as God's people. The king returns
and so do his people!
The same voice that announces that a
highway will be built now commands that the prophet figure declare to the world
that it will be so. "Cry
out!" The command is given, but the
prophet wants to know what is to be told.
He doubts the good news he is hearing.
His experience has taught him that all people are transient, fickle and
untrustworthy. People, the prophet
declares, are like grass and flowers, here today and gone tomorrow. Their "constancy" as the NRSV translates
it, is like the flower.
"Constancy" here is the Hebrew word "hesed" or
steadfast love and faithfulness. Hesed
is often used in the Old Testament to describe God's covenant commitment to
God's people. It carries with it the
idea of being strongly and unmovingly faithful.
Here, the prophet contrasts the faithfulness of God, which is rock
solid, with the faithfulness of humanity, which is fleeting.
The divinely appointed voice responds
that yes, humanity is inherently unfaithful and fleeting, but that matters
not. What matters is the word of God,
which will stand forever. The "but"
of verse 8 firmly settles the question of God's coming and the people's
redemption. Judah's salvation and
restoration depends not on their ability to be faithful. It does not even depend on Babylon's
willingness to cooperate, as it did not depend on Egypt's cooperation. The restoration and salvation of God's people
rests solely on the fact that God himself has said that it will be so!
So, the prophet is summoned and sent to
go up to the highest places to proclaim God's message. This is no invitation; this is a
command. Again, the language is in the
imperative, “get up...lift up your voice...do not fear...” What is the prophet
to proclaim? He is to proclaim “good
tidings,” a phrase that literally becomes for us in the New Testament, good
news or gospel. The prophet is commanded
to proclaim the good news, the gospel that God is coming, indeed that God is
here, and “Here is your God!” (Verse 9)
In the very place and time where God could not be found, it is
proclaimed that God is here!
How is it that God has come? The divinely appointed voice calls the
prophet to look and see how. God comes
with might and power. His arms are strong
to deliver and rule. God wins the
victory. Yet, at the same time, verse 11
gives us a gentler image. God comes as
Israel's warrior-redeemer and at the same time as a shepherd. The God who comes for and on behalf of Israel
comes to gather his scattered flock together.
Not only does he reunite them, but he also picks them up to comfort them
in his strong arms. The image shifts
even further toward God as gentle protector and provider. The "carry them in his bosom"
evokes images of a mother nursing a child.
The prophet is commanded to proclaim that the God who is coming is the
God who is both mighty to save and a gentle mother, provider and
sustainer. In this image of God as
providing mother, God comes and does for his people what they refused to let
him do in the first place. It was Israel's
lack of faith in the providing and sustaining nature of God that led Israel to
exile.
So What?
Our journey toward God's coming at
Christmas always involves waiting. We,
like Israel, find ourselves waiting to be rescued and redeemed from our own
sinfulness, the sinfulness we have been in for so long. Our sin has caused us to go into our own
exile, where God seems distant and unapproachable. Last week we wondered, since we had been in
our sins so long, could we indeed be saved?
We were in need of comfort.
This week, while we are still waiting,
we receive words of comfort and joy. In
the God forsakenness of our sin God now breaks in to speak words of
comfort. God has not left us to endure
the penalties for our sins any longer.
We can stand confidently, expectantly waiting for God's coming because
it does not depend on us for it to happen.
The salvation we wondered about last week is now in the hands of a
steadfastly faithful God.
And now, like the prophet, we are called to get to the high
places to proclaim this salvation that is sure to happen. We are called to be evangelists, ones who
have experienced the powerful saving love of God and his gentle provision for
our lives. We are to proclaim the good
news that, even though we have been in our sins for so long a time, even though
we are fickle and unfaithful, God is coming to rescue us from those
things. Lift up your voice! Cry out!
Here is your God! He is coming to
deliver us from sin and death. He is
coming to gather us together in his arms.
He is coming to care for us, to protect us, to lead us in the way that
we should go! This is this Gospel! This is our hope as our king comes.
Critical
Discussion Questions:
1. How does this text reveal to us the
nature and character of God/What is God doing in this text?
a. God desires to bring comfort and good
news. Judgment, for God, is not the last
word, hope and restoration are. God is
powerful enough to free us from bondage to that which enslaves us yet gentle
enough to care and provide for us as a shepherd cares and leads a flock. God is also steadfast in the midst of our
unfaithfulness. The offer of salvation
is solid because God says he will do it.
2. What
does holiness/salvation look like in this text?
a. Salvation
looks like homecoming. This is literal
for God’s people because they are strangers in a foreign land. Homecoming is good news for us because our
sins have made us so distant from God.
Where God is, our home is. God is
coming with salvation to bring us home to him.
3. How
does an encounter with this story shape who we are and who we should become?
a. We
can have hope that even though we have been in our sins a very long time the
power of God to save is there. In our
sin we experience judgment and discomfort.
God comes to bring comfort and homecoming. This homecoming propels us out to proclaim the
glad tidings that God is coming, coming to bring us home to him.
Specific
Discussion Questions:
Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself
quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were
very unfamiliar with the story.
1. Why
is Jerusalem in need of comfort? What
crime has she committed that has caused her to pay the penalty for her sin?
2. Verses
3-5 describe a highway that is to be prepared.
Most scholars think that this highway is an image for the return of the
exiles to Jerusalem. In what other times
has God prepared a highway for his people?
How might that time and the events here be similar?
3. In
verse 6 a voice commands the prophet to “cry out.” The prophet seems hesitant to proclaim
anything. Why is the prophet hesitant?
4. Verse
8 gives the reason why the prophet should make his proclamation. What is that reason? Why does it matter?
5. The
prophet is commanded to proclaim “good tidings,” literally the gospel or good
news. What is the content of that good
news?
6. The
voice proclaims, “Here is your God!”
What are the two ways in which God is described as coming? Why are they important for us today?
7. For
Israel, the good news of salvation entailed liberation from political exile.
What kind of liberation does the gospel bring to those of us who live in a
different circumstance in the twenty-first century? What kinds of things hold
people captive today and how is the gospel good news for those
captivities?
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