You may subscribe yourself at the Ascension site here and receive notifications in your email, or just follow along on my blog. Bible in One Year Readings Index
Agape Bible Study
Isaiah 1 - 2
Chapter 1
Title, Historical Setting, and the Indictment against Israel's Covenant Failures
Isaiah 1:1 ~ The Title and the Historical Setting
The title of Isaiah's work is "The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem..." Isaiah also spoke God's word of judgment against the Northern Kingdom of Israel and other Gentile nations in the region, but the focus of his mission was to the Southern Kingdom of Judah and its Davidic kings. The title also informs the reader of the way God revealed His divine word to Isaiah —through visions.
Isaiah 1:1b establishes the historical range of his mission which continued through the reigns of four Davidic kings of Judah. Most the books of the prophets begin by establishing the historical setting with the exception of the books of Joel, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk and Malachi. Isaiah's ministry began the year of King Uzziah's death in c. 740 BC. While Isaiah's public ministry probably ended in the years prior to the death of King Hezekiah (the last dated event is in the 14th year of Hezekiah in c. 701 BC). King Hezekiah's relationship with Isaiah is recorded in 2 Kings 19:20-20:19. Isaiah's life and the work on his prophetic book probably continued into the reign of Hezekiah's wicked son, King Manasseh (2 Chr 32:32 and Is 37:38 that records an event that took place in c. 681 BC). Isaiah 1:1 is obviously written at the end of his public ministry.
Isaiah's Mission
Isaiah 1:1 is the beginning of the Book of Isaiah but it is not the beginning of his story. The story of Isaiah's commissioning isn't told until chapter 6. Instead of beginning with Isaiah's divine call, the Book of Isaiah begins by giving the historical setting of his ministry and the scope of his mission.
Israel's covenant with Yahweh was unique in comparison to all previous covenants that had been formed between Yahweh and individuals and continued through their families (see Yahweh's Eight Covenants). The covenant with Israel was a corporate covenant in the sense that the covenant partner was the unity of an entire people. The purpose of Isaiah's mission was to act as Yahweh's prosecuting attorney in announcing a covenant lawsuit (a riv in Hebrew) against the Israelites, and calling forth the Sanctions of the divine judgments to be imposed if the covenant treaty with Yahweh was abandoned by Israel. The prophets Hosea and Micah were contemporaries of Isaiah, and they also called covenant lawsuits against Israel and Judah during the same period (see Hos 1:1; 2:2/2:4 and Mic 1:1-4).
The Israelites had, as a nation, violated the binding covenant with Yahweh who they swore to obey as their only God and great King at Mt. Sinai in the beginning of their history as a nation (Ex 24:3-7). God's covenant treaty with Israel resembles other secular covenant treaties in the ancient Near East, and was set down in five parts; see the review of the treaty in Moses' last homilies in the Book of Deuteronomy.
Yahweh's Covenant Lawsuit against Israel and Judah
Isaiah 1:2-9 ~ As Yahweh's Agent, Isaiah calls a Covenant Lawsuit against an Ungrateful Covenant People
The main themes of the Book of Isaiah are justice and redemption, and the five most significant sub-themes of the book of Isaiah are: the sovereignty of God, the preservation of the faithful remnant, the Servant of God, the Holy One of Israel, and the Messiah.
- The sovereignty of God: The concept of the sovereignty of God appears throughout the book, in fact, this concept is assumed on every page of Sacred Scripture. God is the sovereign Lord of the universe and over every nation and people on the face of the earth. He is actively at work in the events of the world, guiding all human history in accordance with His divine plan.
- The preservation of the faithful remnant of the covenant people: Several Hebrew words are used to describe a "remnant" or "remainder." The Hebrew word sariyd (saw-reed) is used in the concept of a "remnant" or "remainder" of a group God has chosen and preserved. They are the covenant people who are looking to God's direction in obedience to His divine will working through them (Is 37:4, 32). They return to the Lord and experience the fullness of His salvation when others do not (Is 10:21-22; Mic 2:12). The "faithful remnant" is a theme that began in Genesis in the salvation of Noah's family, and is a theme that is repeated throughout the books of the Old Testament and in the New Testament (in the New Testament see, for example, Rom 9:27; 11:5; Rev 11:13; 12:17 and 19:21).
- The Servant of God: The Hebrew word ebed, "servant/slave", occurs almost 800 times in the Old Testament and of those occurrences it is found 39 times in Isaiah. The "servant" bows in complete submission of his master's will. Isaiah uses the term to describe God's covenant people as a group (Is 41:1; 54:17), but more often as individuals who submit and serve God faithfully (Is 22:20; 42:1; 52:13). In the New Testament, the Greek word doulos has the same meaning as ebed. It occurs 122 times in the New Testament. Jesus told several parables about what it meant to be a faithful servant in His Kingdom, and St. Paul described himself as a "servant of Christ" in Romans 1:1, and urged the Christians of the Church in Rome to fully submit as "servants/slaves" of God in Romans 6:16-23.
- The Holy One of Israel: This is Isaiah's favorite way of referring to God; the title occurs 31 times in the Old Testament and 25 times in the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah uses the title for God in both judgmental and redemptive contexts.
- The Messiah: The Hebrew word mashiach literally means "anointed one" and is translated as "messiah."
These five sub-themes appear over and over again throughout the book; look for the sub-themes of God's sovereignty, the preserved remnant, and the Holy One of Israel in chapter 1.
The poem in verses 2-11 refers to the devastation of the land and the siege of Jerusalem, either during the Syro-Ephraimite War of 735 BC (2 Kng 16:5-9; Is 7:1-2), or the invasion by the Assyrian King Sennacherib in 701 BC, or both. In verses 2-3, Isaiah, as God's prosecuting attorney in the covenant lawsuit, calls God's witnesses against the covenant people. The tribes of Israel have broken their covenant treaty with God their sovereign King and divine Father, and now Yahweh's patience in waiting for their repentance and return to Him has come to an end. God has sent His prophet to call a covenant lawsuit, a riv/rib in Hebrew, against a rebellious people (see Is 34:8) who have become "perverted children" (verse 4).
In secular covenant treaty documents and lawsuits, the false gods of the people were called as witnesses, but for Israel there is only one God, and He calls upon His creation as His witnesses.
In the covenant lawsuit, Yahweh sends his prophet to call out His judgment against a rebellious and ungrateful people. Isaiah will act as God's prosecuting attorney, enumerating Israel's failures and the justice of God's divine judgment against them. However, it is a judgment that is not meant to be simply punitive but redemptive, as are all God's judgments, to call His people to repentance and back into covenant fellowship with Him as their One True God.
Isaiah describes how Israel's sin has even affected the Promised Land. Sometimes God had allowed the consequences of their sins to be associated with the Land to bring the Israelites to their senses in judgments that were meant to be redemptive. He warned that He would do this in Leviticus 26:14-29, when the land would become desolate because of drought or the harvest devastated by enemy invasions and famine. Perhaps the people saw these signs as flukes of history or nature, but Isaiah saw them as God's instruments of divine judgment against a wayward people.
Zion is a favorite term of Isaiah's for the people of God and occurs 47 times with 29 of the occurrences in chapters 1-39.(4) The "daughter of Zion" is a metaphor/symbolic title for Jerusalem and the Old Covenant Church (see Is 10:32; 16:1; 37:22; 52:2; 62:11). Even Jerusalem will not be left untouched. The magnificent city and her Temple will be reduced to a ruin.
The "vineyard" mentioned in verse 8 is one of the symbolic images of the prophets for Israel.
Isaiah 1:10-20 ~ The Indictment against the People and an Invitation to Repent
The breaking of the covenant has come about through the actions of the people that are recounted in verses 10-16. Two reasons are given. The first is in verses 11-14
Question: Verses 11-14 are not a rejection of the liturgy of sacrifice and worship or the feast days that God established at Mt. Sinai. Instead, what is God rejecting? See 1 Sam 15:22-23; Hos 6:6; and Ps 51:16-17 to help you with your answer.
Answer: Yahweh is rejecting their hypocrisy in offering sacrifice without submission and repentance, and worship that lacks the humility and genuine affection of the offerer for God and the desire to serve Him in justice. The lack of the righteous disposition of one's soul makes the actions of sacrifice and worship as empty and meaningless as a body without a soul.
When God established the liturgy of worship in the desert Sanctuary, which was later transferred to the Jerusalem Temple, He set in place weekly, monthly and annual feast days and sacrifices to mark the liturgical year. These feasts and their sacrifices were offered in addition to the single, whole burnt offering of an unblemished male lamb offered in the morning and in the afternoon (Jewish evening) liturgical worship service with unleavened bread and red wine. This premier sacrifice was to last so long as the Sinai Covenant endured and was called the `olat ha-Tamid (usually translated as the "daily sacrifice"; see Ex 29:36-42; Lev 6:2-6; Num 28:3-8).
Isaiah lays out the second reason for their failure in verses 15-16:
15 When you stretch out your hands I turn my eyes away. You may multiply your prayers, I shall not be listening. Your hands are covered in blood, 16 wash, make yourselves clean. Take your wrong-doing out of my sight.
Question: What is the second reason for the spiritual malaise that has led to covenant failure and alienation from God?
Answer: The people literally have blood on their hands as a result of their mistreatment of their own people and others.
Isaiah 1:21-23 ~ A Lament for Jerusalem's Sinful Condition
In these verses, the people of Jerusalem become representative of the sins of the people as a whole as the Lord expresses sorrow for what once was a faithful people: what was pure has become impure, what was precious like silver (Jerusalem's rulers) has become base and rebellious.
Isaiah 1:24-26 ~ Jerusalem's Coming Purge and the Result
Through His divine judgment and His mercy, purge the people of their sins and restore their judges so that Jerusalem will again be called a "City of Saving Justice, Faithful City."
Isaiah 1:27-31 ~ God Promised Blessings for the Repentant and Judgment for the Transgressors who Persist in Sin
This passage concludes the introduction to the book. Through His prophet, God promises redemption for the repentant and destruction for the wicked. The word "redeemed" means to buy back or to restore from a fallen state. But God doesn't just want to "buy them back" —He wants to restore their moral character to their previous holy state as a people in communion with as their great King and divine Father.
But in Isaiah's time there was still time for redemption, and God's judgments were temporal and not eternal —even death only had a hold on all souls until the coming of the Christ. God intends to justly punish Israel for her sins, but His purpose is to call back a faithful remnant who will continue to bring forth His divine plan for the redemption of all mankind, which He promises in the next passage.
Chapter 2
Isaiah 2:1-4 ~ The Promise of the Everlasting Peace in the Last Days
The "final days" in the age of mankind is the era of the Messiah (as defined by St. Peter in Acts 2:14-17, quoting from Joel 3:1). Those final days will end in judgment in "the Day of the Lord" or the "Day of Yahweh." The vision and prophecy in Isaiah 2:1-4 is the same vision and prophecy that was given to Isaiah's contemporary, the prophet Micah in Micah 4:1-3. In Isaiah 2:1-4, the coming blessing of the "final days" involves three aspects:
- Yahweh's house (the Temple)
- Yahweh's people (the people in covenant with Yahweh)
- Yahweh's peace (restoration between Yahweh and His people)
God's "house" is His Temple and the center of worship for the covenant people. This prophecy announces the day when God's "house", His center of worship, will be the chief or head (r`osh in Hebrew) of all religions on the face of the earth.
It was at God's "house", the Temple built by King Solomon on Mt. Moriah, that God was revealed to His people in Isaiah's time and where the covenant with Yahweh was continued in every generation. But in the prophecy, Isaiah presents a beautiful image of all peoples of the earth "streaming" or "flowing" (nahar the verb) to God's "house" like a great river (nahar the noun means "river").
Finally, the "peace" of God is promised in the "final days" when He will judge the nations. This peace does not refer simply to absence of war but to the spiritual wholeness of the people in their relationship with God. Sin will come to an end, and peace between God and man and peace within all mankind will prevail.
Isaiah 2:5-8 ~ Judgment against the People's Empty Lives
"House of Jacob" refers to the descendants of Jacob-Israel. The impassioned plea in verse 5 forms a connection between what preceded in God's call for repentance and the promise restoration in the glorious future messianic kingdom and the continuing condemnation that follows. The "light of the Lord" refers to the word of truth that comes from God and directs the path of man in righteousness and the unity of communion with the God.
Question: How did Jesus refer to Himself in John 8:12; 9:5; 11:9, 10; 12:35, 36, 46?
Answer: Jesus identified Himself as the "light" of the world.
Divination or soothsaying is the occult practice of trying to determine the direction of future events or hidden things by consulting or evoking certain powers. Evoking these powers, whether explicitly or implicitly is considered an appeal to Satan's aid. It is therefore a grave offense against God and a serious sin. Astrology is a form of divination based on the theory that the planets and stars influence human destiny.
Isaiah 2:9-22 ~ Human Pride Humbled by Yahweh's Majesty on the Day of Judgment
Isaiah's second oracle that began in 2:1 continues with Isaiah's description of the humbling of humanity on the Day of Yahweh when there will be no place to hide from God's divine judgment, and the people will suddenly understand that their false gods and their belief in their self-sufficiency cannot save them. A similar description of the Day of Yahweh's Judgment is found in other books of the prophets, for example,
- Hosea 10:8 ~ The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed; thrones and thistles will grow over their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, "Cover us!" and to the hills, "Fall on us!"
In verses 13-16, Isaiah lists six things in nature and man-made that cause men to marvel and be proud:
- The cedars of Lebanon were believed to be the world's greatest trees.
- The oaks of Bashan were believed to be the world's longest living trees.
- High mountains and tall hills were places where pagan gods were worshipped.
- Stone towers and walls were building marvels of man.
- Ships of Tarshish were great ships that sailed to what was believed to be the ends of the earth at the southern Iberian Peninsula and the straights of Gibraltar.
- Everything held precious by man sums up all things that man admires.
All these things will be of no value to man on the Day of Yahweh's Judgment.
The prelude to the Final Judgment that marks the Final Age of Mankind in the Passion of the Christ was described by the prophet Amos seven hundred years before the event of the total eclipse during Jesus' crucifixion and the profound sorrow after He gave up His life (Mt 27:45; Mk 15:33-39; Lk 23:44-45): Amos 8:9.
But with the coming of Jesus Christ we understand the final Day of God's Judgment for all humanity will happen when Christ returns in glory (see CCC 1038-41):
- Matthew 24:29-31 ~ Jesus said: "Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven; then too, all the peoples of the earth will beat their breasts; and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet to gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 ~ We can tell you this from the Lord's own teaching, that we who are still alive for the Lord's coming will not have any advantage over those who have fallen asleep. At the signal given by the voice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God, the Lord himself will come down from heaven; those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise, and only after that shall we who remain alive be taken up in the clouds, together with them, to meet the Lord in the air.
- 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 ~ ... when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven with the angels of his power. He will come amid flaming fire; he will impose a penalty on those who do not acknowledge God and refuse to accept the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. Their punishment is to be lost eternally, excluded from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength on that day when he comes to be glorified among his holy ones and marveled at by all who believe in him; and you are among those who believed our witnesses.
- Revelation 6:12-17 ~ In my vision, when he broke the sixth seal, there was a violent earthquake and the sun went as black as coarse sackcloth; the moon turned red as blood all over, and the stars of the sky fell onto the earth like figs dropping from a fig tree when a high wind shakes it; the sky disappeared like a scroll rolling up and all the mountains and islands were shaken from their places. Then all the kings of the earth, the governors and the commanders, and rich people and the men of influence, the whole population, slaves and citizens, hid in caverns and among the rocks of the mountains. They said to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us away from the the One who sits on the throne and from the retribution of the Lamb. For the Great Day of his retribution has come, and who can face it?"
+++
CHALLENGE: “The Church Fathers sometimes used language implying the Eucharist was symbolic, so they couldn’t have believed in the Real Presence.”
DEFENSE: The concept of a symbol means something different today from what it did in the time of the early Church.
We have already seen that the Church Fathers were realists in their understanding of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist (see Day 120). However, Protestant historian J.N.D. Kelly writes:
“Occasionally these writers use language which has been held to imply that, for all its realist sound, their use of the terms ‘body’ and ‘blood’ may after all be merely symbolical. Tertullian, for example, refers to the bread as ‘a figure’ (figura) of Christ’s body, and once speaks of ‘the bread by which he represents (represented) his very body’ (Early Christian Doctrines, 212).
However, Kelly warns: “Yet we should be cautious about interpreting such expressions in a modern fashion. According to ancient modes of thought a mysterious relationship existed between the thing symbolized and its symbol, figure or type; the symbol in some sense was the thing symbolized” (ibid.).
Thus Tertullian’s statement that the Eucharist “represents” Christ’s body must be understood in its ancient context:
Again, the verb repraesentare, in Tertullian’s vocabulary, retained its original significance of “to make present.” All that his language really suggests is that, while accepting the equation of the elements with the body and blood, he remains conscious of the sacramental distinction between them. In fact, he is trying, with the aid of the concept of figura, to rationalize to himself the apparent contradiction between (a) the dogma that the elements are now Christ’s body and blood, and (b) the empirical fact that for sensation they remain bread and wine (ibid.).
Given the shift in how the concept of symbol is understood, one should not take language suggesting symbolism as precluding a realist understanding in the Fathers of Christ’s presence.
Indeed, the Church today uses the language of signs in connection with the Eucharist, though it firmly teaches the Real Presence. Thus the Catechism states: “The essential signs of the Eucharistic sacrament are wheat bread and grape wine, on which the blessing of the Holy Spirit is invoked and the priest pronounces the words of consecration spoken by Jesus during the Last Supper” (CCC 1412).
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
No comments:
Post a Comment