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Agape Bible Study
Isaiah 51 - 52
Isaiah Chapters 51-52
Chapter 51:1-52:12 links the theme of Israel's promised salvation with the exhortation to "listen" (repeated three times in 51:1, 4, 7) and to "awake" (repeated seven times: in 51:9 three times, 17 twice; 52:1 twice). Isaiah begins by making an exhortation to trust God in a three-part challenge in 51:1-8 to the covenant people of Judah in "those who remain out of what was once the nation of Israel. He asks them to remember the past, to consider the present, and to look to the future.
Isaiah 51:1-3 ~ God's Blessings in the Past
Isaiah tells the righteous to "listen" and to remember God's great deeds in the past.
Question: What is the point of asking them to remember Abraham and Sarah?
Answer: If in the past God could take one elderly and barren couple and from them bring forth a nation from their descendants, can't they trust Him with their future salvation?
Salvation is promised again in the imagery of a new Garden of Eden where mankind first enjoyed the perfection of covenant union with God. Not only will they be restored to the land but to a joyful spiritual relationship with their God that Adam and Eve enjoyed before their fall from grace expressed in a liturgy of thanksgiving and music.
Isaiah 51:4-6 ~ Look to the Future to God's Reign of Saving Justice
Next Isaiah commands the covenant people to "listen" (second repeat) to the voice of Yahweh.
Verses 4-5 recall the oracle in Isaiah 2:2-4, and the same word, "torah" meaning "instruction," is used in both passages: For the Law [torah] will issue from Zion and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem (Is 2:3).
He will not only bring His salvation and His justice as a "light" to Israel but to all nations.
In His Kingship over all the earth, He has the authority to judge the sin of all peoples as well as to bring universal justice and salvation. These promises are repeats of those in Isaiah 42:6; 46:13; 49:6-7.
Isaiah 51:7-8 ~ Courage for the Righteous in the Present
As he did in verses 1-3, Isaiah again addresses the righteous covenant people who persist in faith despite persecution. His announcement is for those of his present generation and for the righteous of all generations. The image of moth-eaten clothes for temporal things has been repeated from 50:9 (see the same imagery in Job 13:28; Ps 39:11; 102:26 = worn-out clothes)
Isaiah 51:9-52:6 ~ The Call to Awake!
Isaiah 51:9-52:6 is a long poem constructed around the word "Awake." The word is repeated seven times but divided into three sections in 51:9-16 with "awake" commanded three times in verse 9; in 51:17-23 with the word "awake" commanded twice in verse 17; and in 52:1-6, with the command "awake" used twice in 52:1. The first call is for Yahweh to awake and take action "to renew His wonders of the past for the sake of Israel.
Isaiah 51:9-11 ~ The Call for Yahweh to Awake!
In this first section the call to "awake" is addressed to the "arm of Yahweh" "or the strength of God "urging Yahweh to repeat His wondrous deeds of the past like the Creation event and the parting of the Red Sea when the children of Israel crossed the sea on dry ground (Ex 14:15-31; especially verses 21-22). In Canaanite mythology Rahab (verse 2) was a monster. The word Rahab came to personify the watery chaos in the material world before the Creation event as opposed to God's created order (see Job 9:13; 26:12; Ps 89:10 and also as Leviathan or Tannin in Is 27:1; Job 7:12; Ps 74:14; Ez 29:3).
Isaiah says in verses 11-12 that God will redeem His people in mighty acts as in the past, and they will enter the holy city of Jerusalem with joy "joy repeated in three different ways: shouting, crowned, and escorted with joy.
Isaiah 51:12-16 ~ Yahweh, Israel's Consoler
Yahweh speaks again in answer to His prophet's call. He is the covenant people's consoler. They need not fear any mortal enemy no matter how powerful because Yahweh of Hosts is sovereign of the forces of nature, and He will protect them and set them free. He sends His prophet to speak His words to them, and He protects His prophet with the same hand with which He spread out the heavens and laid the earth's foundations. It is His prophet's mission to tell His faithful covenant people that they still belong to Him.
Isaiah 51:17-23 ~ The Call for Jerusalem to Awake
The citizens of Jerusalem are commanded to "stand up" as opposed to the citizens of Babylon who have been commanded to "sit in the dust" (47:1). On account of her sins, Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem have received the divine punishment of drinking God's "cup of wrath."
Question: But now that the covenant people have fully consumed the cup of God's wrath and has paid the penalty for their sins, what will become of God's cup of wrath?
Answer: Their time of suffering is over, and God's cup of wrath will be handed to their tormentors who oppressed them.
| Image Group | Part I Covenant relationship | Part II Rebellion | Part III Redemptive Judgment | Part IV Restoration Fulfilled in God's Servant, Jesus Christ |
| Drinking Wine | Joy of drinking good wine | Becoming drunk | Loss of wine; drinking the "cup of God's wrath" | Rejoicing in the best "new wine" at the Master's table |
| examples in Scripture | Isaiah 25:6-8; 62:8-9; 65:13; Jeremiah 31:12; 40:12 | Isaiah 5:11-12; 28:1; Jeremiah 8:13; 48:26; 51:7; Joel 1:5 | Psalm 75:9; Isaiah 51:17-23; 63:2-3; Jeremiah 13:12-14; 25:15-31; 48:26; 49:12; 51:6-7; Ezekiel 23:31-34; Joel 4:13; Obadiah 16; Habakkuk 2:16; Zechariah 12:2 | Promise: Zechariah 9:15-16; Joel 4:18; Amos 9:13 Filled: Luke 22:19-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-32; Revelation 19:7-9 |
Ezekiel, a priest and prophet of the Babylonian exile, warned the Judahites that just as their "sister" Samaria (the Northern Kingdom) drank the "cup of God's wrath" in judgment so too would they: "This will happen to you because you have played the whore with the nations and have defiled yourself with their foul idols. Since you have copied your sister's behavior, I shall put her cup in your hand." The Lord Yahweh says this: You will drink your sister's cup, a cup both deep and wide, leading to laughter and mockery, so ample the draught it holds. You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow. Cup of affliction and devastation, the cup of your sister Samaria, you will drink it, you will drain it; then you will break it in pieces and lacerate your own breasts. For I have spoken "declared the Lord Yahweh (Ez 23:30-34).
21 So listen to this, afflicted one, drunk, though not with wine. 22 Thus says your Lord Yahweh, your God, defender of your people: Look, I am taking the stupefying cup from your hand, the chalice, the cup of my wrath, you will not have to drink again. 23 I shall hand it to your tormentors who used to say to you, "On the ground! So that we can walk over you!" And you would flatten your back like the ground, like a street for them to walk on.
Question: But when the people have atoned for their sins, who will drink from the cup of God's wrath in divine judgment?
Answer: The Babylonians will be made to drink the "cup of God's wrath" for their sins against the covenant people. They in turn will be punished as will all nations who cause God's covenant people to suffer.
Isaiah 52:1-6 ~ Awake for the Liberation of Jerusalem
The first words of this passage repeat Isaiah 51:9, Awake, awake! Clothe yourself in strength, arm of Yahweh ...", but this time it is the prophet Isaiah who is addressing Jerusalem instead of Yahweh directly "he is, however, speaking the words of Yahweh to the people. Isaiah is speaking of events that will transpire in 539 BC, over 161 years in the future (if Isaiah is writing this in c. 700 BC), when Jerusalem's captivity by the Babylonians is coming to an end because God's anointed agent, Cyrus, has captured the capital city of Babylon. When that happens, the people and their oppressors who had thought themselves invincible (like the Egyptians in the first liberation) will recognize that the day of Israel's redemption prophesied by Isaiah and God's other prophets has arrived and Yahweh is with His people! Again the prophet mentions that their redemption will be a free gift of God's grace in verse 3.
Isaiah 52:7-12 ~ The Prediction of Salvation
This passage expresses the recurring theme of the "new Exodus" reminiscent of Isaiah chapter 40. Verse 7 either refers to the messengers who will bring the good news to the communities of the Jews in captivity in Babylon that what was prophesied by Isaiah has been fulfilled "Babylon has fallen and Cyrus is victorious, or the news that victorious Cyrus has issued the edict allowing their return!
God will not visibly lead them as He did in the pillar of cloud and fire in the first Exodus, but He will protect them on their journey which is to be conducted like a religious procession. They are to purify themselves as they leave the profane land of Babylon in the same way the covenant people used to make the pilgrimage journey to Jerusalem for the pilgrim feasts. They are to carry the sacred vessels that the Babylonians looted from Solomon's Temple, and they are to joyously make the return journey so that the nations of the earth will witness their journey as evidence that Yahweh is Israel's king and the one true God.
The day will come when God's Servant, Jesus the Messiah, will take up God's "cup of wrath" on behalf of a fallen humanity. It is the cup that Jesus will ask the Apostles James and John Zebedee if they are willing to drink the cup that I am going to drink in Matthew 20:22, and it is the cup that Jesus lamented taking up in His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane when He prayed, "My Father," he said, "if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Nevertheless, let it be as you, not I, would have it... My father, he said, if this cup cannot pass by, but I must drink it, your will be done" (Mt 26:39, 42; Mk 14:36; Lk 22:42).
It is our Eucharistic banquet that prefigures the Wedding Supper of the Lamb and His Bride that takes place at the end of time when Christ returns that St. John witnessed in Revelation 19:7-9.
Agape Bible Study
Ezekiel 12 - 13
Chapter 12: Two Symbolic Acts and Two Proverbs
In Chapter 12, God requires Ezekiel to perform two symbolic acts/object lessons that depict the people trying to escape the city of Jerusalem. Most commentators interpret the act as directed to the attempted escape of his fellow exiles then in captivity. However, it is more likely that the symbolic act depicts those who will be sent into exile after the fall of Jerusalem (see 12:10). The description of the nighttime escape of "the prince" of the people follows Jeremiah's description of the escape of King Zedekiah when the city was about to fall to the Babylonians (see Jer 39:4-7 and compare with Ez 12:12-13).
Ezekiel 12:1-7 ~ Ezekiel's Next Symbolic Act
The exiles are apparently refusing to believe Ezekiel's prophecies in the same way the people of Jerusalem are dismissing Jeremiah's prophecies. Therefore, verse 1 repeats that these proud-hearted rebels never see or hear and therefore never understand the word of Yahweh. It is the same message God gave to Isaiah in the 8th century BC and Ezekiel's contemporary, Jeremiah (Is 6:9-10; Jer 5:21). Jesus makes the same statement in Matthew 13:13.
Question: How is he to proceed in acting out the part?
Answer:
- He is to back up what he needs for a journey.
- He is to do this in the daytime so his neighbors can see him.
- In the evening, he is to break through the wall of his house and pretend to escape.
The covering of his face seems odd if he is acting out his escape in the nighttime, but there may be another reason other than as an act of mourning or grief in leaving the Promised Land (verse 12). In Jeremiah's description of King Zedekiah's escape, he left under the cover of darkness through an opening in a wall (2 Kng 25:2-4; Jer 39:4-5). He also probably covered his face to keep from being recognized.
Ezekiel 12:8-16 ~ Ezekiel Performs the Symbolic Act of Leaving in Exile
Ezekiel is to tell his fellow exiles that his symbolic act is an omen or sign of what is to come for those still living in the land of Israel. "Their prince" is the way Ezekiel refers to King Zedekiah (see the note on 7:27 in the last lesson) since he only considers him a prince of the House of David and not the legitimate king. Yahweh's oracle describes what will happen to Zedekiah when he tries to escape only to be captured by the Babylonians.
Ezekiel 12:17-20 ~ Ezekiel's Third Symbolic Act
In the next oracle, Yahweh commands Ezekiel to eat his meals trembling in fear to dramatize the realities of exile. Apparently, Ezekiel's countrymen and women are now regularly visiting him to observe his actions and to hear his prophetic words. This newest symbolic act should encourage the exiles to remember their fearful journey into exile and to contrast that experience with their ancestors' exile journey out of Egypt when God fed them and gave them His divine protection on their journey.
Ezekiel 12:21-28 ~ Ezekiel Uses Two Proverbs
In this oracle, God asks Ezekiel to interpret the proverb Days go by and visions fade in association with the land of Israel. A proverb was a common saying, and this one was apparently well-known in Ezekiel's time. The meaning was as time passes visions have less meaning as they fail to come true. Yahweh's response is an attack against false prophets whose visions are not fulfilled. Yahweh says that every one of Ezekiel's visions and pronouncements and those of Yahweh's other prophets will come true.
Chapter 13: Oracles against the False Prophets and Prophetesses
Ezekiel 13:1-7 ~ Yahweh’s Accusations against Judah’s False Prophets
The formula “The word of Yahweh was addressed to me” signals the beginning of another oracle. This oracle is against the false prophets like Shemaiah the Nehelamite who wrote from exile in Babylon that Jeremiah should be punished for encouraging the exiles to accept a long captivity (Jer 29:24-28). Jeremiah denounced him in Jerusalem, and he sent a letter to the exiles, declaring Yahweh’s punishment for Shemaiah and his family that they would not survive to see the restoration of Israel (Jer 29:29-32).
God compares the false prophets to jackals, scavengers who inhabit ruins. It was apparently common to see jackals living in ruins and enlarging breaches in crumbling walls (Lam 5:18; Neh 3:35). Therefore, they, like the false prophets, contribute to and benefit from adding to the destruction of the places they inhabit. Jerusalem is a religious and moral ruin, overrun with jackal-prophets who contribute to the moral decay by telling the people what they want to hear and denouncing true prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
Ezekiel Vision
However, Yahweh’s Vineyard was now defenseless because of the unrepented sins of the people and their rulers. God’s divine protection was no longer present, like a “stone wall” between Israel/Judah and her enemies. The false prophets have not, in the tradition of Moses, “stepped into the breach” by interceding for the people and at the same time calling them to confession and repentance. An example of a true prophet “standing in the breach” is found in Moses’s defense of the Israelites after the sin of the Golden Calf in Exodus Chapter 32. Psalm 106:23 describes Moses’ intercession for the people with the same imagery as we find in this Ezekiel passage: He [God] thought of putting an end to them had not Moses, his chosen one, taken a stand in the breach and confronted him, to turn his anger away from destroying them. In the oracle in Ezekiel 22:30, God will repeat the same expression, “stand in the breach.”
The “Day of Yahweh” is the day of divine judgment. The bad news is that Israel is no longer a “vineyard” guarded by the “wall” of Yahweh protection but is a city under siege by an enemy. The worst news is that the enemy isn’t just an earthly one but Yahweh Himself. In Ezekiel 22:30, Ezekiel will speak of “standing in the breach” to defend the city against Yahweh’s wrath. Then, Ezekiel 33:7 presents God as the enemy and whose arrival the prophet/watchman must sound the warning.
Ezekiel 13:8-9 ~ Yahweh First Judgment against the False Prophets
In verses 8-9, God pronounces His judgment for the false prophets. Those upon whom God’s “hand” never came in prophecy will experience His “hand” in punishment. The Lord gives three punishments for the false prophets who have misled the people and ending in the formula statement in verse 9:
- They will not continue as part of the congregation of the covenant people.
- Their names will not remain in the genealogical register of the House of Israel.
- They will never return to the ancestral land.
These three judgments strike at the heart of what it means to be a member of God’s covenant people:
- Yahweh, His true prophets, and His faithful people form an intimate circle from which the false prophets are excommunicated.
- Their names appear in an official registry kept in the earthly Sanctuary and the Book of Life in the heavenly Sanctuary.2
- The faithful covenant members are heirs of the divine promises God made to the Patriarchs.
Ezekiel 13:10-16 ~ Yahweh’s Second Announcement of Judgment against False Prophets
In verses 10-16, Yahweh gives the second, longer and more detailed announcement of judgment. The passage divides into three parts:
- He gives a repeat of the charges in verse 10.
- He gives an announcement of the sentence of divine judgment on the deluded people and the self-proclaimed prophets that concludes with the recognition formula “then you will know that I am Yahweh” in verses 11-14.
- He gives a repeat of the divine sentence with a focus on the fate of the prophets in verses 15-16.
The false prophets will experience the violent “storm” of Yahweh’s divine wrath. When the people were close to repentance because they were moved by Jeremiah’s prophecies and his efforts to mend the “breach in the wall,” the false prophets attacked Jeremiah and undermined his credibility. Therefore, when the people were about to repair the “wall” protecting their relationship with Yahweh, the false prophets misled them with promises of “peace.” They gave them not a solid wall but an inadequate “plastered” wall that will not withstand the furious wrath of Yahweh. In this passage, the prophet is not describing a vision of men plastering a wall; rather he is developing a metaphor for hypocrisy in general.
Ezekiel 13:17-23 ~ Judgment against the False Prophetesses/Fortune-tellers
In verses 17-23, Yahweh denounces women who prophesy falsely and practice the occult arts that included fortunetelling. There were true female prophetesses. The Old Testament list includes Moses and Aaron’s sister Miriam (Ex 15:20-21), Deborah (Judg chapters 4-5), Isaiah’s wife (Is 8:1-4), Huldah (2 Kng 22:14-20), and Noadiah (Neh 6:14). See the chart on prophets and prophetesses.
The false women prophets used wristbands or amulets, head-clothes, and cast bits of grain or bread to make prophecies. They received payment for their services, delivering life and death prophecies for negligible compensation (1 Sam 9:7). The Law of Moses condemned divination and the one who practiced it as well as the one who sought it (Lev 19:26, 31; 20:6, 27; Dt 18:10-12).
Yahweh will take away their occult symbols and will let free (like birds) the lives of people who have become enslaved to their utterances. Birds were frequently used in divination in the ancient world (Is 8:19). Once again the oracle ends in the formula statement for returning to a covenant relationship with Yahweh.
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A Daily Defense
DAY 215 Combined Hypotheses
CHALLENGE; “Why can’t we explain the Resurrection by combining hypotheses, such as proposing the disciples went to the wrong tomb and then hallucinated?”
DEFENSE: Combined hypotheses avoid some problems but inherit problems from both original hypotheses.
The challenge may explain the empty tomb, Resurrection appearances, and Ascension, but it inherits problems from both the wrong tomb and hallucination hypotheses. From the wrong tomb hypothesis (see Day 207), it inherits the facts that:
• Specific, named women saw where Jesus was buried and returned to find the tomb empty.
• Jesus’ burial site was public—it was where he was crucified, so the women merely had to go back to the site of the Crucifixion.
• The owner of the tomb and the man who performed the burial (Joseph of Arimathea) was known and would have cleared up any confusion.
• There were guards marking the place of burial.
• Once the disciples started preaching the Resurrection, the J ewish authorities would have gone to the correct tomb—performing a search of recent burials if necessary—and produced Jesus’ corpse.
• Jews did not expect resurrection to occur in their own time but on the last day.
• The latter point is strengthened because the disciples initially did not think Jesus was resurrected but that his body had been moved.
From the hallucination hypothesis (see Day 212), it inherits:
• Multiple people would not hallucinate the same conversation or physical interaction with Jesus.
• We have no evidence that the witnesses to Resurrection appearances had the kinds of mental
disorders that produce hallucinations.
• It is disputed whether hallucinations are even possible for groups.
• We can’t explain the Resurrection appearances as an illusion caused by seeing something unclearly at a distance.
• The Gospels show disciples in the wrong frame of mind to experience illusions and hallucinations.
• We wouldn’t expect the hallucinations to occur for forty days and suddenly stop with the collective event of the Ascension.
• The Jewish authorities would have simply produced Jesus’ corpse.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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