Is. 40 in a Viral Year

 1) Calvin noticed that a difference in tone starts here in the book. Most of us think that much of the next chapters reflect an exilic promise, far removed from the earlier material’s major concern.

Not only that we are in a sort of choral back and forth with different voices. We appear to be in another throne room scene as in Is. 6. We may well be in a meeting of gods, or demigods, if you prefer, with God as the CEO of the meeting. It is not clear to me how Isaiah is there, in a vision or some other form of transport. Hanson does a good job with this in his Interpretation commentary.

2) Comfort (nhm) here is a verb, an imperative plural verb. I guess it could be directed to a group in heaven.  Could it be to all of the people, if directed to the prophet as a representative of the people>? To whom would you direct it now? Notice the imperative to speak tenderly.

3) The response is one of resignation. Why bother? Life is transient.

4) Mark uses some of this material to introduce the gospel and the Baptist. How can you weave it into Advent? Many churches may have Communion this Sunday-how does that affect your reading?

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5) Double for her sins. The punishments were more than condign, they exceeded a proper sentence. Is this not more than tough love? For me it has the sense of enough is enough, or more than enough. Does this aid you in preaching with those who see the virus as divine punishment, and they know precisely what the punishment is for? What highway for God’s help do we need right now? What would make it easier travelling?

6) When God promises to be the shepherd, it is a swipe at the failed human leaders/ shepherds. Is it an admission of divine failure, of misplaced  confidence in human leaders? 

7) Does the statement about the transitory nature of life, as in the flower fades, get a satisfactory resolution or response, or did I miss it? How do you find comfort over that point, or as Bruce Springsteen says, “everything dies, baby, that’s a fact.” Yet, instead of nurturing the breath/spirit removes life (7). What word, which word stands forever?

8) If I remember correctly Lee Michaels had a hit with a song that started out, it's been 40 days, in Do You Know What I Mean, and Art Garfunkel had a song 99 miles. both deal with yearning on the road. Maybe that would be a good entry point to consider the King’s highway on this passage.

The roadway image has an apocalyptic element, certainly, but doesn’t it have a sense of obstacles being removed along with its natural upheaval?

9) Don;t let it slip by you in the rush to finish. There it is again: do not be afraid/do not fear.

Notice how far we are from the divine warrior in v. 11. Now reward comes and recompense. It has elements of a maternal image as well. Notice that the imperatives hide the last phrase of gentle leading.

A look at Is. 64:1-9

 

Some hold that we are in a new section of Isaiah from chapter 56. With a book that mixes so many periods and images, it is hard to tell. If they are correct, we are dealing with the disappointment of the returned exiles that everything is not perfect, but so difficult. Returning home is fraught with peril.

This section is a counterpoint to preceding material.

1) The writer yearns for the active presence of God, as we all do, at least at times. We do not enter into the presence of God as much as God moves toward us. For Advent this makes it a verb, as in a God who arrives, who makes an entrance. It wants signs and wonders, as in the old days. When Jesus is baptized, the heavens indeed split open.

2) If I understand v. 5 (NRSV) correctly, they see God hiding and this pushed them into a complacency that allowed sin. In other words God has some responsibility for the sin of the people with the seeming deafness. While ch. 40 has voices of heaven, no one calls here in the awful silence. Seitz (NIB:529) sees this as the cry of the servants who suffer.

3) It seems to me that “yet” means that in spite of God's hidden quality, God is still a father. We have a good example of father language here  as our, not my; a sense of God, the creator of all. All Israel begs for help. Here is an interesting way to take the chosen and still make a universal claim.

4) Do I detect, in v. 7, at least a hint that people do not call on God because not only is God not seen, but God doesn't listen anyway? These are people tired of waiting and waiting, yet are told that God works with those who wait and hope. Qavah has a sense of gathering, of expecting, so God’s act was unexpected in v.3.

 

5) We move from a desire for the power of God as of old to an image of God as artisan. As we know from Jeremiah, the potter clay image is a powerful one. Here it has a sense of God molding us through adversity as well as success. It has a sense that our spiritual life is molded even when we may be unaware of the processes shaping us. I would hasten to add that the metaphor breaks down a bit when we consider that we, the clay, have some hand in shaping ourselves as well.

In our time, we are always looking for signs of divine favor. Here we could prize being an artistic creation, or it may lessen our arrogance if we see ourselves as rather inert raw material for the creative acts of God.

Maybe God has frustration in working with us that would be similar to my unmechanical skills trying to put together a crib or setting up a new device, or heaven forfend reading some assembly required for a special toy. 

On the other hand, this prayer sounds a challenge. What does God expect of us; God made us with these limitations and weaknesses.

 

6) This silent God, this invisible, this hidden God is a deep well. It is a healthy reminder that spiritual life is not dealing with an easy God. One could go in a mystical direction in pursuit of the silence. Hanson in his Interpretation commentary has a good section on this covenantal, relational God.

7) If you are unaware workingpreacher has nice commentary material that easily translates into sermonic material. Christopher Davis has a good, new view of waiting in his piece for this Sunday.

8) For those who see God as punishing us with the virus, the end of this passage is a moving prayer.