1) We have worked with these texts before. I don;t know if the blog has search features, or if I can recover older material. At any rate, I'll try to present some new thoughts and citations. At this point,I don;t have access to the Brevard Childs commentary on Isaiah but would recommend a look. I also would commend the work of Moltmann in the Coming of God for an emphasis on transformation and not annihilation. I continue to insist that the older churches have remained silent on apocalyptic texts, so we have left the field to nuttier interpretations as undergirding the thought forms of congregations. I do not think that Darby's 1829 work determines interpretation.

2) In God and creation Fretheim seeds redemption and creation as linked. In Isaiah indeed the new creation is the working out of redemption. At 193 he cites Bruckner with approval that all of creation is in need of redemption. He further argues that the dispirited exilic/post-exilic group needed to hear a new fresh word on creation to stand behind the promises of renewal.

3) At 194 he underscores his contention that  human salvation will be fully realized only when the natural order has been healed.

4)Brueggemann in TOT(482) notes the hope for abundant fertility. ""Human hope that awaits God's generosity and extravagance...flies in the face of every theology of scarcity." At 549, he calls it a poem, his word for surprise. "god will overcome all that is amiss."  All will come under the life-giving aegis of God...even the most deep distortions m9serpent??) He quotes Julian "all will be well and all will be well." at 551-'the world will begin again in blessedness...it is in God's character not to abandon but to embrace." He asserts that chaos follows God's abandonment.

5) Note that violence, in all forms, even perhaps the threat of violence disappears in this section, that replays Is. 11.

6) Note joy and delight that replays Ps. 104 and Wisdom in Prov. 8

7)the former things will not be remembered...by whom, God?

8) on prayer-before they call I will answer-Seitz in NIB sees this as possibly a reversal of the fall hiding in Gen.3, the lack of labor pain may refer to Gen. 3:16

9) Seitz sees this section as the vindication of the servant (544).

 

Is. 12

1) Tucker NIB 147 sees this as a deliberate liturgical conclusion to chs. 1-11.

2 he also notes that we have calls to both individual and corporate thanksgiving.

3)We have allusions/echoes of the psalter and the song of Moses of Ex. 15. See alos Jdg. 5:11, Zech. 2:10

4) G. Ernest Wright would like this praise of the 'god who acts."

5)At 148 Tucker sees this as imagining a world with Zion at the center and God's acts radiate and ramify through the whole world.

6) Talk about how you see god's anger. when and how does anger turn to comfort? How would that fit with the historical events of israel?

7) What would be a more contemporary way of stating v. 3?

8)What do you see god has done lately?

9) What specific acts of thanksgiving would it be helpful to note as a spiritual exercise. how about for the community and Nation?

10) Gratitude has enjoyed social scientific experiments of late. See the work of Emmons, for instance.

11) consider the word joy and describe it.