December 6, 2015: Isaiah of the Exile

Isaiah 40:1-11

Comfort, comfort my people!
    says your God.
² Speak compassionately to Jerusalem,
        and proclaim to her that her compulsory service has ended,
    that her penalty has been paid,
    that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins!

³ A voice is crying out:
“Clear the Lord’s way in the desert!
    Make a level highway in the wilderness for our God!

⁴ Every valley will be raised up,
    and every mountain and hill will be flattened.
    Uneven ground will become level,
    and rough terrain a valley plain.

⁵ The Lord’s glory will appear,
    and all humanity will see it together;
    the Lord’s mouth has commanded it.”

⁶ A voice was saying:
    “Call out!”
And another^[a] said,
    “What should I call out?”
All flesh is grass;
    all its loyalty is like the flowers of the field.

⁷ The grass dries up
    and the flower withers
    when the Lord’s breath blows on it.
    Surely the people are grass.

⁸ The grass dries up;
    the flower withers,
    but our God’s word will exist forever.

⁹ Go up on a high mountain,
    messenger Zion!
Raise your voice and shout,
    messenger Jerusalem!
Raise it; don’t be afraid;
    say to the cities of Judah,
    “Here is your God!”

¹⁰ Here is the Lord God,
    coming with strength,
    with a triumphant arm,
    bringing his reward with him
    and his payment before him.

¹¹ Like a shepherd, God will tend the flock;
    he will gather lambs in his arms
    and lift them onto his lap.
    He will gently guide the nursing ewes.

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Introduction

At the end of seven innings the score was tied 1-1.  The young pitcher for the home team had made an impressive performance: striking out batters while showing skill and discipline.   High School baseball games were only seven innings long, so the game went into extra innings…whoever lead at the end of an inning was the winner.  The visiting team was up to bat first and finally found a way to hit the aforementioned player’s pitches. Through a combination of hitting and errors, the visiting team scored three more runs at the top of the eighth: their victory seemed inevitable.  The young pitcher was frustrated as he headed back to the bench. Once he sat down, he began to unlace and take of his cleats…the game was over: there was no way that his team could come back from this!  Fortunately the pitcher’s father saw what he was doing and hurried down from the bleachers.

“Put those cleats back on! The game’s not over yet!!” his dad told him. Still a bit disgruntled the pitcher jammed his feet back in the cleats and laced them back up.  His team went to bat…

After hundreds of years of living in the “Promised Land” the people of Israel were conquered and their kingdoms destroyed. The Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians in 722 B.C.E. and its people were either forcibly relocated to other parts of the world or they became refugees in the Southern Kingdom of Judah.  In 586 B.C.E. the Kingdom of Judah fell to the Babylonian Empire: Jerusalem was sacked, the Temple was destroyed and many of its leading citizens were taken into exile.  This seemed to be the end of the people of Israel’s relationship with God.  Like so many other religions and cultures, they would probably disappear on the scrapheap of history. The game was over…

The Technical Stuff

In the Ancient World just about every nation and culture had their own deity, or their own particular “spin” on a widely known god.  That deity was usually connected to the land in which you lived: blessing and protecting it. If two nations went head-to-head in a war, it was as if the two nation’s deities were also “duking it out” to see who was the most powerful. We see this earlier in Israel’s history when David went toe-to-toe with Goliath: the Philistine giant “cursed David by his gods” (1 Sam. 17:43) while David answered with, “You are coming against me with sword, spear and scimitar, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel’s army who you’ve insulted…” (1 Sam. 17:45)

I’m sure that while the Babylonians were besieging Jerusalem they did quite a bit of “cursing Israel’s God” and yet they still prevailed. If one nation defeated another nation, logic said that one god had defeated another.  Most observers inferred that the Babylonian god, named Marduk, had triumphed and it was time for the people of Judah to accept the inevitable: Marduk was more powerful than the LORD. In other words, the game was over.

But instead, something truly amazing happened. Israel’s God did not go away. The promise and relationship did not disappear with the exile.  God was still speaking, moving and acting. The text from Isaiah 40 which we read today is an example of this. It begins the section of Isaiah called “Second Isaiah” and almost certainly comes from a different author than the first thirty-nine chapters of the book.  For centuries the prophets had been telling the people that there needed to be a change; that they needed to renew their relationship with God; not by going through the motions and “lip service” but with their whole being.  Instead, there was defeat and exile. The people of Judah must have felt that either God didn’t care or that God was too weak to do anything about it.

Now that the exile has come, Isaiah 40 gives a word of hope and comfort: “Speak compassionately to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her compulsory service has ended, that her penalty has been paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins!” The people were still in exile, but the prophet went on to say “All flesh is grass…The grass dries up; the flower withers, but our God’s word will exist forever.” and then, “Here is the Lord God, coming with strength, with a triumphant arm, bringing his reward with him and his payment before him.” Far from being defeated by Marduk, the LORD is in control and is mighty indeed.  This is extraordinary in the history of the world: Israel’s God certainly cares and certainly can do something about their situation.  If the conventional wisdom of the time said that Marduk was the winner, God certainly doesn’t “follow the rules” and doesn’t seem to care much for “conventional wisdom.”

What Does this Say to Us?

The visiting team was up 4 to 1 in the bottom of the eighth inning and the young pitcher’s team was up to bat.  After a series of hits and errors the home team had the bases loaded with the pitcher now up to bat, cleats firmly tied.  The pitch came and he made contact with the ball…it went back…back…over the wall: a grand slam. Now the game was over and the home team had one. Hard to believe? This high school was my grandfather some 60-odd years ago.  In a delightful addition to the story, there was a small hole-like door in the left-field wall because there were only a small number of baseballs at each game and the players had to retrieve any that left the field.  As my grandpa hit the ball and the left-fielder ran to catch it, he inadvertently fell through the door, fell and had to watch the grand slam fly over him.  Years later that left fielder saw my grandfather on many occasions and said, jokingly, “I don’t like you! You made me look like an idiot!”

The game is not yet over.  We might be in an “exile” situation: exiled from a place or person that we love; exiled from health or safety; exiled even from life itself, but the game is not yet over. “’Comfort, comfort my people!’ says your God.” Hundreds of years later the followers of Jesus had watched their friend and leader die on a cross in the most painful and humiliating way imaginable.  It was over, as far as they could tell…but God was still speaking, moving and working. On the third day Jesus rose again in accordance with the Scriptures. When his followers experienced the risen Jesus they knew that the story wasn’t over: it was just getting started. Jesus’ resurrection shows us that even if we are “exiled” from life itself, the game isn’t over yet. 

The promise is still valid, a relationship with God through Jesus Christ is there and life through these things is very much present…beyond our circumstance, beyond exile, even beyond death. The game isn’t over.