CONVERSATIONS WITH SCRIPTURE: 2 ISAIAH

By STEPHEN L. COOK

Church Publishing Incorporated

Copyright © 2008 Stephen L. Cook
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8192-2149-0

Contents

Chapter One

Second Isaiah and the Theology of Reverence

Concentrate on your breathing and pay no heed to your lightheadedness. Ignore your clammy palms and the cold sweat soaking your clothes. Those goose bumps on your skin, the shivers up your back, and the quaking of your knees are just a fluke. It is only the book of Isaiah, right? It is only a mere Old Testament prophet, approved for general audiences—or, did they get that wrong?

Isaiah's God is the safe companion and gentle shepherd we have always imagined—or, are we sure?

What if we experience in reading the book of Isaiah— perhaps for the first time in our lives—a spine-tingling encounter with the uncanny otherness of God? What if Isaiah imparts to us, its readers, true knowledge of what religious thinkers like to call "the Holy"? Then, in studying Isaiah, we would be in for a serious engagement with the towering self-existent being of God.

Brace yourself, because you are in for just such an engagement in the pages you are about to read. In meditating on Isaiah's prophecies, encountering Isaiah's holy God, you will be aiming a steady gaze at the "high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy" (Isa 57:15). So prepare for smarting eyes and a spinning head. To proceed farther is to put one's self and one's lifestyle of comfort at risk.

Holiness: The Otherness of God

Presently, I shall introduce you to the book of Isaiah and its contents. But, first things first. Have you met Isaiah's God?

Throughout Isaiah, God goes by the name "Holy One of Israel." The word "holy" in the Bible (Hebrew kadosh) has less to do with moral excellence than with radical separation and hiddenness. To be holy is to exist apart from and be other than the creation. To put it plainly, God's holiness is all about God's otherness.

Characteristically, Isaiah's Lord asks, "To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, as though we were alike?" (Isa 46:5). The question is rhetorical, the answer obvious. The God of Isaiah is matchless, incomparable, and radically other. "There is no other," God declares in Isaiah 46:9, "there is no one like me." In Isaiah's celebrated vision of God in Jerusalem's temple (Isa 6), the Lord is surrounded by flaming creatures. Do you recall what they are they saying? They cry to one another, "Yahweh is Other! Other! Other!" (my translation).

The God we meet in reading Isaiah is unlike anyone or anything else we know, whether in the world around us or in the dazzling films we see in our theaters. God's awesome, compelling otherness encounters us head on in the prophecies of Isaiah.

We barely have the images or concepts to imagine divine holiness, Isaiah's God is so awesomely other. As God, God's self, declares, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isa 55:9). This deity is as far removed from an Einstein as from an amoeba. The Lord's otherness is immeasurable. In unapproachable light, separated from us by an infinite gulf, Isaiah's God dwells apart from the world.

Silence! Hush! Reading the book of Isaiah and encountering Isaiah's God, we clam up. We stand in awe, taken aback—disoriented (Isa 52:15). We feel exposed and conscious of our profaneness, yet captivated and impelled to experience more. True holiness is not only daunting but also uniquely fascinating and entrancing. It even inspires self-surrender—indeed, rapture.

What is this holy God up to? According to Isaiah's book, God's endgame is a tangible dawning of holiness on earth. As the goal of history, God's holy presence will physically shine on God's people for the entire world to see. When this happens, the nations of earth will finally recognize the truth of God, and they will worship. "The LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you," God declares to daughter Zion (Isa 60:2-4).

The church today often appears myopically focused on preaching and teaching about day-to-day living, not on this advent. Isaiah would believe we are missing our calling as a consequence. Instead of offering techniques for living healthy lives, Isaiah would have us tenaciously direct the nations' attention toward the dawning of the sacred on earth. God's claim in Isaiah is unambiguous: "I am coming to gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and shall see my glory" (Isa 66:18). Are we serious about this claim?

Appreciating the Virtue of Reverence

The challenge of knowing God in God's otherness is as relevant now as it was at the book of Isaiah's first appearance two and a half millennia ago. Now, as then, we are finite, dependent mortals, able to grasp our significance only by coming to know the one who fashioned us in the divine image. Still today, just as in biblical times, knowing God is crucial to knowing ourselves, our place in existence, and our destiny.

Knowing God is also crucial to becoming more humane persons, aware of our finitude and need of each other. This brings us to the topic of reverence. To encounter God's holiness is to savor a taste of reverence, a crucial virtue but one that is almost forgotten these days. We in the global north have largely lost reverence, which we can define as the capacity for awe at those things truly greater than ourselves, which we cannot change, or control, or fully understand. We have lost our capacity for the one virtue uniquely capable of reminding us of our mortality, of binding humanity together in mutuality and compassion.

Reverence is about much more than just being serious during ceremonial rites and church liturgies. It expresses itself strongly in respect for the human dignity of our neighbors and for the wonders of the natural world. We tend to value even the lowly and the marginalized among us when we come to acknowledge that we share with them a common human frailty and ignorance. We begin to shudder at the thought of desecrating the environment when we realize that we cannot control what will happen if we do.

Awe before Isaiah's God refreshes our reverence. It submerges the ego, paving the way for owning up to our frailty. It turns us outward from concern with self to the need and suffering of others, especially the poor and peripheral. As we repose ever more deeply in God's mystery, the Lord who is absolutely sufficient for our succor increasingly works through us to relieve others' brokenness. Simultaneously, the Holy transforms us into ever more reverent advocates of the natural world.

Introducing the Book of Isaiah

Isaiah is one of the biggest books in the Bible (1,292 verses), and one of its greatest. As we shall see, it is among the richest and most theologically profound of the Scriptures. Because Isaiah affords God's people absolute basics of the faith, the book has long been a favorite of both synagogue and church. From the beginnings of Judaism and Christianity, the faithful have granted Isaiah's book a large presence in their lives. Copies of Isaiah were most numerous among the documents of the Dead Sea Scroll community at Qumran. Along with the Psalms, Isaiah is the most quoted biblical book in the New Testament. Today, we hear Isaiah in church on Sundays more than any other biblical prophet (fifty separate readings all told). That is about as much as all the other prophetic books combined (fifty-five readings).

Just as the faithful have long treasured Isaiah, they have also long wrestled with the book's diverse contents and with the variety of eras it treats. The problem of the origins and dating of its several parts has proved particularly vexing. Struggle over Isaiah's authorship has been especially agonizing and divisive for the church in modern times. Let me briefly explain the situation.

Isaiah, the prophet whose name the book bears, exercised a powerful ministry in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel's southern kingdom of Judah, between 740 and 700 BCE. At his time, the major superpower in the Near East was the empire of Assyria, which posed a daunting military threat to the entire region, preoccupying Judah's leaders. The last twenty-seven chapters of the book of Isaiah, however, concern a later era, after Isaiah's time. Their backdrop is a world dominated by two new superpowers, the empires of Babylonia and Persia.

The later chapters of Isaiah revolve around an imminent homecoming of Judah's leaders from an exile in Babylonia, which was imposed by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in two stages from 597 to 586 BCE. They spotlight the advent from about 550 BCE of the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great, whose forces defeated Babylonia and made the homecoming possible, and they wrestle with faithful living in a restored Judah in the wake of the people's return.

Just because a biblical book covers a broad time frame does not prove it had multiple authors. This is especially true of a book of prophecy, where visionary perception is at play. Prophecy claims to discern the course of the future and to speak plainly about it. In Isaiah's case, however, we have a book with two parts that for all the world appear to come from two separate eras of history. Strong clues uncovered by rigorous spadework reinforce the suggestion that the book really did only reach its present form after centuries of writing, more writing, and editing.

Not everyone agrees on when to date Isaiah's two major parts, but they do agree that chapters 40–66 represent a major new departure compared to chapters 1–39. Isaiah's second part looks forward with exuberance to God's imminent salvation. It is full of messages of comfort and hope. It specifically addresses the challenges involved in the homecoming of Judah's Babylonian exiles. With its emphasis on joy and the fulfillment of hopes, Isaiah 40–66 is the special gospel section of Isaiah's book. Here we find the Scriptures that make Isaiah the great communicator of the Good News of salvation in the Old Testament.

Orienting Ourselves to 2 Isaiah

Let us concentrate on Isaiah's second part (Isa 40–66), which for convenience we may call 2 Isaiah. In these chapters we find the culmination and fulfillment of all of Isaiah's prophecies, where God's holy otherness finally appears manifest on earth. Here, Isaiah's theology of reverence comes into its own.

One of the first questions you may want answered about Isaiah 40–66 concerns authorship. Who wrote 2 Isaiah, if not Isaiah of Jerusalem?

2 Isaiah was set down in writing by a community of Babylonian exiles who were followers of Isaiah. The community worked in the tradition of its group founder, Isaiah of Jerusalem, upholding the same reverence-oriented theology that he did. There was no so-called anonymous Babylonian refugee who, according to some books and commentaries you may have seen, single-handedly authored our texts. By the end of this chapter you will see why this must be so.

What were the beliefs and values of this community? Where were its members coming from in terms of their thinking and their spirituality?

The community of 2 Isaiah treasured specific theological traditions, which they inherited from their forebears. These sources of their thinking lie in priestly portions of Genesis, Exodus, and other books at the start of the Bible (texts such as Gen 1:1-2:4; Gen 17; Exod 7:8-13; and Lev 5:14-6:7). We must deal with these texts if we are ever to understand the message of the group.

In what follows, let us agree to refer to these source documents of 2 Isaiah as texts of the Reverence School. ("RS" can serve as an abbreviation for the school's writings.) Why do I suggest this title, emphasizing the word "reverence"? Because, at its core, the Reverence School stresses God's hiddenness and otherness, just as 2 Isaiah does.

Think of the Reverence School as a source of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible). It is a strand of priestly texts running through these so-called Books of Moses. Over time, editors combined such sources or strands to produce the Bible's core Scriptures, Genesis through Deuteronomy.

It is easy to see the themes of divine otherness and human reverence in this source. The texts of the Reverence School strenuously avoid speaking of God in human terms ("anthropomorphism"), as if God made a home in the temple or consumed sacrificial offerings. Israel plays no part in satisfying God's needs, the school insists, and must never bring meal or drink offerings inside the temple building lest they convey such an impression (Exod 30:9). The people must never imagine that God is hungry or thirsty, like the anthropomorphic idols of Canaan and Mesopotamia.

According to the Reverence School, God's otherness is apparent from our human feelings of vulnerability and impurity in response to our experiences of God. For example, this source assumes that God's worshipers feel profane and unclean in God's presence, in desperate need of atonement (Lev 1:4). Sometimes, despite being unaware of any specific transgression, God's people have an overpowering consciousness of guilt (Lev 5:17-19).

Related to such feelings of worshipers are certain instincts of priests, particularly the instinct to keep "covered" in performing God's service. The priests of the Reverence School feel exposed and vulnerable in their sacred duties at the temple, and so wear special vestments and practice protective rituals, such as being dabbed and sprinkled with oil and blood (Lev 8).

By emphasizing rituals of atonement and priestly consecration, our texts put forward reverence as the sole appropriate response to God. Any other attitude is a complete affront, as is apparent from God's decree: "By those who come near me I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored" (Lev 10:3 NASB).

According to the Reverence School, God does not dwell on earth, or in the temple as in a house, but at times makes spectacular epiphanies in the world. During such appearances, the transient spectacle of the "glory of the LORD" reveals God's presence in fire, light, and smoke (Exod 24:15–18; Lev 10:2). When God steps out like this, it is very hard to miss. People fall on their faces, prostrate in reverence (Lev 9:23–24; cf. Isa 40:5). Even Aaron, Israel's premier priest, can do nothing but fall silent on such an occasion (Lev 10:3).

The fiery glory of God is dangerous to humans, according to the Reverence School—in fact, it is lethal. When God's otherness blazes forth in space and time, it consumes the sacrilegious (Lev 10:2). To be safe, Israel must make a thorough atonement in preparation for such an event (Lev 9:6–7, 23–24; cf. Isa 40:2). The regimens of the temple sanctuary and its priests are crucial in preparing to encounter the Lord.

The Reverence School's concerns go far beyond maintaining the temple precincts and keeping worshipers safe from God's burning otherness. Beginning with the majestic story of the cosmos' beginnings in Genesis 1, the school's Scriptures narrate the course of a unique divine intention to bless creation. The more we read, the more we become convinced that this special blessing will progress toward fulfillment despite all obstacles, despite every stubborn human resistance.

As we begin to read the writings of 2 Isaiah, we shall see God's intention to bring blessing to earth materialize before our eyes. 2 Isaiah's prophecies describe the fulfillment of the hopes of the Reverence School. They proclaim the ultimate in Good News.

Guidelines for Reading Prophetic Literature

2 Isaiah is a body of Hebrew prophecy, and readers expecting another genre, such as prayers, self-help, or history lessons, are in for frustration. Prophecy is divine word channeled through human messengers, aimed at a target audience. Its words are revelatory, confronting humanity with the reality of God, challenging alternative realities. Such words are dynamic, setting in motion God's will for weal or woe on earth, summoning a human response. As the "rain and the snow," sent by God, "return not again, but water the earth, bringing forth life and giving growth," so God's prophetic word "will not return ... empty." God declares that this word will assuredly "accomplish that which I have purposed" (Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, Canticle 10, Isa 55:6–11).

(Continues...)

Excerpted from CONVERSATIONS WITH SCRIPTURE: 2 ISAIAHby STEPHEN L. COOK Copyright © 2008 by Stephen L. Cook. Excerpted by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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