What a powerful moment
of reflection from the God of ages.
He told the islands, the
nations and the people of the earth, to keep silent and draw near.
Then he asked, “who
raised the righteous man from the east (Abraham) and called him?”
“Who called
generations from their beginnings? I am the Lord, the first and the last, and I
am with the last”. Glorious.
Verse 8 adds, “Jacob I
chose, but Abraham is my friend.” My word. This God who made worlds and rules
in a place of thunder and lightning, knows us by name and calls us.
Of the same he said, “I
chose you from among men and set you apart”.
Then Isaiah saw Israel in Abraham, in his seed, and spoke to them collectively: a technique
later used by Paul when he said, “thy seed, as of one” or "Israel paid tithes to Melchizedek through Abraham".
His words to Abraham
and to Israel were, “Fear not for I am with you. I am your God and I will
strengthen you and uphold you”. You should be in tears now.
It’s a love letter
from heaven. A personal note from the desk of God, who sees a people and
simultaneously sees the individual souls among them. He knows us all.
But of their enemies
God said, “you will look for them and not find them”.
He admitted that Jacob
was but a worm, but with the deftness of a grand master he sifted out his own and
assured them: “I will help you. I am the Redeemer of Israel”.
Isaiah was a very
clever writer. Israel also has a collective-singular meaning. It was the name
God gave to the man Jacob, and the name of the nation that descended from him.
He promised to turn
his people into a sharp threshing tool, to judge and provoke all the nations
through his people. He is still doing that.
He added that when the poor
are needy and others are thirsty, he would provide. He has done so. But he did
so by causing the desert to blossom, as happened to a once fragile Israel.
Now, Isaiah’s words
are fulfilled. The people have seen and Israel now honors her God and
jealously guards her heritage. God be worshipped.
But then the language
shifts. God observed that they really could not shape the future.
However, in his infinite
wisdom and power, so subtly played, God promised to raise one who would change the
future of us all.
From the north, a
metaphoric reference to Zion above, will come the greatest son of Abraham. From
the rising of the sun (clever Isaiah), the son will worship me.
What a contrast to the "man from the east", another subtle, but clever nuance of a great writer.
I am almost certain
that Isaiah glimpsed the future that Jesus would bring. He became a compelling
evangelist long before Jesus was born. He still preaches to the Jews.
The same Jesus will
come against the princes of this world, like mortar (he will brick them up and
shut them down) and like the potter, he will tread the clay in his wrath.
“Who has known this
from the beginning?” Hah, what a thought.
No one saw him coming. The wise-guys
who judged him, the priests, Pilate, and the great serpent all failed to see the
glory that came before them.
But had they known it
was the prince of glory that they crucified, they would have stayed as quiet as
he did in the “foreknowledge” of what he would achieve at the cross. They would not have crucified him, but they did, and in so doing lost all their initiative.
He alone carried that
immense weight of knowledge to the cross and when he was done the world was
never the same again. What a savior.
Why only a simple
centurion got it is beyond me, but truly, “this indeed was the Son of God”.
In verse 28 he adds, “I
looked for a man, but there was none. I looked for a counsellor, there was
none. Their ways are all vain”.
But Isaiah, my friend,
that man is and was and ever more shall be. He is Jesus and is among us now.
What a difference he made too. He is mine and he is yours and through him we
are made one.
(c) Peter Missing @ Bethelstone.com
