Chapters
13-23: Seen as Salvation History
This is our last week of
study on chapters 13-23 of Isaiah. In this section
we witnessed the Prophet speak out against the significant nations
which surrounded Judah and posed a threat to her. As such,
we might think that these chapters are of historical significance
only. But for Isaiah, this was not a history lesson.
Nor was this an attempt to simply provide an historical context
to his prophesying. For Isaiah, this was theology at its most
important. And to read these verses on the level of spiritual
benefit, we must remember this.
This is not history for
history's sake. This is history as the stage of creation
on which the decisive rule of God is dramatized. God created
the world and made human beings to live in this world. But
sin entered into this drama (Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit,
Cain murdering Abel) and disrupted what God had planned. At
Noah's time, sin against God was so great that God judged this world
through a flood. But God continued to enter into this history
in another way by extending the gift of salvation to Noah.
Over and over again, this story is played out up to the time of
Isaiah. The prophet saw this sin as the disruption of God's
plan, but he also heard God's call to fidelity and God's offering
of saving grace.
Chapters 13-23 have looked
at Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Ethiopia, Egypt, Babylonia,
Dumah, "the desert places," Kedar, and Tyre. Characteristically,
the oracles announce judgment against these nation-states, often
vigorously portraying an assault and resulting suffering, and then
summoning the people to wailing, lament, and grief for the suffering
resulting from God's judgment. The primary theme of these
chapters is the nonnegotiable, and demanding rule of God before
which every power must submit.
God's response to these
sinful nations is to nullify them because they have not accepted
God's sovereignty and also to ultimately protect Judah whom they
threaten. And yet, in spite of this protection, God calls
Judah to the same demand. And because Judah herself has shown
a non acceptance of God's authority, she is to be dealt with in
the same manner: threatened with judgment, and brought low like
Damascus for her disregard of God and for her looking elsewhere
for protection. In these oracles, as special as Israel is in God's
eyes, she is treated along side other nations, without privilege,
and is in the same way threatened for the same unresponsiveness
to God.
There is no doubt that these
oracles arise in particular social, political, and military contexts.
These contexts were important in shaping their experience of God's
judgment and salvation at that point of history.
But these oracles do not
only apply to the nations and situations of this specific time in
history. One must say that they are open-ended. But
these oracles also have ageless relevance that goes beyond Isaiah's
lifetime. They were relevant to Judah centuries afterward.
Indeed, they are relevant to us today. For Isaiah, these historical
dramas functioned in order to advance the general theme of God's
sovereignty not only in Isaiah's day but for all ages.
Looking at history we can
see a new application to the present. We can take, for example,
Isaiah 22:15-25, a narrative in which Isaiah seeks to oust
a public official whose polices oppose the sovereignty of God and
will bring disgrace to Judah (v 18) but also holds out the promise
of salvation for Judah, in the coming "throne of honor"
(v 23). Even in such a politically charged event such as this,
Isaiah remains focused on the two-stage vision of judgement and
assurance. And he challenges us to look to ourselves and discover
how God brings judgment and assurance to us in our day.
Isaiah often takes an "in
your face" approach. He offers this hard hitting view
of history, not so we pass the history exam, but so that we have
the insight he does: that God has a plan and is here at work; that
when humans cooperate with that plan, they are in tune with God
and all goes well; that when humans are out of touch with God's
plan, breakdown happens; but that even then God reaches out with
saving love and mercy.
These oracles, then, are
open to interpretation in the context of our day. First, we
must recognize the fundamental belief of Isaiah that God is at work
in human history, working to bring forth the best of God's plan.
Of course, the force of sin is at work too, attempting to derail
God's plan and take the course of events elsewhere.
In this way, the Bible is
"Salvation History:" the living out of life in an historical
context by human beings called to accept the plan of God, but who,
because of sin, often reject God and God's divine providence.
So God judges, calls people back through the prophets, and extends
salvation through loving mercy.
What the prophetic vision
must strive to do, today, is to see the fundamental vision of Isaiah
and apply it to our current history today. What on earth is
happening around us? And what, on this earth, does God really
want to happen?
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| Text:
Isaiah 23:1-18
1 Oracle on Tyre: Wail, O ships of
Tarshish, for your port is destroyed; From the land of the Kittim
the news reaches them.
2 Silence! you who dwell on the coast,
you merchants of Sidon, Whose messengers crossed the sea
3 over the deep waters. The
grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue, and she
the merchant among nations.
4 Shame, O Sidon, fortress on the
sea, for the sea has spoken: "I have not been in labor, nor
given birth, nor raised young men, nor reared virgins."
5 When it is heard in Egypt they shall
be in anguish at the news of Tyre.
6 Pass over to Tarshish, wailing,
you who dwell on the coast!
7 Is this your wanton city, whose
origin is from old, Whose feet have taken her to dwell in distant
lands?
8 Who has planned such a thing against
Tyre, the bestower of crowns, Whose merchants are princes, whose
traders are the earth's honored men?
9 The LORD of hosts has
planned it, to disgrace all pride of majesty, to degrade all the
earth's honored men.
10 Cross to your own land, O ship
of Tarshish; the harbor is no more.
11 His hand he stretches out over
the sea, he shakes kingdoms; The LORD has ordered the destruction
of Canaan's strongholds.
12 You shall exult no more, he says,
you who are now oppressed, virgin daughter Sidon. Arise, pass over
to the Kittim, even there you shall find no rest.
13 (This people is the land of the
Chaldeans, not Assyria.) She whom the impious founded, setting
up towers for her, Has had her castles destroyed, and has been turned
into a ruin.
14 Lament, O ships of Tarshish, for
your haven is destroyed.
15 On that day, Tyre shall be forgotten
for seventy years. With the days of another king, at the end
of seventy years, it shall be for Tyre as in the song about the
harlot:
16 Take a harp, go about the city,
O forgotten harlot; Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs,
that they may remember you.
17 At the end of the seventy years the LORD shall visit Tyre.
She shall return to her hire and deal with all the world's
kingdoms on the face of the earth.
18 But her merchandise and her hire
shall be sacred to the LORD. It shall not be stored up or laid away,
but from her merchandise those who dwell before the LORD shall eat
their fill and clothe themselves in choice attire.
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