Isaiah 13-39

ISAIAH: “the Holy One of Israel” Isaiah 14:12-21

“Lucifer”: Metaphor, Myth, Reality

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” (NKJV) “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn!” (NRSV)

Introduction

The first four verses of our text for today (Isaiah 14:12-15) raise many fascinating questions, two primarily as we shall see. The New Revised Standard Version reads,

The New King James Version translates verse 12 to read,

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut to the ground, You who weakened the nations!

The translation “Lucifer” at Isaiah 14:12 was used by the Latin Vulgate (AD 404) as the proper name of the morning star. It was formed from the Latin adjective lucifer meaning “light-bringing.” The figure of “Lucifer” has had a fascinating history in the literature and thought of Christians even down to our present day. But is “Lucifer” in Scripture used as a personal name or as a metaphor? In Christian usage does it reflect authentic biblical theology or a popular Christian myth? So let us muse for a while about

1. Metaphor, Myth, Reality

A caveat! I tread cautiously into this area for I am unsophisticated as a philosopher (I miss Herb today!) and far from technically competent in the study of literature, just a life-long reader who attempts to appreciate good writing.

Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, professor of literature at Westmont College, in a brief devotional essay, “Let Us Proclaim the Mystery of Faith,” troubled by the bumper sticker “The Bible said it. I believe it. That settles it” that she feels advocates “a simplistic, literalistic understanding of Scripture,” proposed a couple of bumper stickers of her own. One was “If you can’t handle metaphor, get out of the ministry.”

Metaphor, defined as “a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them,” is commonly used by all of us in all areas of our everyday speech. On Christmas day, 2005, after the Chiefs defeated the Chargers, the sports headline read, “Kansas City snuffs out Chargers’ playoff hopes, 20-7.” “Snuff,” when used as a verb has several literal meanings, but the image in the background here is “to put out a candle by pinching or with a snuffer.” A week later we read in the same paper of a “Dislocated Season,” reporting on results of the Bronco’s defeat of the Chargers, 23-7. Our first image of “dislocate” is to put a bone out of joint.

If metaphor is necessary for you and I to express ourselves in ordinary day-to-day speech, even more is it indispensable for theological, religious, and yes, even scriptural language. How can we talk about heavenly realities except in earthly language—born again (physical birth), justification (courtroom), ransom (slave market), filled with the Spirit, fishers of (wo)men? One thing metaphor does not mean is unreality! The Chargers did not make the playoffs! And “filled with the Spirit” is an everyday, liveable, and practical life-changing reality!

And what is myth if it is not usually expanded metaphor, most frequently in story form? Yes, myth can and is popularly used to describe pure fiction, but it is more often “a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that is employed to unfold part of the world view of a people or to explain a practice, or natural phenomenon,” or “a popular belief or tradition that has grown up around some thing or someone; especially: one embodying the ideals and institutions of a society or segment of society." As we all know there are numerous typically American myths that we will not attempt to name, for I want to stay out of political hot water! Yet I can’t help but ask how much myth was employed last week in the interrogation of the nominee Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court?

And how much myth is there in our every-day lives? Myth that is not fiction—and some simply is, but myth that points to a meaningful reality in our lives? We have all most recently enjoyed/endured the myth of Santa Claus. Betty and I have always delighted in Christmas movies even if we have seen them before. We have taped and watched several this season with either obvious or disguised Santa Claus figures. Obvious for example was Kathy Ireland as Santa’s daughter starring in Once Upon a Christmas and Twice Upon a Christmas. A delightful example of the disguised Santa figure is Finding John Christmas featuring Peter Falk of Columbo fame.

Why do we like these? Because in well-crafted story form they remind us in a heart warming way of the realities of human generosity and love, and in the midst of the human foibles of people like ourselves that there can be a favorable divine providence at work in our lives. In Finding John Christmas, for example, Peter Falk appeared as several different characters as the catalyst for a young woman searching for her long lost firefighter brother with the help of a photographer with whom, naturally, she eventually fell in love. Peter Falk was not presented with the trappings of Santa Claus, yet by the time the film came to an end, it was subtly obvious that he was Santa.

And what is it that we do in our Christmas programs with the biblical accounts of the birth of Jesus? And we have yet to speak of—and we won’t much, for I have only read reviews of them—of the mythical (?) visions represented by Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code on the theological left and Tim La Haye’s and Jerry B. Jenkins Left Behind Series on the religious right, both of which have become movies. And we are fully aware of the mythic character of movies even when they presume to be history!

So how much myth is there in the way we perceive our Christian faith--my Christian world view, and even in yours? Reading Darrel Falk’s Coming to Peace With Science recently I ran across the following quote from C. S. Lewis with which we conclude our introductory musings on “Myth, Metaphor, Reality”:

We must not be ashamed of the mythical radiance resting on our theology. . . . We must not, in false spirituality, withhold our imaginative welcome. If God chooses to be mythopoeic—and is not the sky itself a myth—shall we refuse to be mythopathic? For this is the marriage of heaven and earth: Perfect Myth and Perfect Fact: claiming not only our love and our obedience, but also our wonder and delight, addressed to the savage, the child, and the poet in each one of us no less than to the moralist, the scholar, and the philosopher.

Now to briefly set our text (14:12-21) in the context of our study of Isaiah. As we have seen the central theme of chapters 7-9 is “the trustworthiness of God.” In chapters 7-12 and 35-39 Jerusalem must trust in God lest she be destroyed. The intervening chapters are united by a common theme, “the God of Israel is the Lord of the nations.” Oswalt concludes from these chapters that “we must trust either in the nations or in God, and no book on earth will ever make the case for trusting God more forcefully [than Iaiah].” In the opening words of ”the oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw”(13:1), God declares,

I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant, and lay low the insolence of tyrants (13:11).

Our text for these two lessons is set in the midst of the oracles of judgment on Babylon (13:1—14:32). The New King James Version translates the first four verses of our text,

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit (14:12-15).

Christian tradition has often taken this text to apply to a pre-creation rebellion of Satan against God with the result that he fell from heaven and became the chief antagonist of God and his human creation. So the first question, or perhaps the preliminary question we must ask in order to understand and apply our text, is “When did Satan fall from heaven?”

He did fall, that is certain. Jesus said,

“I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.”

And what is the meaning of Jesus’ declaration?

As they used to add at the end of a Lone Ranger radio program when I was a boy,

“Tune in same station, same time, next week, for . . .!” ISAIAH: “the Holy One of Israel” Isaiah 14:12-21

“Lucifer”: Metaphor, Myth, Reality

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” (NKJV) “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn!” (NRSV)

Continuation

I don’t read Scripture to learn doctrine. I don’t read it to find answers to every question. I read it to find God.

This Quaker perspective reminds us of John Wesley’s famous statement,

At any price give me the book of God. I have it: here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri. Here then I am, far from the busy ways of men. I sit alone: only God is here. In His presence I open, I read His book; for this end, to find the way to heaven.

Kathleen Norris, an award-winning poet and author who has appeared on PLNU’s campus, in her 1998 Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality, remarks that “the task, and the joy of writing for me is that I can play with the metaphors that God has placed in the world and present them to others in a way they will accept.”

These lines from such disparate sources lead us to where we left off last Sunday, when the reality and role of metaphors in our culture, language, and common life, both secular and religious, was the path we chose to approach our text of the morning as we mused together on “Metaphor, Myth, Reality.” There we encountered the prophetic insight that it “takes two world to make sense out of one.”

We continue our quest into Isaiah 14:12-21 today with the heart of the text as the New King James Version translates the first four verses,

We noted last week that Christian tradition has often taken this text to apply to a pre-creation rebellion of Satan against God. As a result he fell from heaven and became the chief antagonist of God and his human creation. So the first question we ask in order appreciate our text within the evangelical tradition, is “When did Satan fall from heaven?” So we begin today’s discussion with a look at

I. Satan’s Fall from Heaven

In the light of Scripture our question is, when “when did Satan fall from heaven”? And what is the significance of that fall for our faith? First, what does Isaiah really say? Or

1. What does our text say?

As we have learned the proper name “Lucifer” is Jerome’s translation in the Latin Vulgate of the Hebrew noun (helel) for the morning star, occurring only here in the Old Testament. As qualified by “son of the dawn” (ben-shachar) the phrase can be translated as “O star of the morning, son of the dawn!” (NASB) or “O Day Star, son of Dawn” (NRSV). “Dawn” (shacher) is more strictly “the light that begins the dawn.” The translation of helel as “Lucifer” was formed from the Latin adjective lucifer meaning “light-bringing” or “shining.” As applied to the brightest star in the late hours of the night the “morning star” is actually the planet Venus, which, when in its orbital swing to the west of the sun, rises before dawn as the herald of a new day. Significant for its appearance in our text is the fact that Venus never reaches its zenith, its highest point, before the sun rises and extinguishes it.

Franz Delitzch, writing in 1891, translated the Hebrew word helel as “shining star” and comments that the Babylonians personified it in the feminine as Bilit and Istar saying that “Istar is female at sunset and male at sunrise.” Delitzch then concludes that “the name is entirely suitable for the king of Babel, because the high civilisation of Babylon reached back to the grey dawn of time, and had a predominantly astrological character.” Thus whatever we do with the helel ben-shachar, “star of the morning, son of the dawn,” in the context of the world of Isaiah’s day, we must recognize that the language has, shall we say, “heavenly” connotations; mere secular human history is not alone adequate. Or to put it in New Testament terms, the language has the flavor of the demonic!

Theologian and biblical scholar Ross E. Price of Pasadena College days, basing his commentary on Isaiah on the text of the King James Version, wrote in 1966 that

since the stanza begins with an apostrophe to Lucifer, some have taken it as a description of the fall of Satan. Valid exegesis would hold that at best it is only typically satanic, for the subject of the taunt-song is still the king of Babylon.

John Oswalt, the most conservative of contemporary commentators on Isaiah concludes that this passage is discussing monumental human pride, a challenge remarkably made by a human being. Ultimately the battle is not among various manifestations of deity, but

between Creator and creature, and the issue is whether we will accord him the right due him as Creator and bow to him in glad service or will continue to insist that we are as he is and continue to have our arrogance mocked by the worm [of the grave (v. 19)].

In a footnote Oswalt remarks that “as a creature Satan is an apt example of this creaturely pride” so these verses “do apply to him as they do to all creatures.”

What do we think? It is our opinion that the primary reference is to historical Babylon, describing its hybris and prophesying its downfall, but in metephorical terms that recognize a dimension, something luciferish, beyond the mere earthly that is manifest in the affairs of men and nations, and whose ultimate defeat is present in the text.

But what about what we call the “myth” of a pre-creation fall of Satan from heaven created in Christian tradition in its understanding of this Isaiah passage?

2. What does the New Testament say?

The tenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke records that Jesus, in the midst of his earthly ministry, “appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go,” telling them, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, . . . I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves” (10:1-3). When they returned Luke reports that ‘

the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the devils submit to us!” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning (10:17-18).

So here the obvious time of Satan’s fall is during the earthly ministry of Jesus, specifically a characteristic of the mission of the twelve who were taking part in the defeat of Satan.

The Johannine literature has a similar perspective, although expressed in different language. In the Gospel in the midst of the farewell discourse (cc. 14-16) are two sayings of Jesus:

And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me [lit., “he has nothing in me” (NASB)]; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way [to the Cross] (14:29-31).

Neveretheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgement, because the ruler of this world has been condemned [,lit., “judged”] (16:7-11).

I John 3:8 applies this same truth in blunt terms, “Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” The writer to the Hebrews expands this line of thought by explicit reference to the Incarnation and the Cross to read, “Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death (2:14-15).

The Book of Revelation, a Christian prophetic work (1:3) cast in apocalyptic form (1:1, 7, 12-20) with some characteristics of a letter (1:4, 19; 2:1—3:22), employs a double courtroom imagery. At one and the same time as Christians stand in judgment in Caesar’s court, Satan and all he represents and controls stand in judgment in the courtroom of God. When the Christians testify to their faith in the earthly courtroom, that are giving witness against Satan in the heavenly courtroom. And the witness of the Christian is to Jesus Christ (1:1) in the full meaning if his life, death, and resurrection: “I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades” (1:18). The function of the entire book of Revelation is to interpret and apply to the situation of the readers the full implication of the finished work of Christ, the Son of God. And in this way we are to understand the account in Revelation 12:7-12:

And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and their was no longer any place for them in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil [Greek] and Satan [Hebrew], the deceiver of the whole earth—he was thrown down to earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven proclaiming, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah, for the accusor of our comrades has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death. Rejoice then, you heavens, and those who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you with great wrath, because he knows his time is short!”

Jesus put the same truth just as powerfully, “he has nothing in me” (NASB). Fascinatingly the Book of Revelation like Isaiah goes on to speak of

II. The Fall of Babylon

Instructive is the comparison of our Isaiah 14 text with Revelation chapters 17-18 where John writes that “Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great!” With the fate of ancient Babylon in the background the revelator writes of the demise and judgment of Rome. The Roman Empire and its capitol city is symbolized by Babylon is also called “the great whore” (17 :1), “a woman sitting on a scarlet beast” (17:3), and the “mother of whores” (17:5). In view is not only participation the idolatrous worship of Caesar and the Roman gods, but making Rome’s oppressive power, its depraved culture, and its economic pride the point of orientation for life, making Rome itself a god. All this has been perverted into a demonic, imperial arrogance that is under judgment and self-destructive—the meaning of “the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave . . .” (1:1). Let us turn our imaginations loose on the language of John as he portrays human hybris::

”Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! It has become a dwelling place of demons, a haunt of every foul and hateful bird, a haunt of every foul and hateful beast. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxury.” Than I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you do not take part in her sins, and do not share in her plagues. . . . As she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, . . . Since in her heart she says ‘I rule as a queen; I am no widow, and I will never see grief,’ therefore her plagues will come in a single day— pestilence and mourning and famine— and she will be burned with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who judges her. And the kings of the earth, who committed fornication and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her, . . . and say, “Alas, alas, the great city, Babylon the mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come. And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, cargo of . . . The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud, “Alas, alas, the great city, clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels and with pearls! For in one hour this wealth has been laid waste!” And all the shipmasters and seafarers, sailors and all those whose trade is in the sea . . . Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints and apostles and prophets! For God has given judgment for you against her” (18:2-12, 15-17, 20).

What is the final word? It is that “the ultimate power of the universe is the power of God manifest and effective in the self-sacrificing power of the Lamb” (5:1-14) in which ultimate value inheres and where ultimate reality is found--.”I am the Alpha and the Omega . . . who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Rev. 1:8). Conclusion

What is our calling” Our call is to “Come out of her” and “Rejoice over her” Do not be seduced by the value system of Babylon and be glad that there is a transcending world and a greater power to which we can give ourselves--that revealed by the Father in the life, death, and resurrection of his Son,Jesus Christ, our Lord!

In this light we can read Isaiah 14:12-21 for our lives today

How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit on the mount of assembly on the heights of Zaphon: I will ascend to the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High” But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit. Those who see you will stare at you, and ponder over you “Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world look like a desert and overthrew its cities, who would not let his prisoners go home All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own tomb; but you are cast out, away from your grave, like loathsome carrion, clothed with the dead, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the Pit, like a corpse trampled underfoot. You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have killed your people. May the descendents of evildoers nevermore be named! Prepare slaughter for his sons because of the guilt of their father. Let them never rise to possess the earth Or cover the face of the world with cities (14:12-21). ISAIAH: “the Holy One of Israel” Isaiah 16:1-5

A Great Text: Four Big Words

A throne will be established in lovingkindness, And a judge will sit on it in faithfulness in the tent of David; Moreover, he will seek justice And be prompt in righteousness (16:5, NASB).

Introduction

Big Words! “Four Big Words”! As you listen to the language of contemporary American culture, as you read your newspapers and magazines, explore the Web, and converse with family, friends, and neighbors, what are the big words that speak to who we are as an American people? Some words I hear are spin, postmodern, protest, and technology.

What words do you hear? Suggested in class were

Kerfuffle, post-Christian, neo-con, bi-polar, political correctness, dysfunction

Herb gave me four words as he says “thinking now of American culture:

Insecurity (as manifest in politics, religion, war) Avarice (need for more things, more funds, more, more, more as a means of overcoming insecurity!) Pride (We've got it. Let's use it, especially power!) Trust (superficial and not grounded in the facts/marriages ending in divorce/Social Security, Medicare, deficit spending, dependency upon other nations for our financial survival/problems not being faced as if they will solve themselves—the traditional 'silver lining' American outlook).”

The contrast of these words with the four words of our text is indeed depressing. One of the great texts of Isaiah is found in 16:5 for it presents us with four of the “biggest” words in the faith of the Old Testament people. But first we put our text of the morning in context. As you can see from the outline our passage is a “Plea for Mercy” (16:1-5) set within the larger section dealing with “God’s Judgment of the Nations (13:1—23:18), specifically “The Moabites” (15:1—16:14). Moab was a territory about thirty miles long and thirty miles wide lying east of the Dead Sea and north of Edom. There was a close kinship and often harmonious relations between Israel and Moab as genealogical statements and the book of Ruth indicate. But they were often in conflict over lands on the north (Numbers 2124-30, etc.. The judgment on Moab opens with a lament (15:1-9) over the disaster that is to befall Moab and our passage is a plea on behalf of the refugees. Since we live in a world and in a nation of all kinds of refugees fleeing disaster of one kind or another, a day that cries out for mercy, let us listen to Isaiah 16:1-5: Plea for Mercy

1Send the tribute lamb to the ruler of the land, From Sela by way of the wilderness to the mountain of the daughter of Zion. 2Then, like fleeing birds or scattered nestlings, The daughters of Moab will be at the fords of the Arnon. 3Give us advice, make a decision; “Give counsel, grant justice” ”Cast your shadow like night at high noon; Hide the outcasts, do not betray the fugitive. 4“Let the outcasts of Moab stay with you; Be a hiding place for them from the destroyer.” For the extortioner has come to an end, destruction has ceased, Oppressors have completely disappeared from the land. 5A throne will be established in lovingkindness, And a judge will sit on it in faithfulness in the tent of David; Moreover, he will seek justice And be prompt in righteousness (NASB).

Our text is verse 5 and our big words are lovingkindness, faithfulness, justice, and righteousness. It is significant that the promise of this verse will find its fulfillment in “the tent of David.” In the light of the messianic passages we have already studied in Isaiah (7:10-16; 9:1-7; 11:1-9) we cannot help but look ahead to the ultimate fulfillment of our text in Jesus the Christ of God.

Since we are dealing with four of the most significant Hebrew words in Old Testament faith, today we are going to lean some Hebrew: chesed, `emet, mishpat, & tsedeq.

I. Chesed (2617a)

The word chesed is the “biggest” or most significant word in the Hebrew Bible. It is used 247 times in the Hebrew Old Testament, but its importance is based on more than its frequency. Twice its force is negative, translated as “disgrace.” The remaining 245 times are all in a positive sense, most frequently translated in the NASB as “lovingkindness(s),” 183 times, and as “kindness(s)” 41 times. Other translations are “deeds of devotion” or “devotion” (3) “loyal deeds” or “loyalty” (7), “mercy (4), and “unchanging love (2).

We look only at “lovingkindness” and “kindness.”

Lovingkindness(s)

When chesed is used with God as the subject and the covenant people as its object it translated in the NRSV as “steadfast love” while the NIV uses simply ”love.”. Some have suggested it be translated by “covenant love.” The term chesed functions in the Old Testament much as agape (love) does in the New Testament for God’s love for his people and their love for one another. “Lovingkindness” for chesed occurs 125 time in the Psalms, that great song and prayer book of Israelite piety, but only five times in Isaiah. We listen first to the Psalms.

Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever (23:6).

Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of your compassion blot out my transgressions (51:1).

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting (136:1).

This second line, “For His lovingkindness is everlasting,” is a refrain that comprises the second line of all 26 verses of Psalm 136.

In Isaiah after 16:5, “lovingkindness” significantly does not occur until chapters 54 and 63, so we will quote them all:

“In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, But with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you,” Says the LORD your Redeemer. . . . “For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, And My covenant of peace will not be shaken, Says the LORD who has compassion on you (54:8, 10).

I shall make mention of the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, the praises of the LORD, According to all that the LORD has granted us, And the great goodness toward the house of Israel, Which He has granted them according to His compassion And according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses (63:7).

Kindness(s)

Like agape in the New Testament chesed has both a vertical and a horizontal dimension. The translation “kindness” for chesed is used mostly for human to human kindness as in Ruth 2:20 and 3:10, but not exclusively so as in Psalm 106:7, one of two appearance in the Psalms (see 141:5). The NASB in Isaiah does not use this translation.

:7, its only appearance in the Psalms. The NASB in Isaiah does not use this translation.

We quote two occurrences, Proverbs 3:3 where it is combined with another of our big words, “truth” (`emet), and that great summary of the message of the eighth century prophets, Micah 6:8. And in the light of what we have already seen about the use of chesed, even this use takes its meaning from the character of the God whom Israel serves:

Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart.

He has told you, O man, what is good, And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?

Note the presence of another of our text’s big words, “justice” (misphat).

II. `emet, (571, cf. 530)

The Hebrew word `emet is used 125 times in Old Testament and its feminine form `emunah 40 times. The most frequent translations of the two cognate words is some form of the words “faithfulness” and “truth.” We look at those two words as they translate the term `emet.

Faithfulness

The Hebrew `emet occurs 10 times as “faithfulness” and 6 times as “faithfully” in the Old Testament. Besides our text, “faithfulness” occurs in Isaiah only at 38:18-19:

For Sheol cannot thank you, death cannot praise you; those who go down to the Pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness. The living, the living, they thank you, as I do this day; fathers make known to their children Your faithfulness.

The translation “faithfully” occurs twice in Isaiah (42:3 and 61:8), most typically in the first Servant Song. Isaiah 42:2-3 reads,

He will not cry or raise His voice, Nor make His voice heard in the street; A bruised reed he will not break, And a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice (mishpat)

The Psalms does not use “faithfully” but renders “faithfulness” 3 times (30:9; 54:5; and 91:4). Best quoted is 91:4:

He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.

We dare not overlook the use of the feminine `emunah in Lamentations 3:22-23, the source of one of our greatest hymns:

The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never ceases, His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is your faithfulness. Truth

”Truth” translates `emet 80 times “ and its cognates 7 more times. Isaiah has the translation “truth” five times (38:3; 39:8; 48:1, 59:14, 15) and the Psalms uses it 34 times. We quote two from Isaiah. In Hezekiah’ prayer,

“Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in Your sight” (38:3).

In one of Isaiah’s “thus says the LORD” declarations about his servants, he declares,

“Because he who is blessed in the earth will be blessed by the God of truth; And he who swears in the earth will swear by the God of truth; Because the former troubles are forgotten, And because they are hidden from My sight!” (65:16).

The Psalmist’s 34 uses of “truth” are rich and varied. We share a few scattered lines and verses:

Lead me in Your truth and teach me (25:5).

For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your truth (26:3).

I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation. You, O LORD, will not withhold Your compassion from me; Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me (40:10-11).

Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being (51:6).

God will send forth His lovingkindness and His truth (57:3).

And all your commandments are truth (119:151).

The sum of Your word is truth (119:160).

III. mishpat, (4941)

The word mishpat appears 419 times in the Hebrew Old Testament translated most frequently as “justice” (118), “judgment(s)”( 102), and “ordinance(s)” (108). The less frequent related meanings are too numerous to mention here. We start with the familiar

Judgement(s)

Among the 10 occurrences of “judgment” in Isaiah two will give us a feel for its use:

When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning (4:4).

By oppression and judgment He was taken away (53:8a).

Two from the 27 appearances in the Psalms are also familiar:

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous (1:5).

Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday (37:5-6).

Justice

From the 25 times “justice” appears in Isaiah three are representative. First two that are familiar. One expresses Isaiah’s opening concerns and the other is one of Isaiah’s messianic texts:

Learn to do good,; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow (1:17)

There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore (9:7). And this one from the first Servant Song,

“Behold My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations (42:1).

The two we quote from the 15 appearances in the Psalms indicate how our big words are often found together:

He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD (33:5).

The works of His hand are truth and justice; All his precepts are sure (111:7).

IV. tsedeq. (6664-5-6)

When we total up the 3 cognate nouns a form of tsedeq occurs all of 276 times in the Hebrew Old Testament, mostly with the meaning of “righteousness” or “righteous deeds.” Our particular form is found 118 times while the feminine cognate appears 158 times., so we will treat the two together and consider only the translation of

Righteousness

The Psalms is prolific with the word “righteousness” occurring 68 times. The usage comprehends the character of God, the criteria of his judgment, and the behavior of his people.

The LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold his face (11:7).

And He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity (9:8).

O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart (15:1-2).

Isaiah employs the translation “righteousness” 52 times. We could add many to this number by finding tsedeq wherever it is translated by other terms. “Righteousness” is a big word for Isaiah, often descriptive of God’s salvation, his vindicating, making right action among mankind.

But the LORD of hosts will be exalted in judgment, And the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness (5:16).

And the work of righteousness will be peace, And the service of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever (33:17).

“Listen to Me, you stubborn-minded, Who are far from righteousness. I will bring near My righteousness, it is not far off; And My salvation will not delay, And I will grant salvation in Zion, And My glory for Israel” (46:12-13).

“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, Who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were hewn And to the quarry from which you were dug” (51:1).

And many more!

Conclusion

Our text has indeed four big words!

A throne will be established in lovingkindness, And a judge will sit on it in faithfulness in the tent of David; Moreover, he will seek justice And be prompt in righteousness (Isaiah 16:5).

But so does Psalms 89:14:

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth (faithfulness?) go before You.

These four words capture the heart of the Old Testament faith. But not only that, all four of them characterize him who supremely belongs to “the tent of David” for the New Testament declares that: “in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!” (Luke 2:11).

And all four of our big words are found in the New Testament describing the life brought to us by our “Saviour, . . . Christ the Lord” from “the tent of David”!

Our big words present us with a biblicsl vision of hope, the kind of life we belong to, and the kind of people we really are!

When Herb gave me his list ”list of four words, thinking now of American culture,” he added, “Four words needed:

Forgiveness Cooperation Trust (in the best sense, in others) Will (to do something for its own sake and not for advantage!)”

And then commented,

It's an interesting thought: what if we could live within the context of the 7 traditional virtues without committing the 7 traditional vices! It would be heavenly to do so. Where is St John of the Cross when we need him! ISAIAH: “the Holy One of Israel” Isaiah 17:7-11

The “God of Our Salvation”

On that day people will regard their Maker, and their eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel: they will not have regard for the altars, the work of their hands, and they will not look to what their own fingers have made, either the sacred poles or the altars of incense. On that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.

For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore though you plant pleasant plants and set out slips of an alien god, though you make them grow on the day that you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow; yet the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain (17:7-11).

Introduction

In the search for another great text in Isaiah 1-39 I could not get past 17:7-11, even though at first glance it does not seem like a great text. But when I began to look at it, words and phrases like “Maker,” “the Holy One of Israel,” “the God of your salvation,” and “Rock of your refuge” grasped my attention. Not insignificant is the sixth appearance of the title of our series on Isaiah, “the Holy One of Israel.” We look at the text through the lens of the following structure: our theme is “The ‘God of our salvation’” who is declared to be “Our Maker,” “The Holy One of Israel,” and “The Rock of Our refuge.”

But before looking at these descriptive titles for God we need to sketch the literary and historical context of the passage. We begin at 17:1 with the prophet’s words, “An oracle concerning Damascus.”

Our passage concludes the larger section of “Judgment on Israel’s Neighbors” (14:28—17:11). This judgment was first directed to “The Philistines” (14:28-32) and then to “The Moabites” (15:1—16:14). Now before us is the divine judgment on “Syria and Ephraim” (17:1-11). Remember these were the two nations to the north who joined to attack Jerusalem (7:1) with the effect that “the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind” (7:2). In an attempt to reassure Ahaz of his sovereign care for Judah, the LORD invited him to ask for a sign, which Ahaz refused, preferring to look to Assyria for protection instead of to God:

Then Isaiah said: “Hear then O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel” (7:13-14).

Now in 17:1-11 the promised judgment is upon Aram (Syria) and Ephraim (Northern Israel):

But that is not all, for as the prophet continues the oracle,

On that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and the fat of his flesh will grow lean. And it shall be as when reapers gather standing grain and their arms harvest the ears, and as when one gleans the ears of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. Gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is beaten— two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches of a fruit tree, says the LORD God of Israel (17:4-6).

Both northern nations, Syria and Israel, will not be spared destruction; their “glory” is gone. But ironically, Damascus is now a place of peace and tranquility, free of the feverish activity of fortification. Israel is likened to a field of grain and a tree of ripe olives. On the one hand Israel is desolate, stripped of grain and olives, but if one looks carefully some scattered grain can be seen and some olives are left on the highest branches.

Now comes a prophetic word that looks to a time of national repentance:

This is “an eschatological word of hope,” that is, an expression of a future hope in language often seen in the latter half of Isaiah. As they “regard” their “Maker” and “look to” “the Holy One of Israel” they will forsake their handmade idols and the worship associated with the fertility cult. They will no longer be able to rely on their own wisdom and strength, but will turn back to the God they had forgotten. For now, however, this will not halt their destruction. The oracle of judgment continues with prophetic accusation:

On that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation (17:9).

With reference again to their false worship the issue is that they had “forgotten the God” of their “salvation” and relied on “slips of an alien god.” Earlier Isaiah used the same title to declare that “God is my salvation” (12:2). So we take these two uses of the phrase in Isaiah and using the words of the Psalmist we form the title of our lesson, “The ‘God of our Salvation’” (65:5). This title for God occurs in the Old Testament with four different pronouns, “ his,” “my,” “our,” and as in our text, “the God of your salvation.” We take a look:

1 Chronicles 16:35 records the prayer of Asaph and his kindred on the return of the ark of the covenant to the sacred tent in the reign of King David:

:Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather and rescue us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name, and glory in your praise.

Micah 7:7 breaks out with the testimony of an eighth century prophet:

: But as for me, I will look to the LORD, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.

Habbakuk in 3:18 in a later day joins the prophetic chorus

: yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will exult in the God of my salvation.

The Psalmist writes of “the God of his, . . . my, . . . [and] our salvation,” ten times in all. We quote two of them:

Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation, for you I wait all day long (26:5).

Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake (79:9).

Clearly as these texts show, “the ‘God of our salvation’” is the God who is concerned for the welfare of his people, the God who hears, leads and teaches them, the God who forgives the penitent, and the God who acts on behalf of his people vindicating and delivering. Therefore above all he is the God who saves, “the ‘God of our salvation’”! Here is the God for whom we “wait all day long,” the one who is worthy of our thanks, our praise, and our worship.

As we continue to ponder the question of Who is “the ‘God of our salvation,’” Isaiah in the text before us gives him three very descriptive titles, “Our Maker,” “The Holy One of Israel,” and “The Rock of Our refuge.” All three deserve our attention both in Isaiah’s use and throughout the Old Testament. So first

I. The “God of our Salvation” is Our “Maker”

In the light of the “how” debates prevalent in our culture as to how we, our world, and the universe came into being all the way from “young earth creationism” to “intelligent design” to “theistic evolution” to “naturalistic evolution,” we simply observe the language of the Old Testament in some of its metaphors and characterizations associated with the scriptural affirmation that God is our “Maker.” Perhaps just the language of sacred writ will inspire and reassure our faith.

1. In The Prophets

In addition to the eighth century Isaiah of Jerusalem, one other prophetic voice from the same century makes use of the title “Maker” in a prophetic accusation similar to Isaiah 17:7. Hosea 8:14 reads:

Israel has forgotten its Maker, and built palaces;

and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour his strongholds.

Judgment with its national destruction is pronounced on both Israel and Judah for they have forgotten their “Maker” and relied on their own wisdom, abilities, and strength.

In his book, Isaiah the prophet uses the title “Maker” for the God of Israel four times in chapters 40-66. We take them in order. The first two, 45:9, 11, are translated from the root “to form or fashion” (yatsar) rather than the root “to do or make” (`asah) as in 17:7. In an oracle directed to Cyrus the Persian they read:

Woe to you who strive with your Maker, earthen vessels with the potter! Does the clay say to the one who fashions it, “What are you making”?

Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel and its Maker: Will you question me about my children, Or command me concerning the work of my hands?

These lines with their rhetorical irony speak for themselves! In this and the next passage Isaiah sounds like Job.

Interestingly in 51:13 Isaiah repeats the accusation of 17:7 with a poetic expansion of the title:

You have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth.

Here the divine charge of forgetfulness is seen against the backdrop of the inescapable presence of the vastness of creation—how absurd to forget the Creator in such a world!

Finally in 54:4-5 in a word of assurance and comfort to the people of God in exile Isaiah associates the title “Maker” with other defining titles in an intensity of terminology that is overwhelming:

Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; do not be discouraged, for you will not suffer disgrace; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the disgrace of your widowhood you will remember no more.

For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.

Isaiah declared to God’s people that the “Maker” as “the God of the whole earth” is “your husband,” “the LORD of hosts,” “the Holy One of Israel,” and “your Redeemer”!—a revealing collection of theological attributes all deserving of their own study.

Instructive also are samples of the occurrences of “Maker” taken from

2. Other Old Testament Literature

We look first at one from Job 4:17 where Eliphaz the Temanite castigates Job for his insistence on his innocence:

Can mortals be righteous before God? Can human beings be pure before their Maker?

And then to the familiar Psalms 95:6:

O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker!

In Proverbs two occurrences will suffice, 14:31 and 22:2:

Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker, but those who are kind to the needy honor him.

The rich and the poor have this in common: the LORD is the maker of them all.

We cannot leave our reflection on “our Maker” without at least a look at the language of the first two chapters of Genesis, the two most sublime creation narratives in all of human literature. Three verbs especially occur.

The first is bara’ with the root meaning of “shape or create.” The biblical lines are familiar:

God created the heavens and the earth (1:1).

So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, . . . and every winged bird of every kind (1:21).

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them (1:27).

So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation (2:3).

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created (2:4).

Isaiah used the creation language (bara’) frequently in relation to mankind and the world, twelve times by my count. Two examples will suffice:

I made the earth, and created humankind upon it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host (45:12).

For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind (65:17).

The second verbe is the Hebrew yatsar root that occurs twice in Genesis 2, both in relation to the formation of man:

then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed (2:7-8).

But what about the “Maker” language? How is ‘asah used? From the nine times it appears we quote two significant verses:

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, according to our likeness” (1:26). . . . Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner” (2:18).

Who is the God of our Salvation? Scripture affirms that he is “our Maker,” the “Maker” of all that is, the God of the whole world and all its history, the God of the entire universe. Let us believe afresh and be assured in a world and a time like ours! ISAIAH: “the Holy One of Israel” Isaiah 17:7-11

The “God of Our Salvation” Continued

Introduction

In the search for another great text in Isaiah 1-39 we paused at 17:7-11 to look at words and phrases like “Maker,” “the Holy One of Israel,” “the God of your salvation,” and “Rock of your refuge.”

Remember our text is found in the passage dealing with the divine judgment on “Syria and Ephraim” (17:1-11), two nations to the north who joined to attack Jerusalem when Ahaz was king of Judah (7:1.) Today we revisit the oracle of judgment against Aram (Syria) and Ephraim (Northern Israel):

See, Damascus will cease to be a city, and will become a heap of ruins. Her towns will be deserted forever; they will be places for flocks, which will lie down, and no one will make them afraid. The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the children of Israel, says the LORD of hosts On that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and the fat of his flesh will grow lean. And it shall be as when reapers gather standing grain and their arms harvest the ears, and as when one gleans the ears of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. Gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is beaten— two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches of a fruit tree, says the LORD God of Israel (17:1-6).

Next comes a prophetic word of future hope that looks to a time of national repentance in Israel:

They will forsake the worship of “the work of their hands,” their rites of worship before “the sacred poles” or Asherah, and “the altars of incense,” all associated with the fertility cult. Instead, “on that day” “the people will regard” their “Maker” and “look to” “the Holy One of Israel.” The coming destruction, however, of Northern Israel and Syria and their capital cities will in no way be averted. So the prophetic accusation continues:

On that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation (17:9). For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore though you plant pleasant plants and set out slips of an alien god, though you make them grow on the day that you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow; yet the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain (17:9-11).

With their worship before the Asherah they had “forgotten the God of” their “salvation” and relied on “slips of an alien god.” These are searing words to our souls. Have we ever “set out slips of an alien god”? If so, Isaiah warns us that even though we “make them grow on the day that [we]plant them, and make them blossom in the morning `. . . yet the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain (17:9-11).

Earlier Isaiah had spoken of God in the same way declaring that “God is my salvation” (12:2). Using this Old Testament title, “The ‘God of our Salvation’” (Psalm 65:5), as our overall heading, we explored last time the Isaianic declaration that

I. The “God of our Salvation” is Our “Maker”

With this scriptural affirmation we began to answer the question of Who is the God of our Salvation? The biblical witness is first that God is “our Maker,” the “Maker” of all that is, the God of the entire physical universe and of the long eons of its human history. Isaiah challenges us to believe that affirmation afresh and be assured in a world and an age like ours, so dysfunctional and permeated with senseless human tragedy! As the morning paper reminds us these are times in which two California political candidates willingly spend “millions of dollars to poison voters’ attitudes about each other.”

To remind us of our look at “God is ‘our Maker,’” we repeat just one of Isaiah’s texts, the word of the LORD to his people in captivity who are “like the wife of a man’s youth when she is cast off” (54:6), yet a people to whom God declares that “in overflowing wrath I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you (54:8):

For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called (54:4-5)..

Here Isaiah declares that God as our “Maker,” indeed “the God of the whole earth,” is “your husband,” “the LORD of hosts,” “the Holy One of Israel,” and “your Redeemer” in a most comprehensive collection of theological attributes, all deserving of their own study.

Today we begin with the affirmation that II. The “God of our Salvation” is “The Holy One of Israel”

In the vision of Isaiah where, as “in no other biblical book are the wonder and grandeur of the biblical God so ably displayed,” this theologically rich phrase, “The Holy One of Israel,” serves as the theme of the prophet’s witness to the God of our Judeo-Christian heritage. Since lately we have become addicted to the concordance we share some statistics. Including “the Holy One of Jacob” (29:23) our phrase, “The Holy One of Israel,” occurs thirteen times each in Isaiah 1-39 and Isaiah 40-66, making a total of twenty-six occurrences in all of Isaiah. Then if we add to these the four appearances of the phrase “the Holy One” we have a grand total of thirty.

Three things are obvious about the God of our Judeo-Christian heritage in Isaiah’s favorite title, “The Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah’s God was (1) “the only God,” (2) “the God who created a particular people,” and (3) “the God who alone was holy per se”—in himself.

So first, Isaiah’s faith was monotheistic, he believed in only “One” true God. Isaiah would affirm the Shema of the Mosaic faith, the creed of the Jewish people down through the centuries: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone” or “The LORD is one!” (Deut. 6:4; NRSV and NASB). Israel’s idolatry was sheer stupidity. Why take a piece of wood, cook supper with half of it and then bow down to the other half (44:9-20)? Other gods are in essence no gods, they cannot explain the past or predict the future (41:22-23) nor can they in any meaningful way affect the present (45:16, 20), for they are only in continuity with this world and merely expressions of it, not transcendent over it.

Second, Isaiah’s faith was in a God who had loved, called out, and redeemed a people for his personal “possession”—“Israel.” Isaiah affirmed the voice of God to Moses on Mount Sinai:

“Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the people. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a Holy nation” (Exod. 19:3-6).

Over and over again in our study of Isaiah’s prophecies of God’s judgment on Israel and the national disaster to come with the onslaught of the Assyrian armies, Isaiah would speak of a faithful future remnant, not least in the text before us where “on that day . . .gleanings will be left in it, . . . two or three berries in the top of the highest bough” (17:4, 6; cf.1:9; 6:13). Isaiah’s vision is of a new restored people of God for “a shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots” (11:1; cf. 2:2-4; 4:2-6; 9:2-7; 11:1-9). We need say no more for today we see ourselves as the response to the invitation of Peter when he wrote in the language of Exodus 19:6:

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:4-5).

Actively calling out Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel), and in the Church of his Son Jesus, God is a God who has created a redeemed people whom he has called to carry through his purposes in the world.

Third, Isaiah’s faith was above all in an absolutely unique God whom he called “the Holy One of Israel” who was supremely “the Holy One“! We have seen this as we have marched leisurely through the vivid language of the prophet. God’s holiness is revealed in his ethical imperatives: “the LORD of host is exalted by justice, and the holy God shows himself holy by righteousness” (5:16). This is the same Lord whom Isaiah saw in divine majesty “sitting on a throne, high and lofty” of whom the heavenly seraphs exclaimed, “Holy, holy, holy . . .; the whole earth is full of his glory” (6:1, 3). Isaiah himself was told in the political pressures and complexity of his prophetic role, “But the LORD of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread” (8:13). Awesome, sovereign, transcendent, all-penetrating integrity, and God himself the very definition is the biblical idea of the holy--thus we have been taught to pray, “Father, hallowed be your name” (Luke 11:2; cf. Matt. 6:9).

Now we look at Isaiah’s most characteristic title as he has employed it thus far in our study of his prophetic vision. What should we hear as we view his use of the title from our position as participants of its fulfillment in the God of the Christian Church, the God who has revealed himself fully and finally in his son Jesus Christ? Or tell us, what do you hear?

The title, “the Holy One of Israel,” first appears in the opening paragraph (1:1-9) Isaiah’s introduction (1:1—5:30) where he presents the main themes of his prophetic message. Here the people of Israel are described as God’s children “who have despised the Holy One of Israel”:

Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth; for the LORD has spoken: I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. Ah, sinful nation, people laden with iniquity, offspring who do evil, children who deal corruptly, who have forsaken the LORD, who have despised the Holy One of Israel, who are utterly estranged! (1:2-4).

So our rebellious spirit, our spiritual dullness, and all our ethical failures are here viewed by scripture as looking down with contempt on the Holy God, the only One in whom the sacred, the true, and the eternal abide per se! No wonder the prophet uses the active verb “forsaken” and the passive verb “estranged” to describe the people of God in such a sinful and iniquitous state.

Again in the introduction (1:1-5:30) comes a paragraph (5:18-25) almost unbelievable in its description of the cynicism and perversion of the children that the God of Israel has reared. Our title occurs twice. Listen!

Ah. you who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood, who drag sin along as with cart ropes, who say, “Let him make haste, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the plan of the Holy One of Israel hasten to fulfillment, that we may know it!” Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! . . . Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will become rotten, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the Holy One of Israel.

This is a frightening warning passage as it warns of the downward spiral of the rejection of the holy in individual life and in the life of a people—in some ways a post-modern spirit as exemplified in the testimony of a recently convicted CEO!

In the midst of chapters that speak of the necessity of trust in God and passages that offer hope to a faithful remnant (7:1—12:6) come Isaiah’s next two occurrences of his favorite ascription of God. Following the prophecy of Assyria’s certain destruction (10:5-19) when “the light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame” (10:17; cf. 10:12-19) comes the promise to Israel of its survival as a people:

On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on the one who struck them, but will lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For though your people Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. For the Lord GOD of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in all the earth (10:20).

Not always turning out just as we might like it or have envisioned it, hope is inherent to the people of God for we are God’s people. We are not a hopeless people, “for God is with us” (8:10; cf. 7:14; 10:8).

Therefore with Israel “with joy [we] will draw water from the wells of salvation” (12:3) and “say in that day:

Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth. Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel (12:4-6).

Joy, thanksgiving, and praise speak for themselves when its cause is the presence of “the Holy and Righteous One” (Acts 3:14) par excellence in the midst of his Church, in the gathered congregation and among his people scattered throughout society.

Finally we come back to our text which speaks of our faith, our hope, our worship, and our loyalty to Isaiah’s God as we experience him in the crucified and risen Son of God:

Who is the God of our Salvation? The God who is “our Maker” is supremely for Isaiah the prophet “the Holy One of Israel,” the Holy One whose majestic sovereignty we must recognize, the Holy One whose integrity in the world we dare not treat with contempt, and the Holy One whom we worship with praise on our lips and joy in our hearts: “Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). ISAIAH: “the Holy One of Israel” Isaiah 17:7-11

The “God of Our Salvation” Continued

III. The “God of our Salvation” is the “Rock of your refuge”

Introduction

This study concludes our consideration of “The ‘God of our Salvation’.” In 17:7-11, Isaiah has given us three titles descriptive of this God. We come today to the third of those. Last Sunday, forgetting that I had already put it into this lesson, I used the following quote from Abraham Lincoln:

he can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.

This remark was made no doubt in the realm of political discourse as we are painfully aware in our culture of “spin,” but it could just as often be accurately said in the realms of education, the church, and even in our informal conversations. We will share no examples! But such could never be said about Isaiah’s language, particularly his three-fold revealing titles for “The ‘God of our Salvation’” in the midst of a declaration of divine judgment on “Syria and Ephraim” (17:1-11).

We considered first the title, “Maker,” a word taken in a fairly literal sense by those of use who believe in God as our Creator. Even though our minds are open as to the “how” of creation, our faith is sure about the “Who”: “In the beginning . . . God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

In our previous lesson from Isaiah we explored the profound phrase, “The Holy One of Israel,” a title made up of a rich biblical and theological term and a historical reference to a people: “great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel” (12:6). Today we look at Yahweh’s charge against Israel in 17:10:

For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge.

Here Isaiah castigates Israel for their lack of the memory that constitutes them a distinctive people with a descriptive title composed of two very ordinary and familiar words, “Rock” and “refuge,” here used metaphorically. Such a one, “the Rock of your refuge,” declares Isaiah, is “the God of your salvation.”

We begin with a consideration of the word “rock” as a metaphor. Question: In how many settings in our culture can you think of in which we use the word “rock” in a metaphorical sense? ? ?

Now what about the metaphorical use of the word “refuge” in our common discourse? ? ???

1. As Metaphors in the Old Testament

Here we can send our minds back 2,000-3,000 years to the geography of Palestine, to a landscape in some ways similar to our Southwest, yet, at that time, Israel was much more forested than it is today. The writers of Scripture lived in that land before the advent of modern transportation, instant global communication, and overwhelming technology, in the midst of a life of imminent danger from wildlife, robbers, wars, and perhaps even the weather—in this the world has not changed much!

Our text, Isaiah 17:10, is the only is the only place where Isaiah uses the precise phrase, “the Rock of your refuge.” Isaiah comes close in 33:15-16: “Those who walk righteously and speak uprightly . . . their refuge will be the fortress of rocks.”

The Psalmist, however, brings the two terms together in poetic lines of remarkable trust as he addresses the God of Israel with “O LORD, faithful God”:

In you, O LORD, I seek refuge; do not let me ever be put to shame; in your righteousness, deliver me.

Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily, Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me. For you are indeed my rock and my fortress; for your name’s sake lead me and guide me, take me out of the net that is hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God (31:1-5).

Moses, near the end of his life, recited a song to “the whole assembly of Israel” (31:30) in Deuteronomy 32 where he used the title “Rock” for the God of Israel five times. Among them are

The Rock, his work is perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God, without deceit, just and upright is he (32:4).

You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth (32:18).

Indeed their rock is not like our Rock; our enemies are fools (32:31).

In relation to God, his holy city, and his king, Isaiah uses the word “rock” five times and the word “refuge” four times. First, we look at four of the more significant occurrences of “rock”:

Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace— in peace because they trust in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for in the LORD GOD you have an everlasting rock (26:3-4).

You shall have a song as in the night when a holy festival is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel (30:29).

Each [the LORD’s king] will be like a hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest,

like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land (32:2).

Do not fear, or be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? You are my witnesses! Is there any god besides me? There is no other rock; I know not one ((44:8).

Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the LORD. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug (51:1).

Rock in these verses impacts the imagination with images of permanence, of large and immovable heights, of something absolutely unique, and of the one true source of a people—God’s people: “an everlasting rock”—“the mountain of the LORD, . . . the Rock of Israel”—“ no other rock”—“ the rock from which you were hewn”! All images of security!

Some revealing uses of “refuge” as a metaphor in Isaiah include

Then the LORD will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over its places of assembly a cloud by day and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Indeed over all the glory there will be a canopy. It will serve as a pavilion, a shade by day from the heat, and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain (4:5-6).

For you [O LORD] have been a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat (25:4).

When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you! The wind will carry them off, a breath will take them away. But whoever takes refuge in me shall possess the land and inherit my holy mountain (57:13).

The main imagery with “refuge” is that of a divine covering that protects from poverty and from all things likened to the need for shelter from the elements of storm and excessive heat—a place of refuge in the LORD. A warning from the Psalmist concludes our look at these metaphors in the Old Testament:

“See the one who would not take refuge in God, but trusted in abundant riches, and sought refuge in wealth!” (52:7).

2. As metaphors in our Hymnology

A most helpful tool is The Cyber Hymnal (cyberhymnal.org) that contains over 5,700 hymns with brief information as to hymn writer, lines of the hymn, the music and an audio replay. Included is a search engine, and many other features to aid the church musician. A search for the word “rock” in hymn titles and verses turned up 281 occurrences. When I did the same for “refuge” the result was 163 appearances.

Can you think of hymn lines that contain either or both “rock” and “refuge”?

Thirty-six hymns contain both words; three are in Sing to the Lord:

Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand, The shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land. . . . O safe and happy shelter, O refuge tried and sweet, O trysting place where Heaven’s love and Heaven’s justice meet.

O safe to the rock that is higher than I, . . Thou blest rock of Ages, I’m hiding in Thee. . . . How oft in the conflict when pressed by the foe, I have fled to my Refuge and breathed out my woe. How often when trials like sea billows roll, Have I hidden in Thee, O Thou Rock of my soul. Hiding in Thee, Hiding in Thee, Thou blest Rock of Ages, I’m hiding in Thee.

. The Lord’s our Rock, in Him we hide . . . Secure whatever ill betide . . . O Rock divine, O Refuge dear, Be Thou our Helper ever near, A Shelter in the time of storm. O Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, A weary land, a weary land, O Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, A Shelter in the time of storm.

A fourth song that we know, not in Sing to the Lord, contains the following lines; can you recognize them? ? ?

Jesus, my heart’s dear Refuge, Jesus has died for me; Firm on the Rock of Ages, ever, my trust shall be.

Here let me wait with patience, wait till the night is over; Wait till I see the morning break on the golden shore.

Do you recognize these lines from Sing to the Lord? ? ?

Precious Savior, still our refuge What a refuge in sorrow Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee. On Christ the solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. He hideth my soul in the cleft of the Rock. Other refuge have I none; hangs my helpless soul on Thee. He placed me upon a strong Rock by His side. Nestling bird nor star in Heaven Such a refuge e’er was given.

Or this verse from Worship in Song?

Oh sometimes how long seems the day, And sometimes how weary my feet! But toiling in life’s dusty way, the Rock’s blessed shadow how sweet!

Conclusion: Sing? O my brother, do you know the Savior, Who is wondrous kind and true? He’s the “Rock of your salvation!” There’s Honey in the Rock for you. Refrain Oh, there’s Honey in the Rock, my brother, There’s Honey in the Rock for you; Leave your sins for the blood to cover, There’s Honey in the Rock for you. Have you “tasted that the Lord is gracious,” Do you walk in the way that’s new? Have you drunk from the living Fountain? There’s Honey in the Rock for you. Refrain Do you pray unto God the Father, “What wilt Thou have me to do?” Never fear, He will surely answer, There’s Honey in the Rock for you. Refrain Then go out through the streets and byways, Preach the Word to the many or few; Say to every fallen brother, There’s Honey in the Rock for you. Refrain Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Appendix

Stephen A. Marini, of Wellesley College has prepared a list of 300 hymns print across the evangelical spectrum: “American Protestant Hymns Project: A Ranked List of Most Frequently Printed Hymns, 1737-1960.” Among the first 76 the rank of some of the hymns cited above is as follows:

“Jesus, Lover of My Soul” “Rock of Ages” 52. “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”

Number 1 in the list of 300 was “All Hair the Power of Jesus’ Name” (Edward Perronet, 1779).

Our study of Isaiah has been stretching my faith beyond the borders of my campmeeting heritage. My religious life has for the most part has been understood within a pietism consumed primarily with personal religion, that is; the issues of personal sin and forgiveness, personal sanctity, and /knowing/experiencing/feeling the joy of salvation. This awareness has been particularly reinforced by a daily reading in Worship in Song of the hymns or Gospel songs that come from the campmeeting and revivalistic period of our history, and even some from the pen of Charles Wesley. The larger prophetic concerns have not loomed large in my religious consciousness. Isaiah’s infrequent but significant use of the word “justice” and parallels in the context of “the Holy One of Israel” has made inroads into my faith-perspective/consciousness. I even wonder if the response to these societal issues by the activists of the (secular) far left and the (religious) far right in their self-righteous and lawless ways might have a point that the church should listen to?

Isaiah 1:4, 5:19, 24; 10:20; 12:6. Contents of Isaiah from Oswalt, Isaiah 1-39, 60-64, Isaiah 40-66, 16-19: Introduction to the Prophecy: The Present and Future of God’s People (1:1—5:30) The Call to Servanthood (6:1-13) Whom Shall We Trust? Basis for Servanthood (7:1—39:8) God or Assyria? No Trust (7:1-12:6) God : Master of the Nations (13:1—35:10) God’s Judgment of the Nations (13:1—23:18) Judgment on the Mesopotamian powers 13:1—14:27) Judgment on Judah’s neighbors (14:28—17:11) Judgment on all Nations (17:12—18:7) Judgment on Egypt (19:;1—20:6) Judgment on Babylon and her Allies (21;1—22:5) God’s Triumph Over the Nations (24:1—27:13) The Folly of Trusting the Nations (28:1—33:24) Trusting God or the Nations (34:1—35:10) God or Assyria? Trust (36:1—37::38) The Vocation of Servanthood (40:1—55:13) The Marks of Servanthood (56:1—66:24) Sunday, January 15, 2006. Or assembly in the far north Margin, “Lit. Day Star.” The Vulgate is the Latin version of the Bible declared by the Council of Trent in 1546 to be the only authentic Latin text of the Scripture. The Vulgate was the work of Jerome (345-419) primarily during the years 390-404. “An explanation to prevent misinterpretation.” I looked it up so I could use it! Marilyn Chandler McEntytre, “Let Us Proclaim the Mystery of Faith,” Weavings. XXI. 1 (January/February 2006), 6. Her other bumper sticker was “If you can’t handle paradox, get out of the pulpit.” Professor McEntyre thinks of the Bible as “arguably the most mysterious, strange, challenging, complex book in the world.” Speaking of bumper stickers, when the sticker“ I found it” was a popular “conversation” gimmick, I read recently of a certain minister whose spiritual journey in his words was “an ongoing quest marked by occasional moments of insight or mysterious experience of the Holy, but mostly by days and months of wilderness travel” so his “’80s bumper sticker read “I’ve lost it”! Reading for January 6 in Forward Day by Day (November/December 2005/January 2006), 68. Note the language of our morning hymns. Even a myth that is pure fiction can function in powerful ways. Can you identify such myths in our culture? Myths can be as different as the cultures that produce them, for example, the myths of Greece and Rome differ from those of the Near Eastern culture, and it is the latter that the biblical writers knew best. For myth as completely false see Deann Alford, “The CIA Myth, Christianity Today (January 2006), 58-59. The issue is accusations against American missionary groups. The “myth” may be false, but it has real consequences. Also in this category were A Boyfriend for Christmas and Meet the Santas. Another equally delightful was Mary Christmas. Although this novel claims to make use of the best of recent scholarship on Jesus. Again these novels, although fiction like the Da Vinci code, are said to be rooted in a literal interpretation of Scriptural prophecy. See Devin Gordon, “The ‘Code’ Breakers,” Newsweek (December 26, 2005/January 2,2006, 95-106. The film stars Tom Hanks and the French actress Audrey Tatou. The movie is set for May 2006, and the book is due out in paper back in March. William Donahue, president of the Catholic League sent a letter to Amy Pascal, producer of the movie, asking for a disclaimer to the film saying it pure fiction, and received only a polite noncommittal response. C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 67. Quoted from Darrel Falk, Coming to Peace With Science (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 44-45. Delightfully illustrated in the current movie, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” Oswalt, Isaiah 1-39, 297-298. Margin, “Lit. Day Star.” This is the view taken for example by Old Testament scholar Merrill F. Under in “Satan,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1984)., 972. He connects this picture also with Genesis 3:1-7. See Job 1:7; 1 Chronicles 21:1; 1 Peter 5:8. And similar scriptures? Isaiah 1:4, 5:19, 24; 10:20; 12:6. Contents of Isaiah from Oswalt, Isaiah 1-39, 60-64, Isaiah 40-66, 16-19: Introduction to the Prophecy: The Present and Future of God’s People (1:1—5:30) The Call to Servanthood (6:1-13) Whom Shall We Trust? Basis for Servanthood (7:1—39:8) God or Assyria? No Trust (7:1-12:6) God : Master of the Nations (13:1—35:10) God’s Judgment of the Nations (13:1—23:18) Judgment on the Mesopotamian powers 13:1—14:27) Judgment on Judah’s neighbors (14:28—17:11) Judgment on all Nations (17:12—18:7) Judgment on Egypt (19:;1—20:6) Trumph Over the Nations (24:1—27:13) The Folly of Trusting the Nations (28:1—33:24) Trusting God or the Nations (34:1—35:10) God or Assyria? Trust (36:1—37::38) The Vocation of Servanthood (40:1—55:13) The Marks of Servanthood (56:1—66:24) Sunday, January 22, 2006. Carole Spencer, 1999. Quoted from Catherine Whitmire, Plain Living: A Quaker Path to Simplicity (Notre Dame, Indiana: Sorin Books, 2001), 118. A man of one book. Kathleen Norris, The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and “Women’s Work” (New York/Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1998), 29. The Lecture was sponsored by the Center for Spirituality at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana. She is known especially for her books Dakota: A Spiritual Geography and The Cloister Walk. She makes her home in Lemon, South Dakota. Margin, “Lit. Day Star.” This is the view taken by Old Testament scholar Merrill F. Under in “Satan,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1984)., 972. He connects this picture also with Genesis 3:1-7. See Job 1:7; 1 Chronicles 21:1; 1 Peter 5:8. The Vulgate is the Latin version of the Bible declared by the Council of Trent in 1546 to be the only authentic Latin text of the Scripture. The Vulgate was the work of Jerome (345-419) primarily during the years 390-404. Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah, Volume I, tran. James Denney (London: Hodder and Stoughten, MDCCCXCI), 276. Oswald, Isaiah 1-39, 321, remarks here that “In Canaanite mythology the god Athtar, with whom the gods attempt to replace Baal at one point;, may also be the morning star.” Ibid., 277. “Apostrophe” has here the meaning of a rhetorical digression in speech or writing in order to make a short address to a person or thing, whether present or absent—a meaning new to me! Ross E. Price, “Isaiah,” Beacon Bible Commentary, Volume IV (Kansas City, Missouri: Beacon Hill Press, 1966), 75. Oswalt, Isaiah 1-39, 320-321. Ibid., 321. Oswalt, 321, speaks of Isaiah’s alluding to the great [mythic] literature of his day. Another evangelical scholar, John Watts, Isaiah 1-33, 212, concludes that Isaiah 14:12-21 “is a masterful poem to be sung over a tyrant who has fallen victim to his ambition and pride. . . . When the poem has been used in apocryphal and Christian circles to picture the fall of an angelic Satan, the reference must be to the shadowy mythical background of the poem rather than to the poem itself. It is significant that the account of the fall of Satan (Rev. 12) makes no reference to Isa 14.” See Robert W. Wall, Revelation: New International Commentary, ed. W. Ward Gasque (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1991), 13-25. Commenting on 1:7 we once wrote that “the concern of the author of Revelation, however, is not primarily to work from the present to the future, from the experience of Christ to the hope of his return, but from the certainty and nature of his end-time consummation its meaning for the Church in the present: ‘The time is near’ (1:3).” Frank G. Carver, “The Nature of Biblical Prophecy,” in H. Ray Dunning, ed., The Second Coming: A Wesleyan Approach to the Doctrine of Last Things (Kansas City, Missouri: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1995), 25., M. Eugene Boring, Revelation, Interpretation, A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1989), 159, gives an interpretive picture: “Although the devil and his angels are already defeated in the real world, the transcendent world of God’s reality, they have been cast down to this world, angry and frustrated. Like a poor-loser football team hopelessly behind with only three and a half minutes to go, having already lost, they determine to do as much damage as they can in the remaining brief time. “As the new Jerusalem is John’s most extensive picture of salvation, so Babylon is his most extensive picture of judgment.” Ibid., 178-179. The :”beast” is portrayed as “a parody of the true god who ‘is, was, and is to come’ (1:4, 8; 4:8).” Ibid., 181. Ibid., 188. Isaiah 1:4, 5:19, 24; 10:20; 12:6. Contents of Isaiah from Oswalt, Isaiah 1-39, 60-64, Isaiah 40-66, 16-19: Introduction to the Prophecy: The Present and Future of God’s People (1:1—5:30) The Call to Servanthood (6:1-13) Whom Shall We Trust? Basis for Servanthood (7:1—39:8) God or Assyria? No Trust (7:1-12:6) God : Master of the Nations (13:1—35:10) God’s Judgment of the Nations (13:1—23:18) Judgment on the Mesopotamian powers 13:1—14:27) Judgment on Judah’s neighbors (14:28—17:11) The Philistines (14:28-32) The Moabites (15:1—16:14) Lament (15:1-9) Response (16:1-14) (i) Plea for Mercy (16:1-5) The fall of Moab’s proud vines (16:6-12) Within three years (16:13-14) (3) Syria and Ephraim (17:1-11- Judgment on all Nations (17:12—18:7) Judgment on Egypt (19:;1—20:6) Judgment on Babylon and her Allies (21;1—22:5) 2, God’s Triumph Over the Nations (24:1—27:13) The Folly of Trusting the Nations (28:1—33:24) Trusting God or the Nations (34:1—35:10) God or Assyria? Trust (36:1—39:8) The Vocation of Servanthood (40:1—55:13) The Marks of Servanthood (56:1—66:24) Sunday, March 26, 2006. The NASB will be our version for this lesson because its more literal translation works well with a concordance. So we are returning to my earliest years of Bible study and doing a concordance study? Other candidates for the big four include Enron, google, violence, greed, awesome, diet, missional, celebrity. A friend suggested love, democracy, diversity, sex. A commotion or fuss. Etymology: alteration of carfuffle, from Scots car- (probably from Scottish Gaelic cearr wrong, awkward) + fuffle to become disheveled. Chiefly British : DISTURBANCE, FUSS. You will most commonly come across this wonderfully expressive word in Britain and the British Commonwealth countries (though the White House spokesman Ari Fleischer used it in January this year). It is rather informal, though it often appears in newspapers. One of the odder things about it is that it changed its first letter in quite recent times. Up to the 1960s, it was written in all sorts of ways-curfuffle, carfuffle, cafuffle, cafoufle, even gefuffle (a clear indication that its main means of transmission was in speech, being too rarely written down to have established a standard spelling). But in that decade it suddenly became much more popular and settled on the current kerfuffle. Lexicographers suspect the change came in response to the way that a number of imitative words were spelled, like kerplop and kerplunk. In those cases, the initial ker- adds emphasis, as it does in other words, perhaps onomatopoeic but perhaps also borrowing the first syllable of crash. But we know kerfuffle was originally Scots and it's thought that its first part came from Scots Gaelic car, to twist or bend. The second bit is more of a puzzle: there is a Scots verb fuffle (now known only in local dialect), to throw into disorder, dishevel, or ruffle. No obvious origin for it is known and experts suspect it was an imitative word. It is probably linked with Scots fuff, to emit puffs of smoke or steam, definitely imitative, which in the late eighteenth century also had a sense of going off in a huff or flying into a temper. Furnished me by Junita Loos. Genesis19:37; Deuteronomy 2::9. Their languages and script were nearly identical as indicated by the well-known inscription about Mesha the King of Moab on the Moabite Stone. NRSV translates “what is right.” See also Exodus 34:6-7 and Jeremiah 31:3 for significant occurrences. See Hosea 4:1 where both “faithfulness” and “kindness” along with “the knowledge of God” occur in Yahweh’s condemnation of Israel. “Righteousness” (tsedeq) is another of our four big words. These terms appear together very frequently in the Psalms. See 85:10-11; 86:15; 89:14; 115:1; 117:2; 119:142; 138:2. In fact, our words appear together in various combinations throughout the Old Testament, and especially in the Psalms. And we should not overlook the great summary confession in Exodus 34:6-7 and parallels. NRSV translates 37:6 to read, “He will make you vindication shine like the light, and the justice of your cause like the noonday. Isaiah 1:4, 5:19, 24; 10:20; 12:6; 17:7. Contents of Isaiah from Oswalt, Isaiah 1-39, 60-64, Isaiah 40-66, 16-19: Introduction to the Prophecy: The Present and Future of God’s People (1:1—5:30) The Call to Servanthood (6:1-13) Whom Shall We Trust? Basis for Servanthood (7:1—39:8) God or Assyria? No Trust (7:1-12:6) God : Master of the Nations (13:1—35:10) God’s Judgment of the Nations (13:1—23:18) Judgment on the Mesopotamian powers 13:1—14:27) Judgment on Judah’s neighbors (14:28—17:11) (1) The Philistines (14:28-32) The Moabites (15:1—16:14) Syria and Ephraim (17:1-11- Desolate ruins (17:1-6) They have forgotten God (17:7-11) Judgment on all Nations (17:12—18:7) Judgment on Egypt (19:;1—20:6) Judgment on Babylon and her Allies (21;1—22:5) 2, God’s Triumph Over the Nations (24:1—27:13) The Folly of Trusting the Nations (28:1—33:24) Trusting God or the Nations (34:1—35:10) God or Assyria? Trust (36:1—39:8) The Vocation of Servanthood (40:1—55:13) The Marks of Servanthood (56:1—66:24) Sunday, April 30, 2006. Or Asherah. The capital city of Syria. Or Israel. Along with the fertility of the valley with its lush fields situated southwest of Jerusalem “Rephaim” has the double meaning of “mighty men” and “the dead.” Or Asherah. Walter Bruggemann in his review of William G. Dever, Did God Have a Wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel (Eerdmans, 2005 [?]) writes that “in the midst of this more general tracing of folk religion,” the noted archaeologist “focuses particularly on the ‘Asherah,’ a goddess known in the religious environment around Israel and reflected in some parts of the biblical text. The overly dramatic title of Dever’s book concerns the question of whether the textual and archaeological evidence leads to the conclusion that a female god stood alongside Yahweh in the practice of the folk religion of Israel. Dever’s vigorous and enthusiastic answer is yes. Yes, Yahweh had a wife, though that relationship has been largely erased by the work of zealous orthodoxy [i.e. the writers and editors of the Old Testament].” The Christian Century (March 31, 2006), 37-38. Childs, Isaiah, 137. 24:5, “my” 18:46; 25:5; 27:9; 51:14; 88:1; “our” 65:5; 68:19; 79:9; 85:4.

There is an “older earth creationism” as well. This is the position of many if not most Nazarene scholars (at least scientists and theologians). See for example the personal journey of Darrel R. Falk narrated in the chapter “Science and Religion: Trying to Live in Two Worlds at Once,” in his Coming to Peace with Science: Bridging the Worlds Betweem Faith and Biology (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 19-38. Hebrew `asah with the root meaning of do or make. We will also use texts with yatsar with the root meaning of form or fashion. To find the occurrence of word “maker” we have used a concordance on the NASB, but since we our basic text is NRSV, we mostly identify those texts that use “maker” for God in NRSV as a translation of the Hebrew roots `asah and yatsar. Sometimes finite verb forms are used in translation. Versions differ at this point. Similar are Jeremiah 10:16 and 51:19 where NASB uses “Maker” to translate the verb yatser. In NRSV the phrase in both verses is “the one who formed all things.” See Job 32:22; 35:10; and 33:6. See Psalm 149:2. See Proverbs 17:5. Used 53 times in the Old Testament. See Isaiah 27:11; 40:26; 40:28; 42:5; 43:1; 43:7; 43:15; 45:7-8; 45:18; 65:18. The “creation” language is picked up in the New Testament with thrilling perspective: See 2 Corinthians 5:17: “so if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new”! See Genesis 1:16; 1:25; 1:31; 2:3; 2:4. And of course there are other verbs used for the creation process. Isaiah 1:4, 5:19, 24; 10:20; 12:6; 17:7. Contents of Isaiah from Oswalt, Isaiah 1-39, 60-64, Isaiah 40-66, 16-19: Introduction to the Prophecy: The Present and Future of God’s People (1:1—5:30) The Call to Servanthood (6:1-13) Whom Shall We Trust? Basis for Servanthood (7:1—39:8) God or Assyria? No Trust (7:1-12:6) God : Master of the Nations (13:1—35:10) God’s Judgment of the Nations (13:1—23:18) Judgment on the Mesopotamian powers 13:1—14:27) Judgment on Judah’s neighbors (14:28—17:11) (1) The Philistines (14:28-32) The Moabites (15:1—16:14) Syria and Ephraim (17:1-11- Desolate ruins (17:1-6) They have forgotten God (17:7-11) Judgment on all Nations (17:12—18:7) Judgment on Egypt (19:;1—20:6) Judgment on Babylon and her Allies (21;1—22:5) 2, God’s Triumph Over the Nations (24:1—27:13) The Folly of Trusting the Nations (28:1—33:24) Trusting God or the Nations (34:1—35:10) God or Assyria? Trust (36:1—39:8) The Vocation of Servanthood (40:1—55:13) The Marks of Servanthood (56:1—66:24) Sunday, May 28, 2006. Or Israel. Along with the fertility of the valley with its lush fields situated southwest of Jerusalem “Rephaim” has the double meaning of “mighty men” and “the dead.” Or Asherim. Asherah was a fertility goddess, the mother of Baal, and represented in worship by a wooden pole, probably phallic in form.. The San Diego Union-Tribune (May 28, 2006), A1. Oswalt, Isaiah 1-39, 32/ Eleven times in cc. 40-55 and two times in cc. 56-66. “The Holy One of Israel” occurs in 1:4; 5:19; 5:24; 10:20; 12:6; 17:7; 29:19; 29:23 (Jacob); 30:22; 30:12; 30:15; 31:1; 37:23; 1-55: 41:14; 41:16; 41:20; 43:3; 43:14; 45:11; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7 ; 54:5; 55:5. “The Holy One” appears in 10:17; 40:25; 43:15; 49:7. The Shema continues: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am command you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind the as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deut. 6:5-9). KJV translates, “ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people,” the origin of the expression, “God’s peculiar people”! Or Asherah. Isaiah 1:4, 5:19, 24; 10:20; 12:6; 17:7. Contents of Isaiah from Oswalt, Isaiah 1-39, 60-64, Isaiah 40-66, 16-19: Introduction to the Prophecy: The Present and Future of God’s People (1:1—5:30) The Call to Servanthood (6:1-13) Whom Shall We Trust? Basis for Servanthood (7:1—39:8) God or Assyria? No Trust (7:1-12:6) God : Master of the Nations (13:1—35:10) God’s Judgment of the Nations (13:1—23:18) Judgment on the Mesopotamian powers 13:1—14:27) Judgment on Judah’s neighbors (14:28—17:11) (1) The Philistines (14:28-32) The Moabites (15:1—16:14) Syria and Ephraim (17:1-11- (a) Desolate ruins (17:1-6) (b)They have forgotten God (17:7-11) Judgment on all Nations (17:12—18:7) Judgment on Egypt (19:;1—20:6) Judgment on Babylon and her Allies (21;1—22:5) 1. God’s Triumph Over the Nations (24:1—27:13) The Folly of Trusting the Nations (28:1—33:24) Trusting God or the Nations (34:1—35:10) God or Assyria? Trust (36:1—39:8) The Vocation of Servanthood (40:1—55:13) The Marks of Servanthood (56:1—66:24) Sunday, July 30, 2006. See Exodus 19:4-6. See Psalm 62:1-8; 94:20-22; See 32:15, 30. “Refuge” is not used for God in Deuteronomy. Both words are found in other contexts with both literal and metaphorical meanings. Also we did not investigate the Hebrew words behind these texts. Most seriously we compromised preciseness by using a NASB concordance to help with a NRSV text! KJV: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” See 14:32. 231. “Beneath the Cross of Jesus.” Elizabeth C. Clephane, 1968. Sing to the Lord omits the second verse containing these last two lines. 558. “Hiding in Thee.” William O. Cushing, 1876. Put to music by Ira D. Sankey, 1877. 571. “A Shelter in the Time of Storm.” Vernon J. Charlesworth, circa 1880. Music by Ira D. Sankey, circa 1885. A favorite of fishermen on the north coast of England. “Safe in the Arms of Jesus.” Fanny Crosby, 1868. She wrote the words of this hymn in 20 minutes to a melody brought to her by her friend, W. H. Doane, who was due to catch a train for Cincinnati in forty minutes. 625. “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” Joseph M. Scriven, 1885. 557. “Under His Wings.” William O. Cushing, 1896. Music by Ira D. Sankey. 445. “Rock of Ages.” Augustus M. Toplady, 1776. 436. “My Hope is Built” or “The Solid Rock.” Edward Mote, circa 1834. 572. “He Hideth My Soul.” Fanny Crosby, 1890. 636. “Jesus, Lover of My Soul.” Charles Wesley, 1740. While preaching in Ireland Charles Wesley was attacked for his preaching. He was hid by a farmers’ wife in her milkhouse, then urged to escape through a rear window and hide under a hedge by a little brook. While hiding there “he wore this immortal hymn.” 412. “He Bought Me Out.” Henry J. Zelley, 1898. Refrain and music by Henry L. Gilmour. 93. “Children of the Heavenly Father.” Korlina W. Sandell-Berg, 1858 (Swedish). Translated into English in 1925 by Ernst W. Olson. 458. “The Rock that is Higher than I.” Erastus Johnson, 1871. Written during the financial panic of 1871. “Honey in the Rock.” Frederick A. Graves, 1895. He wrote both the words and the music. Richard J. Mouw & Mark A. Noll, eds., Wonderful Words of Life: Hymns in American Protestant History and Theology (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004), 251-264 Our previous hymnal, dated 1972. Isaiah 1:7, 27; 5:16; 9:7; 10:2.

PAGE 140 5.2.10 TIME \@ "h:mm AM/PM" 3:17 PM DATE \@ "MM/dd/yy" 10/29/06

Frank G. Carver San Diego, California

A Great Text: Four Big Words

The “God of Our Salvation”

Related in the archive

Commentary Draft 1 John 4 Chapter for submission to Rick

Ezra-Nehemiah 1--Introduction

Ezra-Nehemiah 4--The Stirrings of God--Part Three

Final Review 1 John 4 Chapter after response by Rick