31 August 2010 | Giles Goddard
A number of people have asked me recently – Why the Isaiah Community? Why the prophet Isaiah? So I thought it would be helpful to remind us about the prophet Isaiah, and the communities surrounding him and following him. This is partly in preparation for our visit to Rome and thinking about our Rule of Life - future addresses will be about the Early Church and about Carlo Borromeo, one of the greatest shouldabeen Popes in the seventeenth century.
For most of the last century, the book of Isaiah was divided into three parts (like Gaul!) - chapters 1 - 39 – first Isaiah; chapters 40 – 55 (second Isaiah) and chapters 56 – 66 (third Isaiah). Contemporary scholarship is beginning to say that we can’t work with such hard and fast distinctions, but it is generally agreed that most of the material in chapters 1 - 39 is from an original Isaiah.
The prophet Isaiah ministered among the Hebrew people about the same time as Hosea, the latter part of the eighth century B.C. His message in many ways echoes that of Amos and Hosea. However, there are some important differences.
Whereas Amos and Hosea prophesied in the northern kingdom of Israel, Isaiah’s work centered in the southern kingdom, Judah. Isaiah entered the scene at the time of the death of King Uzziah, whose long reign ended around 742, and continued his work until at least 701, during the kingship of Hezekiah. Hence, in contrast especially to Amos’ apparently very short-term witness, Isaiah had a sustained public ministry.
Isaiah operated much more within the corridors of power than Amos and Hosea. He gained the ear of the powerful, and, according to the story (see Isaiah 36–37 and II Kings 18–20) exerted great influence over King Hezekiah in saving Jerusalem from the attack of the Assyrians. In fact, no doubt because of his responsiveness to Isaiah, King Hezekiah was recognized by the writer of I and II Kings as one of only two kings who “did what was right in the sight of the Lord” (II Kings 18:3), including removing the high places where false worship took place. The other faithful king was Josiah (II Kings 22:2).
As we heard from Chris Skilton (and I’m drawing from Chris and from an article on a website called Peace Theology for this address) on 13th April – Following Isaiah, over the next couple of centuries, more material was written and gathered together. It was been gathered together because some themes recur and weave in and out of these chapters from different periods of history ... I want to suggest some pointers that may be helpful and relevant from our forbears.
Firstly, they all had a profound understanding of their present context. Each part of the material shows a deep interest in the political, social, moral, theological and economic issues of the day. That’s true whether it was the political policies of King Hezekiah, the religious thought systems of Babylon or the dejected economic state of life after the return from exile. The ‘Isaiah’ material is marked by a careful discernment and insight into the current state of play in these societies. An important element of the credibility for the message that was spoken was the manifest time and care that had gone into getting under the skin of contemporary society.
As we see from our Isaiah 1 verses, the content of Isaiah’s proclamation differed little from Amos and Hosea. His ministry provides some hope that an authentic prophetic message, based on loyalty to the core of Torah (the law of Moses), might indeed shape the broader culture and embolden people in power truly to do what is right.
What’s society’s problem, according to Isaiah? Like Amos, he condemns the people for living with a terrible contradiction. They do the prescribed religious activities. They offer God a “multitude of sacrifices,” (1:11) and “many prayers” (1:15). But what they do is evil (1:16). They ignore the core of God’s expectations for them. They do not seek justice. They do not care for the vulnerable people in their midst–the “oppressed,” the orphans, the widows (1:17).
Secondly, Isaiah offers hope. Think about it, he says. He has in mind the content of the law codes. Here God has made clear the best, the most fruitful, the most reasonable path for health and wholeness. “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land” (1:19). If not, “you shall be devoured by the sword” (1:20). King Hezekiah did lead the people in obedience for a time, and the sword of the Assyrians was turned aside.
To whom is the message of prophets like Isaiah most relevant today? The Old Testament assumes that the message of faithfulness to Torah should shape nation states. And the story of Isaiah and Hezekiah gives us some hope that this might happen.
However the survival of the prophetic vision (and its embodiment in Jesus) depends more on the conviction that the truthfulness of this vision and its appropriateness for people of faith does not depend upon kings and emperors. That is, we ordinary people and our faith communities must seek to “learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow” (1:17) regardless of what the “rulers of the Gentiles” (Mark 10:42) say and do.
But it’s not, as Chris said in his Isaiah address, simply, about fighting for the widow and the orphan, the alien and the oppressed. And it’s not simply about hope for the future.
Thirdly, the Isaiah community embraced a poetic evocation of God’s new society. The Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann in his book “Hopeful Imagination” expresses this well. In writing about Second Isaiah (and Ezekiel and Jeremiah) he says, “the poets not only discerned the new actions of God that others did not discern, but they wrought the new actions of God by the power of their imagination, their tongues, their words. New poetic imagination evoked new realities in the community”. He goes on to suggest that “they present for Israel a new reading of historical reality that is really there in the public process, but it is not fully present until brought to imaginative speech..they articulate a vision which captures the imagination and evokes and empowers and inspires forward”. This seems to me to describe well the power of the poetry of Isaiah which is not simply about dreaming of future possibilities but imagining and then declaring the future. Here is a challenge to us to day, to take the fruits of that poetic imagining offered to us in Isaiah to empower and inspire us to see the reality not only declared but brought into being – however that vision of justice and righteousness under Yahweh is to be enacted; and it’s because of this challenge that we focus on Isaiah as one of our sources of inspiration, prayer and hope.
http://peacetheology.net/short-articles/reflections-on-old-testament-prophets-isaiah/
http://www.isaiahcommunity.org/april-13-2010.html
·
For most of the last century, the book of Isaiah was divided into three parts (like Gaul!) - chapters 1 - 39 – first Isaiah; chapters 40 – 55 (second Isaiah) and chapters 56 – 66 (third Isaiah). Contemporary scholarship is beginning to say that we can’t work with such hard and fast distinctions, but it is generally agreed that most of the material in chapters 1 - 39 is from an original Isaiah.
The prophet Isaiah ministered among the Hebrew people about the same time as Hosea, the latter part of the eighth century B.C. His message in many ways echoes that of Amos and Hosea. However, there are some important differences.
Whereas Amos and Hosea prophesied in the northern kingdom of Israel, Isaiah’s work centered in the southern kingdom, Judah. Isaiah entered the scene at the time of the death of King Uzziah, whose long reign ended around 742, and continued his work until at least 701, during the kingship of Hezekiah. Hence, in contrast especially to Amos’ apparently very short-term witness, Isaiah had a sustained public ministry.
Isaiah operated much more within the corridors of power than Amos and Hosea. He gained the ear of the powerful, and, according to the story (see Isaiah 36–37 and II Kings 18–20) exerted great influence over King Hezekiah in saving Jerusalem from the attack of the Assyrians. In fact, no doubt because of his responsiveness to Isaiah, King Hezekiah was recognized by the writer of I and II Kings as one of only two kings who “did what was right in the sight of the Lord” (II Kings 18:3), including removing the high places where false worship took place. The other faithful king was Josiah (II Kings 22:2).
As we heard from Chris Skilton (and I’m drawing from Chris and from an article on a website called Peace Theology for this address) on 13th April – Following Isaiah, over the next couple of centuries, more material was written and gathered together. It was been gathered together because some themes recur and weave in and out of these chapters from different periods of history ... I want to suggest some pointers that may be helpful and relevant from our forbears.
Firstly, they all had a profound understanding of their present context. Each part of the material shows a deep interest in the political, social, moral, theological and economic issues of the day. That’s true whether it was the political policies of King Hezekiah, the religious thought systems of Babylon or the dejected economic state of life after the return from exile. The ‘Isaiah’ material is marked by a careful discernment and insight into the current state of play in these societies. An important element of the credibility for the message that was spoken was the manifest time and care that had gone into getting under the skin of contemporary society.
As we see from our Isaiah 1 verses, the content of Isaiah’s proclamation differed little from Amos and Hosea. His ministry provides some hope that an authentic prophetic message, based on loyalty to the core of Torah (the law of Moses), might indeed shape the broader culture and embolden people in power truly to do what is right.
What’s society’s problem, according to Isaiah? Like Amos, he condemns the people for living with a terrible contradiction. They do the prescribed religious activities. They offer God a “multitude of sacrifices,” (1:11) and “many prayers” (1:15). But what they do is evil (1:16). They ignore the core of God’s expectations for them. They do not seek justice. They do not care for the vulnerable people in their midst–the “oppressed,” the orphans, the widows (1:17).
Secondly, Isaiah offers hope. Think about it, he says. He has in mind the content of the law codes. Here God has made clear the best, the most fruitful, the most reasonable path for health and wholeness. “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land” (1:19). If not, “you shall be devoured by the sword” (1:20). King Hezekiah did lead the people in obedience for a time, and the sword of the Assyrians was turned aside.
To whom is the message of prophets like Isaiah most relevant today? The Old Testament assumes that the message of faithfulness to Torah should shape nation states. And the story of Isaiah and Hezekiah gives us some hope that this might happen.
However the survival of the prophetic vision (and its embodiment in Jesus) depends more on the conviction that the truthfulness of this vision and its appropriateness for people of faith does not depend upon kings and emperors. That is, we ordinary people and our faith communities must seek to “learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow” (1:17) regardless of what the “rulers of the Gentiles” (Mark 10:42) say and do.
But it’s not, as Chris said in his Isaiah address, simply, about fighting for the widow and the orphan, the alien and the oppressed. And it’s not simply about hope for the future.
Thirdly, the Isaiah community embraced a poetic evocation of God’s new society. The Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann in his book “Hopeful Imagination” expresses this well. In writing about Second Isaiah (and Ezekiel and Jeremiah) he says, “the poets not only discerned the new actions of God that others did not discern, but they wrought the new actions of God by the power of their imagination, their tongues, their words. New poetic imagination evoked new realities in the community”. He goes on to suggest that “they present for Israel a new reading of historical reality that is really there in the public process, but it is not fully present until brought to imaginative speech..they articulate a vision which captures the imagination and evokes and empowers and inspires forward”. This seems to me to describe well the power of the poetry of Isaiah which is not simply about dreaming of future possibilities but imagining and then declaring the future. Here is a challenge to us to day, to take the fruits of that poetic imagining offered to us in Isaiah to empower and inspire us to see the reality not only declared but brought into being – however that vision of justice and righteousness under Yahweh is to be enacted; and it’s because of this challenge that we focus on Isaiah as one of our sources of inspiration, prayer and hope.
http://peacetheology.net/short-articles/reflections-on-old-testament-prophets-isaiah/
http://www.isaiahcommunity.org/april-13-2010.html
·
