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Chapter 2: Legend. Covenant with the Fathers (Genesis 12-50)
D. The Prophet Isaiah
4. Historical Judgment
If you will not believe,
surely you shall not be established [7:9b]
Probably shortly after Sennacherib’s siege he delivered an oracle to his own people far more severe than that directed against Assyria. The threatened population had not been humbled by that historical chastisement. Bitterly and with finality Isaiah spoke:
In that day the Lord Yahweh of hosts, called to weeping and mourning,
to baldness and girding with sackcloth;
and behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. .
Yahweh of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:
"Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you till you die,"
says the Lord Yahweh of hosts. [22:12-14]
And as we saw earlier in the present discussion, Isaiah expresses in the account of his call (ch. 6) his conviction that the nation will suffer judgment. "How long, O Lord," he asks -- how long will her perversity endure? "Until cities lie waste. . . and Yahweh removes men far away."
We observe the probability, of course, that the prophetic word of doom is nearly always implicitly qualified by contingency -- that is, the
fulfillment of the dire expectation is contingent upon the continuation of the conditions which call it forth. Hope is often implicit in the most passionate prophetic denunciations: in the midst of an extended indictment, Isaiah cries,
Come now, let us reason together, says Yahweh:
though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
[1:18]
Nevertheless, Isaiah quite apparently believes that the covenant
rebellion of the nation -- this people, this people of unclean lips -- is so obdurate, so deep, so firmly established, so pervertedly willed that there
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will be no turning, no repentance and therefore no redemption until the nation has passed catastrophically under the judgment of Yahweh. So far as the prophet himself is concerned, the contingent possibility of quiet salvation through repentance is an impossible possibility: Israel’s redemption, and the ultimate fulfillment of Yahweh’s covenant purpose - - these lie now only beyond judgment. "If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established" (7:9)
For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
"In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength."
And you would not, but you said, "No!" [30:15]
5. Historical Redemption
Immanuel = With Us is -- God!
Shear.jashub = A Remnant -- will Return!
Isaiah = Yahweh -- Saves!
The final prophetic word is not judgment but redemption. Judgment is the wrath of Yahweh, but it is a purposive and constructive wrath, not a vindictive wrath. Judgment is not an end in itself, is not merely punitive.
Judgment is the divine extremity to make redemption possible.
I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross...
and remove all your alloy. [1:25]
In the bitterly controverted "Immanuel" section (7:10-17; see also 8:8) we simply do not know -- and cannot know -- the identity of the child to be so named. It does not matter: the name is symbolic -- With Us is God. It is God who is with us, the Holy One of Israel in our midst. His declared purpose from of old is to bless, through Abraham and Israel, all the families of the earth (see Gen. 12:3, an expression, probably of the faith of the J writer in the tenth century B.C.) It is his purpose in history to redeem, to reconcile rebellious man with himself. But it is God who is with us. It is redemption on his terms -- terms which Isaiah understands as quietness, confidence, trust, belief in Yahweh. If Israel will not
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submit to his terms, then he will bring her to submission in judgment, in fire, in purge. His purpose will be fulfilled in history: with us is God!
Only a remnant will survive; but a remnant will continue in history, fulfilling the purposes of Yahweh. It is God who is with us. Beyond tragedy there is always hope. It is the nature of God to forgive and redeem. The salvation that Isaiah himself experienced in the symbol of fire, the remnant will know beyond the fire of death and destruction.
Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
And he touched my mouth, and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven." [6:6 f.]
Nearly two centuries later, Isaiah’s most distinguished disciple understood his own mission to the survivors of Israel in these terms:
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned. . . . [Isa. 40:1]
As the purged and forgiven Isaiah is charged with a mission to his own nation, so the same disciple sees the purged and forgiven nation charged with a mission to the world:
It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the preserved [the remnant] of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
[Isa. 49:6]
Israel (now Judah and Jerusalem) is understood and interpreted in the faith of Isaiah in terms of the covenant relationship with Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel. Her total violation of the covenant in pride and perversity renders her incapable of fulfilling Yahweh’s covenant
purpose. She will be brought under a tragic divine judgment from which only a remnant will emerge -- but a purified remnant, reestablished in
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the covenant and capable again of glorifying Yahweh. God is with us. A remnant shall return. Yahweh saves.