This Hebrew Lord by John Shelby Spong Part 2: Some Hebrew Images
Chapter 7: The Suffering Servant -- Part I
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This Hebrew Lord by John Shelby Spong Part 2: Some Hebrew Images
Published by The Seabury Press, New York, 1974. This material was prepared for Religon Online by Ted &
Winnie Brock.
As we noted earlier, David’s kingdom, which brought the people of Israel together effectively for the first time, did not survive beyond the death of his son, Solomon. It became instead two small jealous and warring nations. The kingdom to the north, Israel, was made up of ten tribes with its capital at Samaria; and the kingdom to the south, Judah, was made up of two tribes with its capital at Jerusalem.
From the very beginning, the northern kingdom was the least stable. It had no unifying symbol like the Temple of Solomon. It had no established royal family like the House of David. It had no emotional city like the city of Jerusalem. The northern kingdom had no natural defense lines, no impregnable fortresses. Hence this tiny land was the victim of military coups, oppressive dictatorships, military disasters, and finally in 721 B.C., the nation of Israel disappeared from the face of the earth. Conquered by the armies of Assyria, most of its people were deported to Nineveh. In keeping with Assyrian policy other peoples were imported to Israel for
resettlement. These exiled Hebrews, lacking a principle of unity, simply intermarried with the people wherever they resettled and soon they disappeared as an identifiable nationality. The imported new settlers also intermarried with the remaining Israelites. Their descendants became the "half-breed" Samaritans of the New Testament period, who corrupted, at least in the minds of the Jerusalem Jews, both the pure blood of Israel and also the pure worship of Yahweh.
The southern kingdom was much more cohesive and, through judicious political efforts,
managed to survive with some vestige of independence until 597 B.C., when it was overrun by the Babylonians. Once more there was a massive relocation of people, with the Jews being forced to resettle in Babylon. However, among these people there was a difference: the exiled citizens of Judah and their children were taught to prepare for and greatly desire the day of return to their sacred soil. They were directed under pain of intense community pressure to keep themselves apart from the gentile world. Synagogues were formed to oversee the purity of
worship and to instruct the new generation in the faith and tradition of their fathers. Sabbath day observance and the rite of circumcision were resurrected from disuse and vigorously enforced as marks of Judaism. Both customs served to isolate Jews from non-Jews. Both also served to feed among their captors the fires of anti-Semitism, which have burned in varying degrees of shame from that day to this. This Babylonian captivity lasted until 539 B.C. when Babylon fell to the Persian army of King Cyrus, and the peoples in exile began to have realistic hopes that they might be able to return home.
It was in this context that the one called Second Isaiah began to make himself heard. He was a figure in exile speaking to his fellow Jews in exile. Part of his message, I believe, was penned while Cyrus was still a hope on the horizon of world history; the remaining part was written after Cyrus was victorious over Babylon and began to allow the Jews to make preparation for a return to their homeland.
About this prophet almost nothing is known. No biographical data was included in his work. He was literally only "a voice crying in the wilderness." But his work revealed a noble mind, a
brilliant poet, and unquestionably the Old Testament’s most fluent writer. From his pen flowed a description of a new vocation for the people of God that represented the deepest and holiest level of insight in the entire Old Testament.
His voice was first raised in the wilderness of captivity: "Comfort ye, comfort ye" (Isa. 40:1), he proclaimed to this broken, despairing people, who were hanging on the brink of extinction, wondering if Yahweh had cast them off forever. Already the Jewish exiles were beginning to seek refuge in idolatry (Isa. 44:17). The thread of racial and religious purity that preserved their identity was about to break. Second Isaiah held before this people the vision of restoration.
"Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill shall be made low, the uneven ground shall be smoothed, the rough places shall become a plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed" (Isa. 40:4ff). When the Jewish nation would be re-established, he proclaimed, the holy people would find a new hope, a new idea of their mission to the world.
At this point in the writings of Second Isaiah, exactly how this would be accomplished and what shape that new vocation would take were both still vague. Cyrus was just emerging on the world political scene as a new force. Perhaps in Cyrus, Second Isaiah saw "the feet of him who brings good tidings" (Isa. 52:7). In this early part of his work he revealed a pettiness that was not found later. He still envisioned the new Israel as exalted above all nations. Restoration would enable Israel to humble her foes and enslave heretofore proud nations (Isa. 41:11, 45:14ff).
But before Second Isaiah finished his writing career, some historic events occurred. Perhaps in the course of his writing, Cyrus conquered Babylon, and some of the exiled Jews, preliminary to a large scale return, were allowed to go home to Judah. Perhaps this unknown prophet made such a journey; at least that conjecture seems to make sense out of the data. When he viewed the devastation and the waste places which were all that remained of his homeland, the emotional effect on him was beyond comprehension. The vision nurtured by romantic, nostalgic tales and colored by fantasy came crashing down. The Jerusalem of his dreams, which fed his petty neonationalism, and the Jerusalem of stark reality were forced into confrontation. His holy city was an abandoned pile of rubble. The Temple was a field of weeds and stones. There was nothing impressive, no hint of grandeur, no semblance of power. All his illusions of future greatness died. Greatness for Second Isaiah could never again reside in earthly power.
This experience drove the unknown prophet deep into himself, his heritage, and his worship. He was forced to rethink the relationship between Yahweh and his people. Most important of all, he had to create another image in order to understand the destiny and mission of his people.
When Second Isaiah finally emerged from this crisis of spirit, the second stage of his prophetic career began. In this stage he sketched his portrait of that servant figure who embodied a higher, grander, more noble destiny for Israel than any Hebrew before him had ever envisioned. Israel was to be the servant people through whom all the nations of the world would be blessed, made
whole, and set free. This task would be accomplished not by achieving power but by accepting the afflictions of powerlessness. Second Isaiah intimated that if this role were too difficult for the whole nation of Israel, then perhaps a remnant or even one supreme son of Abraham could fulfill it. As he wrote, this unknown prophet broke the bands of nationalism and revealed what one writer described as "a heart as wide as all mankind." 2 It is obvious that in this portrait Jesus of Nazareth saw himself, and by this pattern he deliberately styled his life.
As this striking servant figure emerged in the writings of Second Isaiah, his task was seen to be that of going beyond Israel as an agent for bringing justice to the gentiles. He would be used by Yahweh to give light and salvation to the world (Isa. 49:6). His mission was universal, not nationalistic (Isa. 49:6). His task was to express the tenderness of God for all mankind (Isa.
42:6), to liberate the suffering (Isa. 61:1), to guide the thirsty to water (Isa. 44:22ff), to set men free (Isa. 42:7), to make them whole (Isa. 55:1ff, 42:7), to break the power of sin (Isa. 53:12).
He would impart God’s law to the world (Isa. 51:4); yet this law would not be forced on mankind, it would rather be presented so that all men would eagerly seek it (Isa. 42 4).
The Suffering Servant would accomplish this task by working meekly (Isa. 42:1ff). He would be self-effacing. Though he might be clothed with heavenly power, he would use it gently. He would not resist hostility or draw back from maltreatment (Isa. 50:5,6). This was not meant to imply weakness, but rather gentle humility. His face would be set like a flint toward his purpose (Isa. 50:7). He would walk in the confidence of Yahweh. He would be afflicted, but he would trust his final vindication (Isa. 52; 53). At the last, the Servant of the Lord would be
overwhelmed (Isa. 53:8). He would meet a shameful death. In derision he would be slain as a criminal (Isa. 53:9). Nevertheless, God would reverse the sentence of death, and he would go on uninterrupted until he accomplished his task of bringing men into unity with God, with each other, and with themselves (Isa. 53: l0ff).
It is difficult to read these words today without being astounded that in 540 B.C. a Jewish writer could produce this profound vision of life’s meaning. Nothing like it had appeared in the Old Testament before. Having sketched this figure, the author interpreted the effects of the Servant’s life. Poet that he was, he did not just say it; rather, he put the interpretation of the servant into the mouths of those who witnessed his fate (Isa. 52:13-53:12). They were not obscure people, for the seeming tragedy of the Servant’s life was enacted on the vast stage of the whole world.
So he was seen as the bearer of our sicknesses, the carrier of our sorrows, wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our inequities. "With his stripes we are healed" (Isa. 53:5). His was a vicarious suffering. As men derided him, the Servant made intercession for them. By his "sin"
offering, his willingness to accept abuse, he drained the world of anger and thus men were brought to peace and wholeness (Isa..53:12). All of this was willed by God as his way of restoring creation to its glory, said the unknown prophet called Second Isaiah (Isa. 53: 12).
God’s love went out to this servant figure, for he stood with God over against evil. The
servant’s spoil was not the honor and prestige that motivates the insecure of life. He was free of
that bondage. His spoil was men won to God -- forgiven, healed, justified (Isa. 53:12). When men understood the meaning of his suffering, the servant would rise up to bless them with his spirit, his life, his presence.
Nowhere else in the Old Testament was the portrait drawn of the vicarious sacrifice of the innocent out of love for the guilty. Nowhere else was the promise given that vicarious love would bring healing. Yet such was the vocation that Second Isaiah believed devolved upon the people of God when they returned from the Exile to their homeland. It was to be their task to serve the world in self-effacing ways, bearing the world’s pain, renouncing all claim to worldly power, and in this way leading all men to light, life, and wholeness. It was their vocation to be a light to lighten the gentiles. This was to be the glory of Israel.
When Second Isaiah finished his writing, his words fell into disuse and disregard. His vision of the purpose of the chosen people was not the popular one. Israel was much more moved by the religious nationalism of Nehemiah or the exclusive religious bigotry of Ezra as these writers resurrected the dream of earthly grandeur -- kings on white horses overturning their enemies.
In the first century, however, a Jewish rabbi named Jesus of Nazareth found these words
interpreting his own life and work, but by that time this image was so lost that no one else could see the Messiah in this stance. Yet in the mind of Jesus, the role of the Suffering Servant was always one option to enable him to accomplish what he believed his Messianic vocation to be.
He finally chose it, overtly and deliberately, when all other avenues were closed to him and when his purpose seemed all but defeated. This was the biblical image cut from the tradition of the Hebrew people that most deeply undergirded everything Jesus said and did. If this image can be isolated, then Jesus as the Christ will be understood in a new light.
Now we turn to bring the story of Jesus into focus through this image.
Notes:
1. Scholars differ as to just how much of Chapters 40 to 66 of our Book of Isaiah is the work of Second Isaiah, and whether or not there was a Third Isaiah, but that debate is not germane to this book, for Jesus related to it as one cohesive source.
2. Dr. Fleming James.
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return to religion-online
This Hebrew Lord by John Shelby Spong Part 2: Some Hebrew Images
Published by The Seabury Press, New York, 1974. This material was prepared for Religon Online by Ted &
Winnie Brock.