God of Comfort

2AdventB, year 2017 but never preached aloud. On Isaiah 40:1-11.

Prior to chapter 40, the news spoken in God’s name is a word of judgment. The people have rebelled against the precepts of God. The people have lived at the expense of their neighbors, putting their own desires above the needs of others. Plain and simple, God’s chosen people had betrayed him.  They basically ignored God’s claim on their lives.

From chapter 40 forward, this word of judgment is in the past. Jerusalem was destroyed, and a number of its citizens did go into exile. Now, circa 540 BCE, on the other side of this experience, a new word comes to the people of Judah.

In verse 1, we hear a word of comfort and hope for a new future for the people of God. This sets the tone for both this passage and for the whole of Isaiah 40-66.

These chapters, mostly from the 8th century, point forward to a time when Jerusalem would be destroyed. In 587 BCE Jerusalem fell to Babylon, and a portion of Jerusalem’s population went into exile. God’s people are enslaved several times in the Hebrew Scriptures, then released depending upon the kingly power in charge.  I imagine for days on end, when in possession of another kingdom mulling over and over in their minds, both thinking and feeling what it was to be in bondage and at the beckon call of people clearly not on your side nor doing anything to set you free.  Your life is never your own in that situation and you must do as you are told or suffer the consequences.

Conflict--Picture for yourself a general release of all prisoners in the United States. The thought is rather scary, isn’t it? Think about all the people who were locked up for assault or murder. Yet although it may be a scary ordeal for some of us, it would be a happy event for others.  It would be a reunion of parents and children, brothers and sisters. Some who were innocent or were jailed for civil disobedience would return to their communities. Many who had become lost in the legal system would suddenly experience hope in their freedom. The impact of such an act was felt by the Jewish people when they heard the words of Second Isaiah.  It is over and now you can go home.  Some probably had no real home to go home and had to start from scratch.

Complication--The beginning of Second Isaiah presents a scene of divine command and the announcement of a town crier. God pronounced a nation-wide forgiveness and the crier announced the return of the exiles. [40:1-5] The joy of such an announcement must have accompanied the fall of Babylon to Cyrus and the Persian army in 539 B.C. A year later, the Persian ruler enacted an edict of return for the Jews in the Diaspora. They were to rebuild Jerusalem and restore the Temple.

Sudden Shift--The changing events justified the loyalty of the exiles to God. Now God could display power, even by way of a foreign king. The Jewish nation could once again praise the acts of their God. They could once again show both a religious and patriotic pride because God saved them! [40:9-11]

Good News--Freedom from bondage implicitly means return. Pardon from sin means return to God. As we wait for the coming of the Lord at Christmas, let us remember the words of Isaiah and their echo in the preaching of John the Baptist. Metanoia, the Greek word for repentance, means to turn away from self-centered pursuits and activities and instead, turn towards the Almighty.

Unfolding—Three proclamations build on the imperative to comfort God’s people in verse 1, each expanding on what it means for the people of Jerusalem to receive comfort.

While not everyone living in Jerusalem went into exile, a good number of people did. This passage talks about their return. The most direct route between Babylon and Judea, through the Syrian Desert, is poetically described in verse 3 as a way in the wilderness and a highway in the desert. It is unlikely, however, that any exiles returning from Babylon would have actually made the dangerous trek through the waterless wilderness. Rather, they would have followed water sources, going through northern Syria and then back south to Jerusalem.

That such a route would have been so unlikely suggests that a travel log is not the point. Rather, the poetic description functions to recall another journey through an inhospitable wilderness. This news of a metaphoric highway in the desert heralds a second Exodus, an easier one with flat ground and trouble-free travel (verse 4). Once more God’s people would follow their God out of captivity to a Promised Land. Anyone who had doubted God’s presence in and devotion to Judah would see this and know that God had not only spoken a redeeming word but also had the power to fulfill it.

In verse 6, the punctuation marks found in the NRSV seem to indicate a short conversation between two voices. An anonymous voice, some sort of divine attendant, issues a command to “Cry out!” A second voice, “I,” asks what is to be cried. Following this compact dialogue is commentary on the poor, unreliable constancy of the people, liable to droop like a flower in a field, and a final, triumphant claim that God is wholly other -- constant, reliable, and able to stand forever (vs. 6b-8). However, a number of scholars have suggested that the dialogue continues beyond the two lines shown in the NRSV. In this view, the “I,” speaking as the prophet, continues to speak to the end of verse 7. The words are an objection to the command to cry out. Why prophesy to a people with the constancy of grass? The anonymous voice responds in verse 8 with the very hopeful news that the constancy of the people is less important than that of God.

When read in this way, the passage echoes the pattern of a prophetic call narrative (introductory word, commissioning, objection, assurance) much like Isaiah’s call in Isaiah 6. This is a new word for a new time but is in line with the prophecy of Isaiah the 6^th century prophet.

The objections of the prophet are understandable. Would the word fall on willing ears? Not too likely. Would the message given make a difference in a world full of fickle people? Hard to tell. These are questions of most of the witnesses to the word and action of God, prophets and preachers included. The response that the word of God is not about human constancy but about the enduring reliability of God comes as assurance to the prophets in this passage and to the witnesses throughout the centuries.

At the end of this passage the city of Jerusalem, also identified as Zion, is personified. This is common in Isaiah 40-66. However, the place in the Hebrew Scriptures in which Zion is personified most consistently, is in the first two chapters of the book of Lamentations. In Lamentations 1-2 Daughter Zion cries out against the destruction wrought her. She speaks words of accusation against her human enemies and even God. The refrain that comes again and again is, “There is no one to comfort her” (Lamentations 1:2, 9, 16, 17, 21). At the end of her speeches -- and even the end of the book of Lamentations -- Daughter Zion receives no response to her cry.

The response to Zion’s laments comes, rather, in other biblical books. The response comes in verses such as Isaiah 40:1 “Comfort, O comfort my people.” The response comes in verses such as Isaiah 40:9 in which the words for Jerusalem to speak are not those of lament but of good news. She is no longer told to wail but to raise her voice without fear. The message given is confident and hopeful, “Here is your God!” Here is a God who comes to feed the flock, to gather the lambs, to lead the mother sheep -- to bring comfort. Here is God in whom we may have hope. How do you plan to turn away from yourself this Advent? How do you plan to turn towards God?