“The Earth shall be full of the knowledge of God as the
waters cover the sea.” “The Earth shall
be full of the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.” That is a very rich metaphor. Though I had read this passage at least once
every Christmas season for who knows how many years and on many other
occasions, the first time I never really heard it, noticed it was there, was
well over decade ago while listening to a New Testament scholar named N.T.
Wright talk about our future hope as Christians, a future where everything is filled
with the knowledge of God. I have pondered this very profound metaphor ever
since.
N.T Wright is very keen to point out that the future
reality that the Bible points us forward to is not our disembodied souls going
to heaven when we die. Yes, we will
spend a little time after death possibly without our bodies with Christ in a
place Jesus called Paradise. But, that
is not our ultimate goal. Rather, what
we are headed for is Resurrection to live in Creation made new. This wonderfully awesome and beautiful
Creation that God created, blessed, and called very good will be healed and
freed of Sin and Death and Evil and as Isaiah says…wait for it…wait for it…, it
will be full of the knowledge or better yet the knowing of who God is and what
God’s nature is like, full of the unveiled presence and glory of God just as
the waters cover the sea. The goal of
our existence is as Wright says, “God is going to do for the whole Creation
what he did for Jesus on Easter morning.”
Resurrection into a New Creation, this is our hope in Christ. This is what God is up to and pointing
forward to that is what we the church are about.
Isaiah’s prophesy here, like all of the biblical
prophesies which look forward to the Day of Creation’s deliverance and
restoration is symbol rich, metaphor rich.
We need to “crack the code” on the meaning of the symbols and yet be
careful to not get too specific or literal with them, trying to peg them down
to specific dates and so forth. They are
meant to provoke “hopeful imagination”, to make us want to see God’s promise
fulfilled, to make us “abound in hope”.
The first metaphor or symbol in Isaiah’s prophecy
here is that a shoot shall come up out of the stump of the Davidic lineage, a
ruler full of the Holy Spirit, a righteous ruler who will judge fairly on
behalf of the weak and oppressed. This
metaphor is a pretty obvious one to nail down.
This ruler is Jesus. He is the
Jewish Messiah who has brought and will bring the Kingdom or Reign of God to
earth.
The next metaphor/symbol that Isaiah gives us is of a
world that is free of predation, free of those who kill and devour. The nature of relationship in creation will
change from predation to Peace/Shalom.
The nature of relationship in creation as we know it now due to sin is
predatory. The strong devour the
weak. Poverty, war, climate change are
all the result of the powerful devouring the weak. With this image of a world without predation
Isaiah means to cause us to hopefully imagine that the world that Jesus is
bringing about will be free of of all forms of predation. There will be peace, harmony, Shalom.
Looking at this third image, that of the earth being
full of the knowledge of God as waters covering the sea. Well, the symbol of the “sea” in the world of
apocalyptic/prophetic imagery often means humanity, the chaotic sea of
humanity. Water is the symbol of the source
of life. As God is the source of life, I
think this image is telling us that the personal, life-giving presence of God
is going to be visible among the relationships of humanity – the image of God
which was marred by sin will be restored by God resting his presence upon and
in us.
So then, what Isaiah wants us to imagine is the
coming of the Messiah, full of the Holy Spirit to put things right in God’s
creation and the noticeable difference will be that predation will not be at
the heart of relationship anymore, but rather in its place will be the personal
presence of God. The image of the
Trinity – the loving communion of God the Father Son and Holy Spirit – will
radiate forth from humanity in our relationships with each other and with the
Creation as a whole.
Leaping forward in time a few centuries from Isaiah
to Paul, this hope-filled image of the image of God restored in humanity
undergirds Paul’s understanding of what the church is. To Paul, the Holy Spirit-filled Messiah has
come. Jesus is that shoot rising from
the stump of Jesse. Jesus inaugurated
the Kingdom of God. His death and
resurrection is God’s judgement against humanity that kills wickedness. With the breath of his lips, the Holy Spirit,
God puts wickedness to death and recreates humanity in his image. The Christ-like, Holy Spirit filled
fellowship of Christians is the first fruits of this new predation-free humanity. As far as Paul, the former zealous Pharisee
who hated Gentiles, was concerned the fact that Gentiles and Jews were together
in harmony, like-minded in their devotion to Jesus as Lord, worshipping God the
Father with one voice is evidence that the day Isaiah held forth has begun. The knowledge of God has begun to fill the
earth as the waters cover the sea.
The New Creation, predation-free, Spirit of
God-filled humanity that Isaiah put out there for us to “hopefully imagine” is
embodied in Christian fellowship. The Holy
Spirit filled life of Christ in which predation is disappearing and the loving
communion of God is becoming evident in Christian community. Christian
community, Holy Spirit filled congregations in whom the self-giving,
self-sacrificing love of Jesus Christ is embodied is living, tangible proof that God is
faithful, that God gives strength to endure, and that God will deliver his Creation
from the futility that pervades it.
I hope you are catching a glimpse with your “hopeful
imagination” of what exactly is going on in our midst as a congregation. What Isaiah prophesied with spoken word as
promise, we embody as visible, felt reality in our fellowship also as promise
of what God will ultimately bring about in Christ. Here’s an example. The other day I went to visit
Mac and Edith and Charles and Mary Lou were there. They came to see Mac and Edith because the
love of God abides in them and has made them to be the type of people who will
go and comfort others. The presence of
the Lord was there with us. Christian
acts of support like that are more than just good deeds. They are living signs of the New Creation
coming. Christian acts of support as was
shown that day are the earth becoming full of the knowledge of God as the
waters cover the sea. Through the Christian
love shown by each of you the earth is becoming full of the knowledge of God as
the waters cover the sea. Amen.
