This passage has no direct historical referent. Actually it lies in a whole section of Isaiah
that lacks a referent. There is no
specific event in the history of Israel to which Isaiah is referring. Isaiah refers to a city laying in ruins but we
have no idea what city or when. That
being the case, it doesn’t mean there is no history associated with it. It is not a-historical. Rather, it is description of all of history
from the slant of all of humanity’s relationship to God the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. This is Isaiah summing up
what’s going on in all of history.
Moreover, he writes this summation to the people of
Judah/Jerusalem who are on the verge of losing everything. The Assyrians have just conquered the
Northern parts of Israel are were gathering around Jerusalem to conquer
it. Babylon is becoming a world power
and in two generations they will destroy Jerusalem and take the people into
exile. Isaiah has been prophesying that
the snob-noxious, oppressive ways of the wealthy elite will lead to God’s
judgement of his people. This chapter of
Isaiah has some comfort for when it’s all gone.
In verse one Isaiah points us to what our human
purpose is within history. It is to
point to God and stand in awe, give voice to that awe, and know we can trust
God. He says: “Yahweh, you are my God. I
lift you up high. I praise your name.” Actually, the word for praise there isn’t the
usual word for praise. It’s meaning is more like “I publically confess you are
God and I am not.” We make this
confession based on the awe-demanding things that God has done. Not only has the God the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit Big Banged this awesome universe into existence, he gets involved
in each of our insignificant little lives.
He’s got plans for us, plans from long ago, plans that are sure and
certain indeed trustworthy. They will
come about. God is God. We are not.
He does wondrous things so let’s praise him and trust him with our
lives.
In verse two Isaiah tells us that God has turned a
city into a heap of rubble never to be rebuilt.
As I said a moment ago, there is no particular city we can point to so
city must mean something else here. I
suspect it means human efforts to be God.
To the Old Testament prophets the “city” often turns up as an image of
humanity organizing itself to be its own god. The image that comes to mind for
me is the Tower of Babel and what that represented. God turns humanity’s efforts to be its own god
into a heap of ruins, a city never to be rebuilt. Isaiah says that it is the city of the
“estranged one’s”. The NIV says
“foreigners”, but that doesn’t get the sense of the Hebrew word which describes
someone who has turned away or become estranged to the extent of humanity
trying to be its own god. In verse three
Isaiah calls these people strong and ruthless.
A better way to translate here would be terror-striking people. Isaiah says that God will in the end makes
these ruthless, terror-striking people fear or revere him, bring glory to
him. As Paul says at Philippians
2:10-11: “…at the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth
and under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of the Father.”
Coming into verse 4 we have some very beautiful
imagery describing how our God is with his faithful ones as we live in the
midst of those who are terror-striking and estranged. God, his very self, his presence with us, is
a refuge like a shelving rock that you can stand under in the midst of a
torrential downpour or like the shadow of a cloud passing overhead when you’re out
it the middle of a desert. That a cloud
shadow passing over is your only relief from the heat out in the desert truly
points to God being our only source of hope and comfort in this world amidst a
humanity estranged from its God and source of life. Verse five is summary; only God’s presence
with us, in us can silence the war-roaring of life estranged from God.
Verses six through eight are one of the most powerful
images in all of Scripture of what God is up to in history, indeed in each of
our lives. “On this mountain” in one
sense refers to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where in ancient Israel it was
the place where God dwelt but figuratively it means God’s presence. All things necessary for God the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit to deliver humanity from its estrangement from him come forth
from this mountain. On this mountain
where God is, God has made and will one day ultimately make a feast for all
peoples that for us like feasting on the finest of meats and wines, but it is
also of God’s once and for all swallowing up of death.
The mountain is what God has done, is doing, and will
ultimately do for all of his creation in, through and as Jesus Christ, the incarnate
Son of God, our Lord and Saviour. God
the Son as Jesus of Nazareth took upon himself our estranged existence and died
with it and God the Father through the powerful working of the Holy Spirit
raised him from the dead making a new humanity being made new by the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit who awakens faith in us.
God has swallowed up death in victory forever. Resurrection is humanity’s end. God himself does and will wipe our tears
away. We who have stood and continue to
stand faithful in steadfast hope and patient endurance in this world of
estranged humanity that tries to put us to shame for striving to be faithful,
we are being delivered from that death right now because God is not just with
us, he is in us making us to live anew, changing us to be more as he is. I like the way verse eight ends: “Indeed, God
has spoken.” Indeed.
Finally verse nine chimes in with “And it will be
said on that Day, ‘Look! This is our
God.” Our God, God the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. Our God is the only God
through out all of history to really get involved in the details of human life
for the good of humans. He’s been our
refuge, our shelving rock, our cloud shadow in the midst of a humanity that is
estranged from him and is ruthless towards each other. He is so especially to those whom our he
calls his own and has given the faith to patiently endure. Our God is the only God that will do away
with death and make all things new. Our
God has made a feast for all peoples – the feast of his death-swallowing, tear-wiping,
resurrecting, all-things healing very self.
He makes this available to everyone to all who will come and eat.
Friends, that Day is present now. That Day came with Jesus. It’s not here in its completion but Jesus is
fully here through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit who organically
unions us to Jesus so that we share in his relationship with God the Father
now, a relationship that will blossom into the healing of all Creation when this
Day reaches its fullness at Jesus’ return.
We may be a couple of Sunday’s late but today is our kick
at the can of World Communion Sunday; Christians all over the world celebrating
the Lord’s Feast as a sign of unity. Today,
we gather around the banquet table in the midst of a world torn with the
effects of humanity’s estrangement - viruses out of control, terrorism,
poverty, war, economic oppression, abuse, climate changing due to pollution,
the list goes on – we gather in this Day as a global Christian community to say
“This is our God, the God we are waiting for.
He has given himself to make all things new. He is reducing the city of our estrangement
to rubble, swallowing up death along the way, and making all things new.” Today we say to this estranged world, “Come
and feast. Come and rest. God is here, victorious over death, and he
will wipe away your tears.” Amen.
