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Let’s step back in time nearly two and a half
millennia to ancient Israel in the 500’s BC.
In 586 God sent the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem and level the
temple and they took anybody who was anybody away to exile in Babylon. The reason God gave for this through the
voice of prophets was idolatry which included child sacrifice and Israelites
taking advantage of the poor in their midst to their own gain. The Land of Judah, the Land God promised to
Abraham on which his descendants would become a great nation, was then left
undefended and became cheap, quick real estate for foreigners. The great nation was exiled.
Those who went into exile, they had it tough at first
but over time actually faired well and became comfortable. The Babylonian community of Jews remained the
largest community of Jews worldwide up into the 1800’s AD. Significant things happened in the Babylonian
community. Most significantly, in the
400’s BC, the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible as we know it, received its final
edit by a school of the descendants of Jerusalem priests in Babylon. This edit included the addition of most of
the legal stuff you find in the Old Testament.
Like the Amish have their rules to preserve their distinctive identity
so also the Jews in the Babylonian exile wanted to write down and codify
everything about their way of life to keep it distinctive while in Babylon. The roots of Judaism as we know it today
formed in Babylon.
In 539BC King Cyrus of Persia defeated the
Babylonians. His policy was to allow the
peoples that the Babylonians took into exile return to their homelands. Not soon after a trickle of Jews, a small
remnant, began to head back to Judea and to Jerusalem with the hopes of
rebuilding what they had before. Yet,
they returned to find that Jerusalem was still in tatters. The wall still lay torn down. They strongly felt they needed a wall to make
Jerusalem great again for they were outnumbered by the people who had moved in
like squatters on vacant lands and “those people”, those not Jewish people,
weren’t going to leave and strongly resisted any effort by the remnant to
rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. It did
not take long for this faithful remnant of former exiles to become
disillusioned in the realization that their resettlement was going to be difficult.
There are several books in the Bible associated with
this time. Ezra and Nehemiah record the
history. The Prophets Haggai, Zechariah,
Malachi, and whoever wrote the last six chapters of Isaiah speak to this
disillusioned remnant. They hoped they
could just go back and rebuild and things would be like they were before but
without all the bad stuff. Things would
be ideal.
To this disillusioned, doubly heart-broken people who
had been unwelcomed back to their ancestral homes as if they were the squatters
by “those people” who actually had moved in to squat on the land, to these
Isaiah writes: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the
Lord has risen upon you. For darkness
shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the glory of the
Lord will appear over you. Nations shall
come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look around…your sons
and daughters will come from far away…the wealth of the nations shall come to
you…a multitude of camels shall cover you…They shall bring gold and
frankincense”. Like Paul Revere at the
beginning of the American Revolution riding out to proclaim “The British are
coming;” so Isaiah proclaims “The camels are coming.”
This chapter-long exhortation concludes in verses 21
and 22 with God saying, “Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess
the land forever. They are the shoot
that I planted, the work of my hands, so that I might be glorified. The least of them shall become a clan, the
smallest one a mighty nation; I am the Lord; in its time I will accomplish it
quickly.”
“In it’s time,” says the Lord. “In its time.” Step up to the time of the birth of Jesus
nearly 400 years and eight generations later.
It took 200 years for the Jewish people to repopulate the land. Then the Greeks came and then the Romans and they
didn’t bring their wealth. They brought their
armies and oppressed these Jews who were only trying to be faithful. Unfortunately, like people living the “Adult
Lifestyle” today, many Jewish people back then particularly the leadership and
the wealthy began to live “the Greco-Roman Lifestyle”. Yet, there was still a faithful remnant in
the Land waiting for God to do what he said he would do through the mouth of
Isaiah – bring the nations, their kings, and their wealth to Israel to proclaim
the praise of the Lord.
Joseph and Mary were part of this remnant. Jesus was born, the Son of God, the glory of
the Lord, the presence of the Lord had come to dwell among his people. The promised light began to shine. From angels and shepherds, from highest to
lowest, they all began to proclaim the Good News that God was bringing
salvation to his people as this baby. As
Matthew says an unusual light appeared in the skies and following that “sign” came
a caravan of camels carrying three astrologer kings from afar; kings bearing
gifts of gold and frankincense, just as Isaiah said. They came not to oppress the Jews but rather,
just as Isaiah said, “to proclaim the praise of the Lord.”
In a small, insignificant way the camels had indeed come
and thus began God opening the doors of his faithful people up to peoples of
other nations, of other cultures, and races.
This “New Jerusalem”, this “New Zion” didn’t need walls around it for
protection. It was open to everyone. The Baby Jesus grew up lived, and died, and
was raised and lives and reigns and is coming back to fully fulfill Isaiah’s
prophesy. As promised, God pours his
very own Spirit into those who follow Jesus as his disciples and claims us as
his very own children. Instead of a
wall, God sent out apostles and evangelists such as Paul to tell the people of
the nations they were welcome to come and have new life in Jesus, life filled
with God’s own life.
Here is an epiphany for us today. Our lives are now hidden with Christ in God
as Paul says at Colossians 3:3. He says,
“Set your minds on things above, not on things that are on earth, for you have
died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” When terrible things happen and our lives
fall apart, because our lives are hidden with Christ in God, God has a future
for us that is full of his glory, full of his self, a life that we will find in
drawing closer to Jesus who is walking with us always. Our instinct may be to try to recreate our
lives the way they were, but we must resist that and seek the Holy
Spirit-filled life God has for us. “In
its time” we will heal and shine with the light of God’s glory. The same is true for us even when things are
good. When things are good our instinct
is to resist change and try to keep things just as they are. Yet, our lives are still hidden with God in
Christ and in seeking him “in its time” God will bring it about. To put it in the terms of Isaiah, God is
going to cover us with camels. The
camels are coming. Amen.
