Day 212. Isaiah 48-50

The house of David was deposed and the kingdom of Judah destroyed. The temple of Solomon was a pile of ruins. Isaiah—we call him First Isaiah—had predicted that this must happen, that the a remnant would be carried off into exile in Babylon, but their suffering was not without meaning—their exile would be the preparation for a greater destiny. Now God sends another prophet. He never gives himself a name, but we call him Isaiah of Babylon to help them see the meaning in what has happened to them. "I have refined you," the LORD says through his prophet. "I have tested you in the furnace of adversity" (48:10). Suffering is the necessary catalyst of change.
And now that suffering has done its work, the time of exile is about to come to an end. The wheel of history is turning again, and now a liberator is on the horizon-- Cyrus of Persia. "The LORD loves him" the prophet says. "He shall perform [God's] purpose on Babylon," to conquer the city and set the Jewish exiles free to go back home (48:14). The Persian king represents God, working through history. "I, even I, have spoken and called him, "the LORD says, "I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way" (48:15). He is no less under God's judgment than any other pagan ruler, but he is the one assigned to unlock the door.
Now the prophet's task is to get the people to leave their cage. Some of the people had become comfortable and prosperous in Babylon—we know that. Even those who were chaffed by their imprisonment are wary and uncertain about the long and dangerous trip home to a ruined and ravished land. And to them the prophet says—"Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it. Send it forth to the end of the earth; say "The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!" The journey home will be like the exodus of the ancestors from Egypt. The LORD took care of them—"They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split open the rock and water gushed out." (48:20-21)
And the liberation of his chosen people will be a sign of the power of God to the world. In a second Servant Song (49:1-6) the personified Israel says--"The LORD called me before I was born, while I was in my mother's womb he named me" (49:1). Israel is predestined for a purpose that is beyond itself. God says--"You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified" (49:3). And now Servant Israel has been given a greater task than gathering the scattered tribes of the northern kingdom, the survivors of Assyrian conquest of Israel—and that would be task enough. God will give them "as a light to the nations, [in order that his] salvation may reach to the end of the earth" (49:6). They were a despised people, "abhorred by the nations," who will be glorified because their Redeemer will bring them home" (49:7). Led and guided by their Shepherd, "they shall feed along the ways, on the all the bare heights shall be their pasture;
they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down; for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them" (49:9-10). The Remover of Obstacles "will turn all [his] mountains into a road, and [his] highways shall be raised up" so that they may walk on them in peace (49:11), secure in the knowledge that the LORD can never forsake his people. "Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?" God asks through his prophet. "Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you" (49:15).
Yet Isaiah of Babylon's message of liberation was apparently not universally popular among the exiles. Some resisted the call to return---and we know that many of them remained in Babylon and formed a large Jewish community there. In the face of resistance to his message, the prophet obediently accepts suffering for the sake of the message he brings, and he becomes himself the Suffering Servant. He is "not rebellious," he says. He speaks as he is commanded and accepts the consequences--"I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting" (50:5-6). And here Jesus becomes most like that nameless prophet of Babylon. He too called his people to a freedom they did not desire; he spoke the word of God and accepted the terrible consequences of telling the truth. He too set his face "like flint" (50:7) and obedient to the God he called Father, looked to him for
vindication. As the prophet says—"It is the LORD GOD who helps me; who will declare me guilty?" (50:9)