These are the devotionals that are taken from the book For the Love of God by D.A. Carson. It goes along with the church's bible reading plan
June 2 - Revelation 4
Revelation 4 is to Revelations 5 what a setting is to a drama. Revelation 4 is a description, in apocalyptic symbolism, of the throne room of Almighty God; Revelation 5 plays out a drama in that setting.
John identifies the voice he hears as the voice he first heard speaking to him like a trumpet (Rev. 4:1)—the voice of the exalted Lord Jesus (Rev. 1:10–16). John is called up through an open door into heaven to see the elements of the spectacular vision that unfolds in the ensuing verses. Immediately he is “in the Spirit” (Rev. 4:2)—perhaps some Spirit-imparted trance or vision, or perhaps, like Paul (2 Cor. 12:1–10), John does not really know the nature of his movement. But what he sees is clear enough:
(a) John sees the centrality and ineffable majesty of the Almighty (Rev. 4:2b–3). He does not let his readers forget that above all temporal thrones, some of them responsible for appalling persecution, stands the ultimate throne, the throne of God. He describes the blazing glory of light refracting over precious gems, like the crown jewels in the Tower of London. One cannot come away from this vision and draw God. This dazzling, fiery beauty commands awe but permits no replicas (cf. Ezek. 1:28).
(b) John sees the divine throne enhanced by spectacular heavenly beings (Rev. 4:4). Although it is possible to take the “elders” as representing believers from both old and new covenants, it is better to take them as a high order of angels. They offer the prayers of God’s saints to God (Rev. 5:8), an angelic function (Rev. 8:3). Believers sing a new song that the elders cannot sing (Rev. 14:3). In the visions of Revelation 7:9–11 and 19:1–4 the elders are found in concentric circles between angels and the four living creatures (the highest order of angelic beings). An elder frequently interprets what is going on (e.g., Rev. 5:5)—a common angelic function in apocalyptic literature. Here they enhance the throne and participate in worship.
(c) John sees the holy separateness of the Almighty. That is the point of the three vignettes in Revelation 4:5–6a. The massive storm reminds the reader of Sinai (Ex. 19:16). The sea serves as a symbol for the entire fallen order; that is why in the new heaven and the new earth there is no more sea (Rev. 21:1). John is distanced from the Almighty by these and related phenomena.
(d) John sees the four living creatures, described in terms drawn from Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1 and 10. They are the highest angelic beings, orchestrating the praise of the Almighty and reflecting his transcendent administration (Rev. 4:6b–11). God alone is to be worshiped, for he alone is the Creator (Rev. 4:11), and all other authority derives from his (Rev. 4:10).
June 3 - Revelation 5
The setting of Revelation 4 gives way to the drama of Revelation 5. In the right hand, the hand of power, “of him who sat on the throne”—the transcendent, awesome God described in chapter 4—there is “a scroll with writing on both sides.” This scroll contains all of God’s purposes for justice, judgment, and blessing. Most people wrote on only one side of a scroll, the side with the horizontal strips of papyrus. Those who wrote on both sides were perhaps too poor to afford another blank scroll—or, as in this case, they had a great deal to say and wanted it to remain within the confines of one scroll. So this scroll in the hand of the Almighty embraces the fullness of God’s purposes for judgment and blessing—that is why it has writing on both sides. Yet the scroll is sealed: this means that the purposes of God recorded in this scroll will not be enacted until the seals are broken.
The angel’s dramatic question (Rev. 5:2) is fundamental to all religion: Who is the agent who has attributes so rich, life so pure, capacities so unexcelled, as to be able to approach this God—the God before whom even the highest order of angels hide their faces—and to take the scroll from his right hand and bring to fruition all of God’s purposes? When no one is found who is worthy, John weeps and weeps (Rev. 5:3–4). His tears stem not from frustration at being unable to see into the future, but from his awareness that, in the symbolism of this vision, God’s purposes will never be carried out. There will be no justice in the universe, and no salvation. This is the despair of concluding that history is meaningless, that God is dead.
But an interpreting elder consoles John (Rev. 5:5). The Lion of the tribe of Judah has “prevailed” (Rev. 5:5, KJV) to open the scroll: the verb suggests a horrendous struggle, but the Lion has won. This Lion is the king of the Davidic line. So John looks up and sees—a Lamb. The Lion is announced, and what John sees is a Lamb. This is not a separate animal. Apocalyptic literature delights in mixed metaphors. Here the Lion is the Lamb—at that, a slaughtered, sacrificial lamb, yet one with a perfection of kingly power (the seven horns). Here is the Messiah, the utmost in self-giving, the utmost in power, emerging from the very center of the throne. He alone brings to pass all of God’s purposes. Small wonder that the entire universe explodes with a new song, the song of redemption (Rev. 5:9–14). The triumph of the Lord God and of the Lamb is what stands behind the transformation of Isaiah 35.
June 4 - Isaiah 36
Isaiah 36–39 is less a historical excursus than the hinge on which the book turns. To change the metaphor, these chapters constitute the bond that holds together the two large parts on either side. Not only do they provide the historical setting of much of the book (especially of many of the first thirty-five chapters), they put in historical form the fundamental question the book addresses: whom shall we trust? Or, in the pagan outlook of Sennacherib’s field commander, “On whom are you depending?” (Isa. 36:5). Isaiah 36 begins the drama.
King Hezekiah had led the nation in anti-Assyrian rebellion and then looked to Egypt for help. Sennacherib of Assyria was not in a forgiving mood. Proud of his unbroken string of successes (Isa. 36:18–20), Sennacherib determined to crush Jerusalem and teach an unforgettable lesson. He captured town after town in Judah, until only two were left, Lachish and Jerusalem. Here we find Sennacherib’s field commander trying to undermine the remaining forces, speaking in the Hebrew the people of Jerusalem would understand instead of in his own Aramaic (Isa. 36:11–12).
Perhaps what we should observe most closely from this chapter is the example of Satanic half-truths, the methods of sowing doubt, the arguments calculated to diminish faith in the living God. Know your enemy, not least his lies, and he is diminished and less credible. So here are his weapons:
Much of the speech is raw taunt. By this point, Judah was so desperately short of warriors that even if Sennacherib had provided the horses, Hezekiah could not have provided the men (Isa. 36:8). The field commander insists he is here at the Lord’s command (Isa. 36:10)—which was of course partially true and even resonated with Isaiah’s own teaching (Isa. 10:5). Yet it was totally false in any sense that presupposed Assyria was the Lord’s obedient servant as opposed to an instrument used in the mystery of providence. A conscious attempt to undermine the confidence of the people in Hezekiah (Isa. 36:13–15) is finally met only by silence (Isa. 36:21), but the psychological damage must have been considerable. Even the threat of deportation to a strange land is made to sound like a jolly good move to a better location (Isa. 36:16–17)—a bit like making sin delightful and hiding the shame, loneliness, and death. Of course, if Yahweh can be reduced to the status of pagan deities, it will be easier to dismiss him (Isa. 36:18–19). And if the field commander misunderstands the significance of Hezekiah’s destruction of pagan shrines (Isa. 36:7), nevertheless he is probably right in sensing the disaffection of many of the people.
What similar lies and half-truths do powerful voices in our society endlessly repeat so as to demoralize the people of God?
June 5 - Isaiah 37
Hezekiah is beside himself (Isa. 37). He has disobeyed the Lord and defied Assyria. Mercifully, at this juncture he does the right thing: in desperation he turns to the Lord in importunate and passionate prayer, and to the Lord’s prophet Isaiah for intercession and guidance (Isa. 37:1–4). Isaiah promptly reports a visionary word from the Lord (Isa. 37:5–7). God sees the stance of Sennacherib as profoundly blasphemous: he has treated the living God as if he were some local pagan deity. God promises that Sennacherib will hear a report that will make him withdraw, and in due course he will be cut down in his own country.
The sequence of events is at this point unclear: we do not have enough information. The next verses suggest that Lachish has proved more difficult to conquer than Sennacherib had anticipated (though he ultimately seizes it), and that he has moved to Libnah. While he is there he hears a report that Egypt (the Cushites, Isa. 37:9) is moving against him, and he warns Hezekiah not to think that this will be more than a temporary reprieve. Since Sennacherib shortly resumes his siege of Jerusalem (Isa. 37:33ff.), perhaps Egypt sent no more than harrying contingents.
In any case, the bleak prospects for Jerusalem drive Hezekiah to prayer (Isa. 37:14–20), the high water mark of this king’s life. Hezekiah does not address God as if he were just a tribal deity. God is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sovereign Creator who alone is “God over all the kingdoms of the earth,” and the Almighty God of Israel who is “enthroned between the cherubim” in the Most Holy Place, the God of the covenant (Isa. 37:16). At the end of his resources, Hezekiah casts himself upon God’s mercy, not only so that the tiny nation might be spared, but “so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God” (Isa. 37:20).
God answers Hezekiah’s prayer. Through the prophet Isaiah, God pronounces an oracle of judgment against Sennacherib (Isa. 37:22–29), provides a reassuring sign for Hezekiah (Isa. 37:30–32), and stipulates that Sennacherib will not be permitted to take Jerusalem (Isa. 37:33–35). God will defend Jerusalem, not for Hezekiah’s sake, but for his own sake and for the sake of his servant David. Hezekiah prays, and God answers, but he is saved, not for his own sake, but for the sake of another.
The result is briefly told (Isa. 37:36–38). The slaughter of the soldiers may have been the result of God-ordained bubonic plague; other similar catastrophes are known from ancient sources. And twenty years later, Sennacherib’s sons did cut him down in his own temple, while the temple of the Lord remained inviolate.
June 6 - Revelation 8
One of the most striking of the symbol-laden images in the book of Revelation is found in Revelation 8:3–5.
It has various roots. One goes back to passages like Psalm 141:2: “May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.” David wants his prayers to be as pleasant to God, as acceptable to God, as the incense burned before him in the tabernacle, as the sacrifices offered to him in front of the tabernacle at the close of the day. The incense altar was ordained by the Mosaic covenant (Ex. 30:1–10). This particular kind of altar and sacrifice would have associations in the ancient world that are foreign to us. In a world before Right Guard, better homes might well burn a little incense to mask the inevitable odors, and that association would accompany the burning of incense in the tabernacle and later in the temple. Certainly this God-ordained rite was still functioning in Jesus’ day (Luke 1:8–9).
The association between prayers and incense has already been used by John in Revelation 5:8. When the Lion/Lamb, the Lord Jesus, takes the scroll from the right hand of him who sits on the throne and prepares to open the seals, the angels surrounding the throne “fell down before the Lamb.” They “were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” The point of the vision is not that incense candles are a good thing in cathedrals (that would confuse symbol and reality), but something more profound. If no one were found to bring about God’s purposes for justice and blessing, then all the prayers of God’s people are futile. Now that the Lion/Lamb has prevailed, the prayers (symbolized by the incense because of the Old Testament simile) are wafted into the presence of God. The prayers of God’s people will be heard and answered, because God’s purposes for blessing and judgment are now certain to be carried out.
Here in Revelation 8:3–5, “the prayers of all the saints” are burned on the incense altar before God. “Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake” (Rev. 8:5)—all signs, in the context, of the terrifying presence and judgment of God. God’s judgment responds to the prayers of his people.
Why should this be thought strange? The souls of martyrs call for justice (Rev. 6:10). The entire church cries, “Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20), knowing that this will bring down final justice. Followers of Jesus pray, “Your kingdom come”—not a sentimental notion in the context of a broken, rebellious world.
June 7 - Isaiah 39
In volume 1 (meditation for November 7) I commented on the near-fatal illness of King Hezekiah, and on his recovery and subsequent folly with the Babylonian emissaries (an account similar to Isa. 39–40 is found in 2 Kings 20). Death is not the thing most to be feared. Had Hezekiah died from his illness, instead of living for fifteen additional years, he would not have succumbed to some of his worst sins of pride and callousness (Isa. 39:5–8). But here I shall focus on something more prosaic: the chronology of the events. For there are lessons to be learned.
There is considerable dispute over the dating of Hezekiah’s reign. What is reasonably clear is that Sennacherib’s invasion (Isa. 36:1) occurred in 701 B.C. This was in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, which means he came to the throne in 715 (701 + 14). But 2 Kings 18:1 insists that Hezekiah’s accession took place in the third year of King Hoshea of Israel (the northern kingdom), i.e., approximately 727. Probably Hezekiah was co-regent with his father Ahaz from 727 to 715, when Ahaz died, and thereafter ruled alone. (Co-regencies were common among the kings of Judah and Israel.) So the invasion of 701 occurred in either the fourteenth or the twenty-sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign, depending on whether or not one includes the co-regency years. But 2 Kings 18:1 also specifies that Hezekiah reigned for twenty-nine years from the onset of his co-regency, which places his death in 698. If his illness occurred fifteen years earlier (Isa. 38:5), it happened in 713. The visit of Babylon’s emissaries was apparently shortly after this, in 712 or 711—more than a decade before the Assyrian invasion under Sennacherib. The phrase “In those days” (Isa. 38:1) must then be a general reference to the time of Hezekiah’s life and reign rather than something more specific.
What this means is that we should not interpret the events of Isaiah 38–39 as taking place after Sennacherib’s invasion, as if this is a relapse following the heroic and faithful intercession and obedience described in chapters 36–37. The situation is more complex. Following fruitful years of administration (2 Kings 18), Hezekiah falls ill and is miraculously restored. His boasting to Babylon’s emissaries follows (Isa. 39), and may well have been part of Hezekiah’s plan to rebel against Assyria. Hezekiah only learns to trust the Lord a decade later, when Assyria almost crushes him. He dies three years after that invasion. If this chronology is correct, Hezekiah’s extraordinarily selfish and calloused stance in Isaiah 39:8 accurately reflects his ambivalence toward God and toward God’s prophet—until driven by desperation.
When and how do we learn to trust the Lord?
June 8 - Isaiah 40
Three observations to prepare the way: (a) If Isaiah was about thirty when he was called to be a prophet in the year that King Uzziah died (Isa. 6:1), then he was sixty-nine at the time of the Assyrian invasion in 701 and seventy-two in 698 when Hezekiah died. Tradition outside the Bible says that he lived a little longer, into the reign of the wicked King Manasseh, who resolved to kill him. Fleeing Manasseh, the elderly Isaiah hid in a hollow tree in the forest, only to be found by Manasseh’s men, who cut down the tree with a saw, Isaiah still inside. There may be an echo of this in Hebrews 11:36–37. (b) On this chronology, Isaiah had foreseen the Babylonian invasion as early as 712 B.C. (Isa. 39:5–7). Nevertheless the Assyrian invasion of 701 doubtless captured most of his attention until it was behind him. Judging by what appears in these next chapters, Isaiah then spent the few remaining years of his life in a ministry of comfort designed to help the faithful remnant in the still darker days that were ahead. Perhaps this ministry was public and oral for the remaining three years of King Hezekiah’s life. Under the brutally repressive regime of Manasseh, however, Isaiah’s ministry was more likely to the smaller circle of his disciples (Isa. 8:16–17) and in the written page that they would preserve until a new generation was again ready to listen to the words of God conveyed through him. (c) Thematically, this next section embraces chapters 40–55, which are full of comfort grounded in the astounding greatness of God and in the immeasurable atonement for sin that he provides.
The comfort provided in the opening overture (Isa. 40:1–11) has at least five elements. (a) These are still God’s people, “my people” (Isa. 40:1). Despite the devastating prediction in the preceding verses of Jerusalem’s destruction and the transportation of its people, God will comfort Jerusalem again (Isa. 40:2—clearly parallel with “my people”). (b) Their sins have been forgiven. Since it was their sins that attracted judgment, this is marvelous news. “Your sin has been paid for! Your hard service has been completed!” How this was accomplished is not fully unveiled until chapter 53, but the overture anticipates the symphonic splendor. (c) In consequence of their forgiveness, God himself will bring home the exiles, smoothing their way (Isa. 40:3–4), gathering his flock like a shepherd (Isa. 40:11), thereby disclosing his glory to the entire human race (Isa. 40:5); the missionary theme recurs. (d) However fickle people may be, God’s word is utterly reliable (Isa. 40:6–8). (e) The good news shouted from Zion/Jerusalem is “Here is your God”—for “the Sovereign LORD comes with power” (Isa. 40:9, 10). Small wonder, then, that the remaining verses of the chapter dwell on the sheer majesty of God.
June 9 - Isaiah 41
The theological power of Isaiah 41 becomes clearer if we grasp something of the underlying history.
In line with the prediction of Isaiah 39:6–7, Jerusalem was finally destroyed in 587 B.C., her temple razed and her people killed or transported. This was the most shattering event Israel faced in Old Testament times. But far from thinking that this proved that God was losing control, Isaiah not only foresaw the event but insisted that it was God’s doing. Now he addresses those who would suffer Babylonian aggression and who would wonder if there was any hope for them at all. Isaiah has already reminded them that as far as God is concerned the nations are no more significant than a drop in the bucket or dust on the scales (Isa. 40:15–17). Now he predicts that God himself will end the aggression of the Babylonian Empire. He will raise up the Persian king Cyrus (Isa. 41:2–4, 25–27; Cyrus is actually named in Isa. 44:28; 45:1).
Cyrus, king of the Persian city of Anshan, ascended to power in 559, when Persia was still subject to Media. Ten years later he killed the Median king Astyges and founded the Persian Empire. In less than a decade, he subdued territory to the west as far as modern Turkey (conquering the legendary King Croesus on the way), and to the east as far as northwest India. Babylon fell in 539. Cyrus reversed the policy of previous empires. Far from transporting subdued peoples, he encouraged exiles to go home—including Israel (Ezra 1:2–4; see meditation for January 1).
Isaiah 41, then, makes two important points. First, God alone is the One who summons nations before him, controlling their destinies, calling on them to accomplish his will—and this includes Cyrus, whom God has “stirred up” for the tasks allotted him. Where is the evidence of this bold claim? It is found in the fact that God predicts the entire sequence of developments a century and a half in advance (Isa. 41:21–29). This is something the pagan idols could not possibly do. “See, they are all false! Their deeds amount to nothing; their images are but wind and confusion” (Isa. 41:29). Such predictions are the exclusive domain of “Jacob’s King” (Isa. 41:21), for he alone writes history in advance. Second, Israel must understand that they are collectively God’s servant (Isa. 41:8–20), the descendants of Jacob and of Abraham before him, themselves the servants of God. None of this means that they are intrinsically great: God addresses them as “O worm Jacob, O little Israel” (Isa. 41:14). But they do have a great God, their Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel (Isa. 41:14). They may abandon fear (Isa. 41:10) and rejoice in him (Isa. 41:16).
June 10 - Isaiah 42
Isaiah himself is God’s servant (Isa. 20:3), and so is Hezekiah’s chief steward Eliakim (Isa. 22:20). Israel collectively is God’s servant (Isa. 41:8–20). Who is the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 42:1–9?
Some argue that it is still Israel. In that case, God’s words, “Here is my servant” (Isa. 42:1) are uttered before the nations, a kind of defense of his people before the mighty powers that are nothing to him. But this reading of Isaiah 42 is unlikely. “Here is my servant” sounds like the introduction of a new figure. More importantly, God’s servant Israel was described in the preceding chapters as complaining (Isa. 40:27), fearful, and dismayed (Isa. 41:10). By the end of this chapter, God’s servant Israel is deaf, blind (Isa. 42:18–19), and sinful (Isa. 42:23–24). By contrast, the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 42:1–9 neither falters nor is discouraged (Isa. 42:4), delights in God (Isa. 42:1), is gentle, persevering, and brings forth justice in faithfulness (Isa. 42:3). This is an ideal Servant, one who embodies all that Israel failed to be. In this light, the announcement “Here is my servant” is made to Israel. The Servant is introduced to them not only because he is an ideal to which they should aspire, but because he is an individual who will rescue them, as Isaiah will make clear.
This servant song is divided into three parts. (a) In Isaiah 42:1–4 God addresses Israel and introduces the Servant, who will bring “justice” to the nations. The Hebrew term includes more than the English word. It embraces putting into effect all of God’s purposes. But when the Servant does this, he is quite unlike Cyrus or some other imperial leader. He is gentle: he does not shout or cry out or raise his voice in the streets (Isa. 42:2). He neither breaks the bruised reed nor snuffs the smoldering wick (Isa. 42:3)—a passage explicitly applied to Jesus in Matthew 12:15–21. (b) In Isaiah 42:5–7, the Servant himself is addressed (note v. 6: “I the LORD, have called you [sing.] in righteousness”), and Israel is allowed to overhear what is said. Here the God who gives breath to all people (Isa. 42:5) now makes this Servant “to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles” (Isa. 42:6), undoing all the degrading effects of sin (Isa. 42:7). (c) In Isaiah 42:8–9, the Lord again addresses Israel, once again summarizing the mission of the ideal Servant and insisting that these are “new things” graciously announced in advance.
Small wonder that this song issues in profound praise to the Lord (Isa. 42:10–17), and contrasts once again the depth of the moral culpability of God’s servant Israel (Isa. 42:18–25) which only the ideal Servant can resolve.
June 11 - Isaiah 43
Although God has an ideal Servant who will be his perfect agent to bring to pass all his purposes (Isa. 42:1–9), Israel is also God’s servant. In Isaiah 43 and on into chapter 44, Isaiah encourages Israel, God’s servant (Isa. 43:10; 44:1). Here I shall pick up on elements of this encouragement and then draw attention to an important clause picked up by the Lord Jesus in the New Testament.
In the first section (Isa. 43:1–7), God tells Israel not to be afraid (Isa. 43:1)—not because she will not go into exile, but because when she passes through the waters God will be with her, and when she passes through the fire the flames will not utterly destroy her (Isa. 43:2). Moreover, she will not face extinction or assimilation: God himself will gather her children from the four points of the compass (Isa. 43:5–6). Despite the most appalling circumstances, the living God declares Israel to be precious and honored in his sight, and much loved (Isa. 43:4). Paul reasons analogously with respect to Christians in Romans 8:31–39.
More briefly: (a) Israel should be encouraged because her return after exile will bear witness to God and testify that it was God alone who knew of these stupendous events and brought them to pass (Isa. 43:8–13). (b) Babylon will be destroyed. The nation of conquerors will become a tumult of fugitives (Isa. 43:14–15). (c) Israel is used to reflecting on God’s mighty deeds to redeem his people at the time of the Exodus (Isa. 43:16–17), but now God will do a new thing (Isa. 43:18–21). So do not dissolve into the past and whine your way to defeat. Be courageous, for God is about to do a new thing, to effect a new cycle of spectacular delivery. (d) Above all, the Israelites’ massively compromised worship and multiplied offenses (Isa. 43:22–24) are not the last word. The first line of Isaiah 43:22 in Hebrew might better be rendered: “It was not me you called upon, O Jacob”—for the Israelite worship was so corrupt, such a distortion of the covenant, that the true God was not really being worshiped at all. But God himself is the One who blots out their transgressions for his own sake (Isa. 43:25)—a further anticipation of Isaiah 53.
God wants his servant Israel to understand “that I am he” (Isa. 43:10; cf. Isa. 41:4; 48:12). The Hebrew conjures up associations with Exodus 3:14; the Greek rendering of this phrase is precisely the expression that Jesus repeatedly applies to himself in John 8 (e.g., John 8:58, “I am”). How then does Isaiah 43 shape how we must think of Jesus?
June 12 - Isaiah 44
We have already learned that God told Israel, “You are my witnesses” (Isa. 43:10, 12). For the Israelites were to testify that God and God alone had predicted all these things, and had thus given evidence that he had done them, since he alone is the sovereign God. In Isaiah 44:6–23, these themes are summarized (Isa. 44:6–8). Yahweh alone is “Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty” (Isa. 44:6). God says, “I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God” (Isa. 44:6). As for his people: “Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one” (Isa. 44:8). But if God alone is God, all pretenders are idols. So the summary of this theme introduces one of the most damning indictments of idolatry in the Bible.
From God’s perspective, idolatry is always repulsive. In one sense, it is the fundamental sin, for it dethrones God and replaces him with something or someone else. That is why greed is idolatrous (Col. 3:5): we pursue what we covet, and what we pursue most ardently becomes our god. The historical context of this denunciation is critical, for idolatry was practiced not only by all the little nations around Israel, but also by the regional powers and by the succession of superpowers. Inevitably, Egyptians and Assyrians and Babylonians all credited their success to the power of their own deities. Yet here is the God of little Israel—crushed, defeated, exiled, pathetic little Israel—claiming to be the only God, the sovereign Lord, the mighty Creator and providential Ruler over all the kingdoms of the earth. And he is expecting his covenant people to bear witness to this truth instead of succumbing to the idolatry around them which, sadly, they find perennially attractive.
The question of power God will handle on the long haul. Here, the focus is on making idolatry absurd and thereby destroying its plausibility (Isa. 44:9–20). What initially seems attractive is shown to be ridiculous. The idolatry that is profoundly offensive to God is also profoundly stupid.
The solution is twofold. (a) Israel is called to remember what God has said, what God has done (Isa. 44:21), not least the fact that God has constituted Israel and made Israel his privileged servant. (b) Israel is called to return to God, for he has redeemed them (Isa. 44:22). These must be the constant priorities of God’s people: remember all that God is, all that he has said and done; and when we stray, return to him immediately and promptly (1 John 1:7–9).
June 13 - Isaiah 45
The riches of Isaiah 45 cannot be summarized in brief compass. It ends with a stunning missionary passage (Isa. 45:14–25), with echoes reverberating into the New Testament (e.g., Isa. 45:23; cf. Phil. 2:10–11). It begins in the closing verses of chapter 44 and the opening lines of chapter 45, where the Persian king Cyrus is introduced by name. Here God calls him “my shepherd” (Isa. 44:28), and Isaiah labels him the Lord’s “anointed” (i.e., “messiah,” a title usually restricted in the Old Testament to Saul or to one of the Davidic kings).
This is not the only place in the Old Testament where God identifies someone by name long before that person is born (cf. 1 Kings 13:1–3). What is striking is that, after the blistering denunciation of idolatry in Isaiah 44 (see meditation for June 12), God should refer to a pagan idolater as his anointed. Yet the point is important. God denounces idolatry, but his providential rule may use an idolater, or anyone else, for his own good purposes. It is always wrong to argue from providence to ethics, or to establish who is “right” by who wins in a particular context, or to doubt that God may sovereignly use an evil person to accomplish a great good without thereby exonerating or justifying all the evil in his or her life.
Transparently, Israel herself found this word of God hard to accept. One can imagine the exiles torn by doubt and troubled by fear. If God calls the pagan Cyrus his “messiah,” does that mean he has rejected the Davidic dynasty? Can the prophet’s word be accepted when it says such daft things? Anticipating the skepticism, God responds with a robust defense of his sovereignty and righteousness (Isa. 45:8–13). “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker” (Isa. 45:9). The people who had so persistently defied God that they landed in exile now wish to defy his chosen means of getting them home. But they have no more right to question God’s ways than clay has to question the potter, or a newborn has to question his or her parents (Isa. 45:9–10). “This is what the LORD says—the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: ‘Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?’ ” (Isa. 45:11). God is the sovereign Creator, and in the perfection of his righteousness he will raise up Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem (Isa. 45:13—itself evidence that the Davidic line was not being supplanted) and set his exiles free. All this comes as a step to the glorious invitation: “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other” (Isa. 45:22). Reflect on Revelation 15:3–4.
June 14 - Isaiah 46
There are three sections to Isaiah 46, and each advances a distinct argument that implicitly or explicitly calls Israel to faithfulness toward the living God.
(1) In the first two verses, Isaiah mocks Babylonian gods. “Bel” means “lord” and is equivalent to Baal as a title. It was applied to Marduk, the chief god of the city of Babylon. “Nebo” was the son of Bel-Marduk. He was the patron of writing and wisdom. At the New Year festival, Bel-Marduk and Nebo were carried through the streets in a great procession to the Esagila shrine. It was the greatest religious event of the year. But Isaiah foresees a time when Bel-Marduk and Nebo bow and stoop, and the exhausted beasts of burden that have to carry them fall and stagger off into captivity (Isa. 46:1–2). This was not literally fulfilled when the Persians took over in the sixth century, for Cyrus preserved and even enhanced the status of the Babylonian gods. On the long haul, of course, Bel-Marduk and Nebo slipped into oblivion. No one worships them today. But millions of men and women still worship the God of Israel.
(2) In the next section (Isa. 46:3–7), God continues his denunciation of idolatry. Now there is a slightly novel development. God says, in effect, that idolaters have to carry their gods, and even their beasts of burden get tired; but with the true God, it is the other way around: he carries his people. It is hard not to perceive a contrast between two religions. In the one, the people do all the heavy lifting; in the other, God does it, and his people are carried by him.
(3) In the last section (Isa. 46:8–13), God rebukes his covenant people in blunt, not to say brutal, terms. They are rebels, and they have forgotten all of God’s gracious and powerful ways with them when the nation was born at the time of the Exodus. There are important things for the believer to remember (Isa. 46:8–9). Probably part of their hang-up is still Cyrus. They still find it difficult to imagine that God will use a pagan king like that, rather than simply destroy him. But God insists he will summon from the east “a bird of prey” (Isa. 46:11)—almost certainly a reference to Cyrus. Whatever his purpose and plan, he will be sure to bring it to pass. The implication, of course, is that God is both sovereign and good—so stop trying to second-guess him, and trust him. “Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness. I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed” (Isa. 46:12–13).
June 15 - Isaiah 47
At one level, Isaiah 47 is pretty straightforward; at another, it is subtly symbol-laden and prepares the way for the development of some biblical symbolism in the New Testament.
At the obvious level, this chapter depicts the fall of Babylon that the accession of Cyrus will bring about. Babylon is a pathetically proud and arrogant city. She is the “queen of kingdoms” (Isa. 47:5); she thinks she will last forever (Isa. 47:7)—not unlike Hitler’s thousand-year Reich. She is so confident of her own security she cannot envisage becoming a widow or losing her children (Isa. 47:8). Proud of her wisdom and knowledge (Isa. 47:10) and her devotion to astrology, she thinks she can control her future (Isa. 47:12–13). Her self-deification is frankly repulsive: the repeated “I am, and there is none besides me” (Isa. 47:8, 10) is a direct challenge to God’s identical claim (Isa. 45:5). But God has had enough. The “queen of kingdoms” will sit in the dust (Isa. 47:1); she will become a slave (Isa. 47:1–3). This “mother” will suddenly be widowed and bereaved (Isa. 47:8–9). Astrology will prove futile to save her (Isa. 47:12–13), and sorcerers and magicians will be of no avail (Isa. 47:12). God himself is out to destroy Babylon.
But this text hints at another level. Chapters 47 and 48 are tied together, constituting one large unit. Isaiah 47 condemns Babylon for its defiant arrogance and promises her doom; Isaiah 48 is addressed to the captives, who (as we shall see in tomorrow’s meditation) are rousingly told to leave Babylon and return to Jerusalem. Empirically they live in one city, Babylon; theologically, they belong to another city, Jerusalem. At the level of brute history, of course, the captives could not return to Jerusalem at this stage. They could do so only after Cyrus came to power and granted permission to return. But theologically, the exiles must see themselves as belonging to Jerusalem and not to Babylon. Thus just as “Jerusalem” sometimes refers to the ancient city by that name, and sometimes, as we have seen, anticipates the new, eschatological Jerusalem, so also “Babylon” not only may refer to the ancient city that reached the pinnacle of its splendor about the sixth century B.C., but becomes a symbol—a symbol that anticipates every proud city or culture that imagines it will live forever and arrogantly measures all things by the standards of its own sins and presuppositions. Historic Babylon becomes the symbol of many Babylons.
John understands these things. That is why in Revelation 17 he describes Rome as “Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and of the Abominations of the Earth” (Rev. 17:5), a woman drunk with the blood of the saints. What Babylons have arisen since then?
June 2 - Revelation 4
Revelation 4 is to Revelations 5 what a setting is to a drama. Revelation 4 is a description, in apocalyptic symbolism, of the throne room of Almighty God; Revelation 5 plays out a drama in that setting.
John identifies the voice he hears as the voice he first heard speaking to him like a trumpet (Rev. 4:1)—the voice of the exalted Lord Jesus (Rev. 1:10–16). John is called up through an open door into heaven to see the elements of the spectacular vision that unfolds in the ensuing verses. Immediately he is “in the Spirit” (Rev. 4:2)—perhaps some Spirit-imparted trance or vision, or perhaps, like Paul (2 Cor. 12:1–10), John does not really know the nature of his movement. But what he sees is clear enough:
(a) John sees the centrality and ineffable majesty of the Almighty (Rev. 4:2b–3). He does not let his readers forget that above all temporal thrones, some of them responsible for appalling persecution, stands the ultimate throne, the throne of God. He describes the blazing glory of light refracting over precious gems, like the crown jewels in the Tower of London. One cannot come away from this vision and draw God. This dazzling, fiery beauty commands awe but permits no replicas (cf. Ezek. 1:28).
(b) John sees the divine throne enhanced by spectacular heavenly beings (Rev. 4:4). Although it is possible to take the “elders” as representing believers from both old and new covenants, it is better to take them as a high order of angels. They offer the prayers of God’s saints to God (Rev. 5:8), an angelic function (Rev. 8:3). Believers sing a new song that the elders cannot sing (Rev. 14:3). In the visions of Revelation 7:9–11 and 19:1–4 the elders are found in concentric circles between angels and the four living creatures (the highest order of angelic beings). An elder frequently interprets what is going on (e.g., Rev. 5:5)—a common angelic function in apocalyptic literature. Here they enhance the throne and participate in worship.
(c) John sees the holy separateness of the Almighty. That is the point of the three vignettes in Revelation 4:5–6a. The massive storm reminds the reader of Sinai (Ex. 19:16). The sea serves as a symbol for the entire fallen order; that is why in the new heaven and the new earth there is no more sea (Rev. 21:1). John is distanced from the Almighty by these and related phenomena.
(d) John sees the four living creatures, described in terms drawn from Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1 and 10. They are the highest angelic beings, orchestrating the praise of the Almighty and reflecting his transcendent administration (Rev. 4:6b–11). God alone is to be worshiped, for he alone is the Creator (Rev. 4:11), and all other authority derives from his (Rev. 4:10).
June 3 - Revelation 5
The setting of Revelation 4 gives way to the drama of Revelation 5. In the right hand, the hand of power, “of him who sat on the throne”—the transcendent, awesome God described in chapter 4—there is “a scroll with writing on both sides.” This scroll contains all of God’s purposes for justice, judgment, and blessing. Most people wrote on only one side of a scroll, the side with the horizontal strips of papyrus. Those who wrote on both sides were perhaps too poor to afford another blank scroll—or, as in this case, they had a great deal to say and wanted it to remain within the confines of one scroll. So this scroll in the hand of the Almighty embraces the fullness of God’s purposes for judgment and blessing—that is why it has writing on both sides. Yet the scroll is sealed: this means that the purposes of God recorded in this scroll will not be enacted until the seals are broken.
The angel’s dramatic question (Rev. 5:2) is fundamental to all religion: Who is the agent who has attributes so rich, life so pure, capacities so unexcelled, as to be able to approach this God—the God before whom even the highest order of angels hide their faces—and to take the scroll from his right hand and bring to fruition all of God’s purposes? When no one is found who is worthy, John weeps and weeps (Rev. 5:3–4). His tears stem not from frustration at being unable to see into the future, but from his awareness that, in the symbolism of this vision, God’s purposes will never be carried out. There will be no justice in the universe, and no salvation. This is the despair of concluding that history is meaningless, that God is dead.
But an interpreting elder consoles John (Rev. 5:5). The Lion of the tribe of Judah has “prevailed” (Rev. 5:5, KJV) to open the scroll: the verb suggests a horrendous struggle, but the Lion has won. This Lion is the king of the Davidic line. So John looks up and sees—a Lamb. The Lion is announced, and what John sees is a Lamb. This is not a separate animal. Apocalyptic literature delights in mixed metaphors. Here the Lion is the Lamb—at that, a slaughtered, sacrificial lamb, yet one with a perfection of kingly power (the seven horns). Here is the Messiah, the utmost in self-giving, the utmost in power, emerging from the very center of the throne. He alone brings to pass all of God’s purposes. Small wonder that the entire universe explodes with a new song, the song of redemption (Rev. 5:9–14). The triumph of the Lord God and of the Lamb is what stands behind the transformation of Isaiah 35.
June 4 - Isaiah 36
Isaiah 36–39 is less a historical excursus than the hinge on which the book turns. To change the metaphor, these chapters constitute the bond that holds together the two large parts on either side. Not only do they provide the historical setting of much of the book (especially of many of the first thirty-five chapters), they put in historical form the fundamental question the book addresses: whom shall we trust? Or, in the pagan outlook of Sennacherib’s field commander, “On whom are you depending?” (Isa. 36:5). Isaiah 36 begins the drama.
King Hezekiah had led the nation in anti-Assyrian rebellion and then looked to Egypt for help. Sennacherib of Assyria was not in a forgiving mood. Proud of his unbroken string of successes (Isa. 36:18–20), Sennacherib determined to crush Jerusalem and teach an unforgettable lesson. He captured town after town in Judah, until only two were left, Lachish and Jerusalem. Here we find Sennacherib’s field commander trying to undermine the remaining forces, speaking in the Hebrew the people of Jerusalem would understand instead of in his own Aramaic (Isa. 36:11–12).
Perhaps what we should observe most closely from this chapter is the example of Satanic half-truths, the methods of sowing doubt, the arguments calculated to diminish faith in the living God. Know your enemy, not least his lies, and he is diminished and less credible. So here are his weapons:
Much of the speech is raw taunt. By this point, Judah was so desperately short of warriors that even if Sennacherib had provided the horses, Hezekiah could not have provided the men (Isa. 36:8). The field commander insists he is here at the Lord’s command (Isa. 36:10)—which was of course partially true and even resonated with Isaiah’s own teaching (Isa. 10:5). Yet it was totally false in any sense that presupposed Assyria was the Lord’s obedient servant as opposed to an instrument used in the mystery of providence. A conscious attempt to undermine the confidence of the people in Hezekiah (Isa. 36:13–15) is finally met only by silence (Isa. 36:21), but the psychological damage must have been considerable. Even the threat of deportation to a strange land is made to sound like a jolly good move to a better location (Isa. 36:16–17)—a bit like making sin delightful and hiding the shame, loneliness, and death. Of course, if Yahweh can be reduced to the status of pagan deities, it will be easier to dismiss him (Isa. 36:18–19). And if the field commander misunderstands the significance of Hezekiah’s destruction of pagan shrines (Isa. 36:7), nevertheless he is probably right in sensing the disaffection of many of the people.
What similar lies and half-truths do powerful voices in our society endlessly repeat so as to demoralize the people of God?
June 5 - Isaiah 37
Hezekiah is beside himself (Isa. 37). He has disobeyed the Lord and defied Assyria. Mercifully, at this juncture he does the right thing: in desperation he turns to the Lord in importunate and passionate prayer, and to the Lord’s prophet Isaiah for intercession and guidance (Isa. 37:1–4). Isaiah promptly reports a visionary word from the Lord (Isa. 37:5–7). God sees the stance of Sennacherib as profoundly blasphemous: he has treated the living God as if he were some local pagan deity. God promises that Sennacherib will hear a report that will make him withdraw, and in due course he will be cut down in his own country.
The sequence of events is at this point unclear: we do not have enough information. The next verses suggest that Lachish has proved more difficult to conquer than Sennacherib had anticipated (though he ultimately seizes it), and that he has moved to Libnah. While he is there he hears a report that Egypt (the Cushites, Isa. 37:9) is moving against him, and he warns Hezekiah not to think that this will be more than a temporary reprieve. Since Sennacherib shortly resumes his siege of Jerusalem (Isa. 37:33ff.), perhaps Egypt sent no more than harrying contingents.
In any case, the bleak prospects for Jerusalem drive Hezekiah to prayer (Isa. 37:14–20), the high water mark of this king’s life. Hezekiah does not address God as if he were just a tribal deity. God is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sovereign Creator who alone is “God over all the kingdoms of the earth,” and the Almighty God of Israel who is “enthroned between the cherubim” in the Most Holy Place, the God of the covenant (Isa. 37:16). At the end of his resources, Hezekiah casts himself upon God’s mercy, not only so that the tiny nation might be spared, but “so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God” (Isa. 37:20).
God answers Hezekiah’s prayer. Through the prophet Isaiah, God pronounces an oracle of judgment against Sennacherib (Isa. 37:22–29), provides a reassuring sign for Hezekiah (Isa. 37:30–32), and stipulates that Sennacherib will not be permitted to take Jerusalem (Isa. 37:33–35). God will defend Jerusalem, not for Hezekiah’s sake, but for his own sake and for the sake of his servant David. Hezekiah prays, and God answers, but he is saved, not for his own sake, but for the sake of another.
The result is briefly told (Isa. 37:36–38). The slaughter of the soldiers may have been the result of God-ordained bubonic plague; other similar catastrophes are known from ancient sources. And twenty years later, Sennacherib’s sons did cut him down in his own temple, while the temple of the Lord remained inviolate.
June 6 - Revelation 8
One of the most striking of the symbol-laden images in the book of Revelation is found in Revelation 8:3–5.
It has various roots. One goes back to passages like Psalm 141:2: “May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.” David wants his prayers to be as pleasant to God, as acceptable to God, as the incense burned before him in the tabernacle, as the sacrifices offered to him in front of the tabernacle at the close of the day. The incense altar was ordained by the Mosaic covenant (Ex. 30:1–10). This particular kind of altar and sacrifice would have associations in the ancient world that are foreign to us. In a world before Right Guard, better homes might well burn a little incense to mask the inevitable odors, and that association would accompany the burning of incense in the tabernacle and later in the temple. Certainly this God-ordained rite was still functioning in Jesus’ day (Luke 1:8–9).
The association between prayers and incense has already been used by John in Revelation 5:8. When the Lion/Lamb, the Lord Jesus, takes the scroll from the right hand of him who sits on the throne and prepares to open the seals, the angels surrounding the throne “fell down before the Lamb.” They “were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” The point of the vision is not that incense candles are a good thing in cathedrals (that would confuse symbol and reality), but something more profound. If no one were found to bring about God’s purposes for justice and blessing, then all the prayers of God’s people are futile. Now that the Lion/Lamb has prevailed, the prayers (symbolized by the incense because of the Old Testament simile) are wafted into the presence of God. The prayers of God’s people will be heard and answered, because God’s purposes for blessing and judgment are now certain to be carried out.
Here in Revelation 8:3–5, “the prayers of all the saints” are burned on the incense altar before God. “Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake” (Rev. 8:5)—all signs, in the context, of the terrifying presence and judgment of God. God’s judgment responds to the prayers of his people.
Why should this be thought strange? The souls of martyrs call for justice (Rev. 6:10). The entire church cries, “Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20), knowing that this will bring down final justice. Followers of Jesus pray, “Your kingdom come”—not a sentimental notion in the context of a broken, rebellious world.
June 7 - Isaiah 39
In volume 1 (meditation for November 7) I commented on the near-fatal illness of King Hezekiah, and on his recovery and subsequent folly with the Babylonian emissaries (an account similar to Isa. 39–40 is found in 2 Kings 20). Death is not the thing most to be feared. Had Hezekiah died from his illness, instead of living for fifteen additional years, he would not have succumbed to some of his worst sins of pride and callousness (Isa. 39:5–8). But here I shall focus on something more prosaic: the chronology of the events. For there are lessons to be learned.
There is considerable dispute over the dating of Hezekiah’s reign. What is reasonably clear is that Sennacherib’s invasion (Isa. 36:1) occurred in 701 B.C. This was in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, which means he came to the throne in 715 (701 + 14). But 2 Kings 18:1 insists that Hezekiah’s accession took place in the third year of King Hoshea of Israel (the northern kingdom), i.e., approximately 727. Probably Hezekiah was co-regent with his father Ahaz from 727 to 715, when Ahaz died, and thereafter ruled alone. (Co-regencies were common among the kings of Judah and Israel.) So the invasion of 701 occurred in either the fourteenth or the twenty-sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign, depending on whether or not one includes the co-regency years. But 2 Kings 18:1 also specifies that Hezekiah reigned for twenty-nine years from the onset of his co-regency, which places his death in 698. If his illness occurred fifteen years earlier (Isa. 38:5), it happened in 713. The visit of Babylon’s emissaries was apparently shortly after this, in 712 or 711—more than a decade before the Assyrian invasion under Sennacherib. The phrase “In those days” (Isa. 38:1) must then be a general reference to the time of Hezekiah’s life and reign rather than something more specific.
What this means is that we should not interpret the events of Isaiah 38–39 as taking place after Sennacherib’s invasion, as if this is a relapse following the heroic and faithful intercession and obedience described in chapters 36–37. The situation is more complex. Following fruitful years of administration (2 Kings 18), Hezekiah falls ill and is miraculously restored. His boasting to Babylon’s emissaries follows (Isa. 39), and may well have been part of Hezekiah’s plan to rebel against Assyria. Hezekiah only learns to trust the Lord a decade later, when Assyria almost crushes him. He dies three years after that invasion. If this chronology is correct, Hezekiah’s extraordinarily selfish and calloused stance in Isaiah 39:8 accurately reflects his ambivalence toward God and toward God’s prophet—until driven by desperation.
When and how do we learn to trust the Lord?
June 8 - Isaiah 40
Three observations to prepare the way: (a) If Isaiah was about thirty when he was called to be a prophet in the year that King Uzziah died (Isa. 6:1), then he was sixty-nine at the time of the Assyrian invasion in 701 and seventy-two in 698 when Hezekiah died. Tradition outside the Bible says that he lived a little longer, into the reign of the wicked King Manasseh, who resolved to kill him. Fleeing Manasseh, the elderly Isaiah hid in a hollow tree in the forest, only to be found by Manasseh’s men, who cut down the tree with a saw, Isaiah still inside. There may be an echo of this in Hebrews 11:36–37. (b) On this chronology, Isaiah had foreseen the Babylonian invasion as early as 712 B.C. (Isa. 39:5–7). Nevertheless the Assyrian invasion of 701 doubtless captured most of his attention until it was behind him. Judging by what appears in these next chapters, Isaiah then spent the few remaining years of his life in a ministry of comfort designed to help the faithful remnant in the still darker days that were ahead. Perhaps this ministry was public and oral for the remaining three years of King Hezekiah’s life. Under the brutally repressive regime of Manasseh, however, Isaiah’s ministry was more likely to the smaller circle of his disciples (Isa. 8:16–17) and in the written page that they would preserve until a new generation was again ready to listen to the words of God conveyed through him. (c) Thematically, this next section embraces chapters 40–55, which are full of comfort grounded in the astounding greatness of God and in the immeasurable atonement for sin that he provides.
The comfort provided in the opening overture (Isa. 40:1–11) has at least five elements. (a) These are still God’s people, “my people” (Isa. 40:1). Despite the devastating prediction in the preceding verses of Jerusalem’s destruction and the transportation of its people, God will comfort Jerusalem again (Isa. 40:2—clearly parallel with “my people”). (b) Their sins have been forgiven. Since it was their sins that attracted judgment, this is marvelous news. “Your sin has been paid for! Your hard service has been completed!” How this was accomplished is not fully unveiled until chapter 53, but the overture anticipates the symphonic splendor. (c) In consequence of their forgiveness, God himself will bring home the exiles, smoothing their way (Isa. 40:3–4), gathering his flock like a shepherd (Isa. 40:11), thereby disclosing his glory to the entire human race (Isa. 40:5); the missionary theme recurs. (d) However fickle people may be, God’s word is utterly reliable (Isa. 40:6–8). (e) The good news shouted from Zion/Jerusalem is “Here is your God”—for “the Sovereign LORD comes with power” (Isa. 40:9, 10). Small wonder, then, that the remaining verses of the chapter dwell on the sheer majesty of God.
June 9 - Isaiah 41
The theological power of Isaiah 41 becomes clearer if we grasp something of the underlying history.
In line with the prediction of Isaiah 39:6–7, Jerusalem was finally destroyed in 587 B.C., her temple razed and her people killed or transported. This was the most shattering event Israel faced in Old Testament times. But far from thinking that this proved that God was losing control, Isaiah not only foresaw the event but insisted that it was God’s doing. Now he addresses those who would suffer Babylonian aggression and who would wonder if there was any hope for them at all. Isaiah has already reminded them that as far as God is concerned the nations are no more significant than a drop in the bucket or dust on the scales (Isa. 40:15–17). Now he predicts that God himself will end the aggression of the Babylonian Empire. He will raise up the Persian king Cyrus (Isa. 41:2–4, 25–27; Cyrus is actually named in Isa. 44:28; 45:1).
Cyrus, king of the Persian city of Anshan, ascended to power in 559, when Persia was still subject to Media. Ten years later he killed the Median king Astyges and founded the Persian Empire. In less than a decade, he subdued territory to the west as far as modern Turkey (conquering the legendary King Croesus on the way), and to the east as far as northwest India. Babylon fell in 539. Cyrus reversed the policy of previous empires. Far from transporting subdued peoples, he encouraged exiles to go home—including Israel (Ezra 1:2–4; see meditation for January 1).
Isaiah 41, then, makes two important points. First, God alone is the One who summons nations before him, controlling their destinies, calling on them to accomplish his will—and this includes Cyrus, whom God has “stirred up” for the tasks allotted him. Where is the evidence of this bold claim? It is found in the fact that God predicts the entire sequence of developments a century and a half in advance (Isa. 41:21–29). This is something the pagan idols could not possibly do. “See, they are all false! Their deeds amount to nothing; their images are but wind and confusion” (Isa. 41:29). Such predictions are the exclusive domain of “Jacob’s King” (Isa. 41:21), for he alone writes history in advance. Second, Israel must understand that they are collectively God’s servant (Isa. 41:8–20), the descendants of Jacob and of Abraham before him, themselves the servants of God. None of this means that they are intrinsically great: God addresses them as “O worm Jacob, O little Israel” (Isa. 41:14). But they do have a great God, their Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel (Isa. 41:14). They may abandon fear (Isa. 41:10) and rejoice in him (Isa. 41:16).
June 10 - Isaiah 42
Isaiah himself is God’s servant (Isa. 20:3), and so is Hezekiah’s chief steward Eliakim (Isa. 22:20). Israel collectively is God’s servant (Isa. 41:8–20). Who is the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 42:1–9?
Some argue that it is still Israel. In that case, God’s words, “Here is my servant” (Isa. 42:1) are uttered before the nations, a kind of defense of his people before the mighty powers that are nothing to him. But this reading of Isaiah 42 is unlikely. “Here is my servant” sounds like the introduction of a new figure. More importantly, God’s servant Israel was described in the preceding chapters as complaining (Isa. 40:27), fearful, and dismayed (Isa. 41:10). By the end of this chapter, God’s servant Israel is deaf, blind (Isa. 42:18–19), and sinful (Isa. 42:23–24). By contrast, the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 42:1–9 neither falters nor is discouraged (Isa. 42:4), delights in God (Isa. 42:1), is gentle, persevering, and brings forth justice in faithfulness (Isa. 42:3). This is an ideal Servant, one who embodies all that Israel failed to be. In this light, the announcement “Here is my servant” is made to Israel. The Servant is introduced to them not only because he is an ideal to which they should aspire, but because he is an individual who will rescue them, as Isaiah will make clear.
This servant song is divided into three parts. (a) In Isaiah 42:1–4 God addresses Israel and introduces the Servant, who will bring “justice” to the nations. The Hebrew term includes more than the English word. It embraces putting into effect all of God’s purposes. But when the Servant does this, he is quite unlike Cyrus or some other imperial leader. He is gentle: he does not shout or cry out or raise his voice in the streets (Isa. 42:2). He neither breaks the bruised reed nor snuffs the smoldering wick (Isa. 42:3)—a passage explicitly applied to Jesus in Matthew 12:15–21. (b) In Isaiah 42:5–7, the Servant himself is addressed (note v. 6: “I the LORD, have called you [sing.] in righteousness”), and Israel is allowed to overhear what is said. Here the God who gives breath to all people (Isa. 42:5) now makes this Servant “to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles” (Isa. 42:6), undoing all the degrading effects of sin (Isa. 42:7). (c) In Isaiah 42:8–9, the Lord again addresses Israel, once again summarizing the mission of the ideal Servant and insisting that these are “new things” graciously announced in advance.
Small wonder that this song issues in profound praise to the Lord (Isa. 42:10–17), and contrasts once again the depth of the moral culpability of God’s servant Israel (Isa. 42:18–25) which only the ideal Servant can resolve.
June 11 - Isaiah 43
Although God has an ideal Servant who will be his perfect agent to bring to pass all his purposes (Isa. 42:1–9), Israel is also God’s servant. In Isaiah 43 and on into chapter 44, Isaiah encourages Israel, God’s servant (Isa. 43:10; 44:1). Here I shall pick up on elements of this encouragement and then draw attention to an important clause picked up by the Lord Jesus in the New Testament.
In the first section (Isa. 43:1–7), God tells Israel not to be afraid (Isa. 43:1)—not because she will not go into exile, but because when she passes through the waters God will be with her, and when she passes through the fire the flames will not utterly destroy her (Isa. 43:2). Moreover, she will not face extinction or assimilation: God himself will gather her children from the four points of the compass (Isa. 43:5–6). Despite the most appalling circumstances, the living God declares Israel to be precious and honored in his sight, and much loved (Isa. 43:4). Paul reasons analogously with respect to Christians in Romans 8:31–39.
More briefly: (a) Israel should be encouraged because her return after exile will bear witness to God and testify that it was God alone who knew of these stupendous events and brought them to pass (Isa. 43:8–13). (b) Babylon will be destroyed. The nation of conquerors will become a tumult of fugitives (Isa. 43:14–15). (c) Israel is used to reflecting on God’s mighty deeds to redeem his people at the time of the Exodus (Isa. 43:16–17), but now God will do a new thing (Isa. 43:18–21). So do not dissolve into the past and whine your way to defeat. Be courageous, for God is about to do a new thing, to effect a new cycle of spectacular delivery. (d) Above all, the Israelites’ massively compromised worship and multiplied offenses (Isa. 43:22–24) are not the last word. The first line of Isaiah 43:22 in Hebrew might better be rendered: “It was not me you called upon, O Jacob”—for the Israelite worship was so corrupt, such a distortion of the covenant, that the true God was not really being worshiped at all. But God himself is the One who blots out their transgressions for his own sake (Isa. 43:25)—a further anticipation of Isaiah 53.
God wants his servant Israel to understand “that I am he” (Isa. 43:10; cf. Isa. 41:4; 48:12). The Hebrew conjures up associations with Exodus 3:14; the Greek rendering of this phrase is precisely the expression that Jesus repeatedly applies to himself in John 8 (e.g., John 8:58, “I am”). How then does Isaiah 43 shape how we must think of Jesus?
June 12 - Isaiah 44
We have already learned that God told Israel, “You are my witnesses” (Isa. 43:10, 12). For the Israelites were to testify that God and God alone had predicted all these things, and had thus given evidence that he had done them, since he alone is the sovereign God. In Isaiah 44:6–23, these themes are summarized (Isa. 44:6–8). Yahweh alone is “Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty” (Isa. 44:6). God says, “I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God” (Isa. 44:6). As for his people: “Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one” (Isa. 44:8). But if God alone is God, all pretenders are idols. So the summary of this theme introduces one of the most damning indictments of idolatry in the Bible.
From God’s perspective, idolatry is always repulsive. In one sense, it is the fundamental sin, for it dethrones God and replaces him with something or someone else. That is why greed is idolatrous (Col. 3:5): we pursue what we covet, and what we pursue most ardently becomes our god. The historical context of this denunciation is critical, for idolatry was practiced not only by all the little nations around Israel, but also by the regional powers and by the succession of superpowers. Inevitably, Egyptians and Assyrians and Babylonians all credited their success to the power of their own deities. Yet here is the God of little Israel—crushed, defeated, exiled, pathetic little Israel—claiming to be the only God, the sovereign Lord, the mighty Creator and providential Ruler over all the kingdoms of the earth. And he is expecting his covenant people to bear witness to this truth instead of succumbing to the idolatry around them which, sadly, they find perennially attractive.
The question of power God will handle on the long haul. Here, the focus is on making idolatry absurd and thereby destroying its plausibility (Isa. 44:9–20). What initially seems attractive is shown to be ridiculous. The idolatry that is profoundly offensive to God is also profoundly stupid.
The solution is twofold. (a) Israel is called to remember what God has said, what God has done (Isa. 44:21), not least the fact that God has constituted Israel and made Israel his privileged servant. (b) Israel is called to return to God, for he has redeemed them (Isa. 44:22). These must be the constant priorities of God’s people: remember all that God is, all that he has said and done; and when we stray, return to him immediately and promptly (1 John 1:7–9).
June 13 - Isaiah 45
The riches of Isaiah 45 cannot be summarized in brief compass. It ends with a stunning missionary passage (Isa. 45:14–25), with echoes reverberating into the New Testament (e.g., Isa. 45:23; cf. Phil. 2:10–11). It begins in the closing verses of chapter 44 and the opening lines of chapter 45, where the Persian king Cyrus is introduced by name. Here God calls him “my shepherd” (Isa. 44:28), and Isaiah labels him the Lord’s “anointed” (i.e., “messiah,” a title usually restricted in the Old Testament to Saul or to one of the Davidic kings).
This is not the only place in the Old Testament where God identifies someone by name long before that person is born (cf. 1 Kings 13:1–3). What is striking is that, after the blistering denunciation of idolatry in Isaiah 44 (see meditation for June 12), God should refer to a pagan idolater as his anointed. Yet the point is important. God denounces idolatry, but his providential rule may use an idolater, or anyone else, for his own good purposes. It is always wrong to argue from providence to ethics, or to establish who is “right” by who wins in a particular context, or to doubt that God may sovereignly use an evil person to accomplish a great good without thereby exonerating or justifying all the evil in his or her life.
Transparently, Israel herself found this word of God hard to accept. One can imagine the exiles torn by doubt and troubled by fear. If God calls the pagan Cyrus his “messiah,” does that mean he has rejected the Davidic dynasty? Can the prophet’s word be accepted when it says such daft things? Anticipating the skepticism, God responds with a robust defense of his sovereignty and righteousness (Isa. 45:8–13). “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker” (Isa. 45:9). The people who had so persistently defied God that they landed in exile now wish to defy his chosen means of getting them home. But they have no more right to question God’s ways than clay has to question the potter, or a newborn has to question his or her parents (Isa. 45:9–10). “This is what the LORD says—the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: ‘Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?’ ” (Isa. 45:11). God is the sovereign Creator, and in the perfection of his righteousness he will raise up Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem (Isa. 45:13—itself evidence that the Davidic line was not being supplanted) and set his exiles free. All this comes as a step to the glorious invitation: “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other” (Isa. 45:22). Reflect on Revelation 15:3–4.
June 14 - Isaiah 46
There are three sections to Isaiah 46, and each advances a distinct argument that implicitly or explicitly calls Israel to faithfulness toward the living God.
(1) In the first two verses, Isaiah mocks Babylonian gods. “Bel” means “lord” and is equivalent to Baal as a title. It was applied to Marduk, the chief god of the city of Babylon. “Nebo” was the son of Bel-Marduk. He was the patron of writing and wisdom. At the New Year festival, Bel-Marduk and Nebo were carried through the streets in a great procession to the Esagila shrine. It was the greatest religious event of the year. But Isaiah foresees a time when Bel-Marduk and Nebo bow and stoop, and the exhausted beasts of burden that have to carry them fall and stagger off into captivity (Isa. 46:1–2). This was not literally fulfilled when the Persians took over in the sixth century, for Cyrus preserved and even enhanced the status of the Babylonian gods. On the long haul, of course, Bel-Marduk and Nebo slipped into oblivion. No one worships them today. But millions of men and women still worship the God of Israel.
(2) In the next section (Isa. 46:3–7), God continues his denunciation of idolatry. Now there is a slightly novel development. God says, in effect, that idolaters have to carry their gods, and even their beasts of burden get tired; but with the true God, it is the other way around: he carries his people. It is hard not to perceive a contrast between two religions. In the one, the people do all the heavy lifting; in the other, God does it, and his people are carried by him.
(3) In the last section (Isa. 46:8–13), God rebukes his covenant people in blunt, not to say brutal, terms. They are rebels, and they have forgotten all of God’s gracious and powerful ways with them when the nation was born at the time of the Exodus. There are important things for the believer to remember (Isa. 46:8–9). Probably part of their hang-up is still Cyrus. They still find it difficult to imagine that God will use a pagan king like that, rather than simply destroy him. But God insists he will summon from the east “a bird of prey” (Isa. 46:11)—almost certainly a reference to Cyrus. Whatever his purpose and plan, he will be sure to bring it to pass. The implication, of course, is that God is both sovereign and good—so stop trying to second-guess him, and trust him. “Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness. I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed” (Isa. 46:12–13).
June 15 - Isaiah 47
At one level, Isaiah 47 is pretty straightforward; at another, it is subtly symbol-laden and prepares the way for the development of some biblical symbolism in the New Testament.
At the obvious level, this chapter depicts the fall of Babylon that the accession of Cyrus will bring about. Babylon is a pathetically proud and arrogant city. She is the “queen of kingdoms” (Isa. 47:5); she thinks she will last forever (Isa. 47:7)—not unlike Hitler’s thousand-year Reich. She is so confident of her own security she cannot envisage becoming a widow or losing her children (Isa. 47:8). Proud of her wisdom and knowledge (Isa. 47:10) and her devotion to astrology, she thinks she can control her future (Isa. 47:12–13). Her self-deification is frankly repulsive: the repeated “I am, and there is none besides me” (Isa. 47:8, 10) is a direct challenge to God’s identical claim (Isa. 45:5). But God has had enough. The “queen of kingdoms” will sit in the dust (Isa. 47:1); she will become a slave (Isa. 47:1–3). This “mother” will suddenly be widowed and bereaved (Isa. 47:8–9). Astrology will prove futile to save her (Isa. 47:12–13), and sorcerers and magicians will be of no avail (Isa. 47:12). God himself is out to destroy Babylon.
But this text hints at another level. Chapters 47 and 48 are tied together, constituting one large unit. Isaiah 47 condemns Babylon for its defiant arrogance and promises her doom; Isaiah 48 is addressed to the captives, who (as we shall see in tomorrow’s meditation) are rousingly told to leave Babylon and return to Jerusalem. Empirically they live in one city, Babylon; theologically, they belong to another city, Jerusalem. At the level of brute history, of course, the captives could not return to Jerusalem at this stage. They could do so only after Cyrus came to power and granted permission to return. But theologically, the exiles must see themselves as belonging to Jerusalem and not to Babylon. Thus just as “Jerusalem” sometimes refers to the ancient city by that name, and sometimes, as we have seen, anticipates the new, eschatological Jerusalem, so also “Babylon” not only may refer to the ancient city that reached the pinnacle of its splendor about the sixth century B.C., but becomes a symbol—a symbol that anticipates every proud city or culture that imagines it will live forever and arrogantly measures all things by the standards of its own sins and presuppositions. Historic Babylon becomes the symbol of many Babylons.
John understands these things. That is why in Revelation 17 he describes Rome as “Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and of the Abominations of the Earth” (Rev. 17:5), a woman drunk with the blood of the saints. What Babylons have arisen since then?