The readings
Isaiah 36:1-3, 13-20;
37:1-7; 2:1-4
36 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib
of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
2 The king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at
Jerusalem, with a great army. He stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the
highway to the Fuller’s Field. 3 And there came out to him Eliakim son of
Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah
son of Asaph, the recorder.
Isaiah 36:13-20
13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice
in the language of Judah, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of
Assyria! 14 Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will
not be able to deliver you. 15 Do not let Hezekiah make you rely on the Lord by
saying, The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the
hand of the king of Assyria.’ 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the
king of Assyria: ‘Make your peace with me and come out to me; then every one of
you will eat from your own vine and your own fig tree and drink water from your
own cistern, 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a
land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Do not let Hezekiah
mislead you by saying, The Lord will save us. Has any of the gods of the
nations saved their land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are
the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they
delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of these countries
have saved their countries out of my hand, that the Lordshould save Jerusalem
out of my hand?’”
Isaiah 37:1-7
37 When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered
himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. 2 And he sent
Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and the
senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3
They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of
rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the birth, and there is no
strength to bring them forth. 4 It may be that the Lord your God heard the
words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock
the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard;
therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.” 5 When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6
Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid
because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king
of Assyria have reviled me. 7 I myself will put a spirit in him, so that he
shall hear a rumor, and return to his own land; I will cause him to fall by the
sword in his own land.’”
2:1-4 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah
and Jerusalem.
2 In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and
shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the
house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his
paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of
the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their
spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more
The message
Many of us know the prophet Isaiah from a few famous verses,
the ones we that hear in Christmas carols, read in the weeks before Christmas
at church or see written on Christmas cards.
There is Isaiah 9:6 For to us a
child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his
shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting
Father, Prince of Peace.
We also know Isaiah well from Easter. As the first followers of Jesus tried to
figure out what happened, as they deal with the question “if Jesus is the
messiah, how could suffer, die a humiliating death at the hands of
people”. Even with the resurrection,
even with a sign that death could not hold him, the question “how could this
happen” remained. People find answers in
the book of the prophet Isaiah, in particular 4 passages known as the “servant
songs” where God’s servant will suffer
greatly but endure and ultimately find victory.
They are frequently cited in the new testament, for example Isaiah 52-53
reads He is despised and rejected of men,
a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces
from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our
sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He
was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and
with His stripes we are healed. Parts of this passage are quoted in Matthew,
Mark, John, Acts, Romans and 1st
Peter.
Today’s readings are not about Christmas or Easter. They are about war, the power struggles that shaped the world around Israel. The book of Isaish is
often divided into different parts. It
starts with the prophecies of Isaish, son of Amoz, who served as a prophet in
the Southern kingdom of Judah about 700 years before the birth of Jesus. Then the books stretches over several hundred
years as people reapplied his messages to changing situations and other
prophets took on the work. There are 4
major events happening during this time that shape the political and social
world in which Isaiah prophesies. First there is a civil war between the northern and southern
kingdoms of Israel, where the southern kingdom turns to Assyria for help and basically
ends up as a colony of them.
After this there is the growth in power and influence of the
aggressive and land hungry Assyrian empire. Today’s first 3 readings are from
this time. Despite Assyria threatening to invade and destroy Jesusalem, they do
not. Assyria gradually weakens, they
are defeated by the previously conquered but constantly revolting Babylonians.
Babylon also defeats Egypt and becomes the major world power. Sensing weakness
and chaos, Israel revolts against them, gets crushed and in 586 Babylon
destroys Jerusalem. Bablyon also exiles
the people of Israel to other places. In
539, the Persian Empire under Cyrus defeats the Bablyonians and allows the
people of Israel to return and rebuild Jerusalem. (a story told in the Old
Testament books of Ezra and Nehemiah).
Israel is constantly caught in the middle of these conflicts
and clashes of these empires. Of course, this is not history class. Our readings and we hear these readings in
church, as people of faith, who believe God’s word speaks deep and important
truths to us. Today’s selection of readings bring us in two different
directions, First, they focus our attention on the violence, war and conflict
that filled the lands and divided nations through the time of Isaiah, They are
a reminder that our God acts in history, through people and events, through
great miracles, signs of power, great conflict and even the horrors of war. We are invited to remember that the people
who heard the words of Isaish, heard them in times of great suffering, anxiety,
hopelessness, doubt, division and pain.
They were really spoken to people in great darkness and promised an even
greater light.
The second thing our readings offer is a contrast between
total war and total peace. Sennacherib, The Assyrian king, is fully ready to
invade Jerusalem. He is good at this and practices total war, Not only does he maintain a strong and well
equipped army, he also uses psychological forces like intimidation and threats,
attacks on the religious beliefs and often tries to turn cities against their
leaders and spies against their own people. He spreads great lies to convince
people that life under Assyrian rule would be great. In Babylon, he goes so far as to rewrite
their religious myths so that he is the hero. He does anything and everything to destroy
the enemy.
Without God’s intervention, Israel would not stand a chance
in war with Assyria (much like in Egypt and all of their other conflicts). To
answer this threat the frightened king of Israel turns to Isaiah, who tells the
king and people of Israel to ignore all that, replies: Thus says the Lord: Do
not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, Isaiah shares good news,
Assyria will not invade, they will get distracted and have their own issues to
deal with. After these words from Isaiah,
the Assyrian army is struck by and decimated in an unidentified plague and King
Sennacherib returns home where he is killed by one of his sons.
This is an intervention by God that spares the people of
Israel in this time and place (there are other moments when God does not
intervene). For what we look forward to, for total peace, we must look at Isaiah
2 they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning
hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. A time
not only of peace built on fear or weariness, when one military is just so strong,
no one messes with them. Isaiah points to a time when the very desire to war is
gone. when all worship, all know they
are loved by God, when the greater good of all people is the driving force of
our interactions. Take the instruments of death and turn them into instruments
of life.
In a much less celebrated verse (that we more often live by)
the prophet Joel tells us the opposite “Beat
your plowshares into swords, and your
pruning hooks into spears! Let the weak say, 'I too am a warrior” Here, we
take the instruments of life and turn them into instruments of death, We are waiting for God’s peace, the stuff
that goes beyond all understanding. This
will be the Lord’s work. We try what
we can now, but we look forward to God’s intervention.
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