Tag: Isaiah

Isaiah 35: Questions for Reflection

~ Bob Hayton

stream in the desertOne of my favorite texts is Isaiah 35. It is pregnant with intertextual allusions – echoes of other Bible stories and passages. It is a classic “new exodus” passage, where Isaiah casts the future restoration of Israel in the terminology of the original Exodus from Egypt. There is a way through a wilderness, and a return to the land. What is especially important is how Christ’s ministry and many New Testament books indicate that this new Isaianic exodus finds a beginning fulfillment in Jesus Christ and the experience of the Church.

Recently, I had the opportunity to lead a men’s Bible study where we inductively worked our way through this passage. I prepared several questions aimed at encouraging the pursuit of textual links to this passage as a way to understand what Isaiah 35 is communicating poetically. May these questions spark your own fascination with this chapter and may your own wilderness experience find new life through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

If you want to interact further or suggest additional parallels, by all means join the converstaion in the comments section here.

Text:

Isaiah 35 (ESV)

1    The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
2    it shall blossom abundantly
and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
the majesty of our God.

3    Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
4    Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”

5    Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6    then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
7    the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

8    And a highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
9    No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.
10  And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Questions/Observations:

  1. Why does it refer to “wilderness” and “dry land” (vs. 1-2)?
    • Look at 32:11-16, 40:3.
  2. What might the “glory of the LORD” be (vs. 2)?
    • Look at 40:4-5; Luke 3:3-6; Matt. 3:3; see also Is. 35:4.
  3. Isaiah 35:3 is quoted in Hebrews 12:12, why?
    • Context of vs. 4 indicates this is an encouragement (see 40:1).
  4. What can be drawn from Isaiah 35:5-6?
    • This may address the time or manner of fulfillment.
  5. Water and streams in the desert – what might this imagery suggest (v. 6)?
    • See also: 41:17-20, 43:16-21, 44:3-4, John 7:38-39 (also 32:11-16 above).
    • A personal angle on this too: Ps. 42:1-2, Ps. 63:1.
  6. Look at the parallels to 35:7 and see if an image or recollection from earlier in Israel’s history is coming to mind.
    • Look at 48:20-21, 49:9-13.
  7. The King’s Highway (v. 8)– not just a road for God (40:3) but one he travels with us (Mark 8-10 – his journey to Jerusalem – 10:32, 52).
    • Jesus opened a “new and living way” for us Heb. 10:20, John 14:6.
  8. Jesus leads us on the way like a shepherd leads the sheep (vs. 8-9).
    • Our shepherd leads us on the way 40:10-11, John 10:9, 27.
    • Our shepherd fights for us, too 35:8, John 10:10-12 (also Mark 1:13).
  9. The way to Zion is only for the “ransomed.”
    • See also Is. 51:10-11, Rev. 21:23-27 (with Is. 60:3-12).
  10. Ultimately there is “everlasting joy” – through Christ.
    • See Is. 65:17-19 with Isaiah chapter 12.

Quotes to Note 39: Alec Motyer on the Church

~ Bob Hayton

Alec Motyer has spent his life studying the riches of Isaiah, and I’m almost finished enjoying the fruits of his study so helpfully laid out in Isaiah By the Day: A New Devotional Translation (Christian Focus, 2011). In each of the daily readings in this book, Motyer presents his translation with commentary and offers a devotional in line with the text of that day’s passage. I came across a jewel of a quote about the Church, with special focus on denominations and how each local church is to be a picture of the whole Church. I thought it was a great way to look at things and offer it hear for your benefit as well.

The truth remains the same today: the Lord’s earthly people are themselves the temple in which he lives by his Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16), the locus and display of his holiness and beauty. Well may we mourn that our sinfulness, divisiveness, our failure in biblical distinctiveness, and our manifest lack of holiness have marred the image. Who, looking at today’s church–denominational or local–can see the likeness of Jesus? And this is not a matter only of denominational failure, though that is all too plain. The Bible knows nothing of our “denominationalism,” and if Isaiah’s wording promts us to put our hand to reform and renovation then its proper focus is the local church to which we each belong. When we look at the merest sliver of a crescent moon we don’t say, “Oh, there’s part of the moon.” We say “Look, there’s the moon.” In the same way each local church, however small–or in the eyes of onlookers, insignificant–is meant to be a mirror and image of the whole, an earthly replica of the heavenly reality where Christ is all. We should be able to look at the fellowships to which we belong and say, “There is The Church,” bearing the two oustanding marks of holiness and beauty: obeying the command, “Be holy because I am holy” (Lev. 19:2), and displaying the beauty of Jesus in all its gatherings, relationships and individual characters.

~ excerpted from p. 306, on Isaiah 63:15-64:12.

For a sample reading from this helpful book by Motyer, see this post.

Meditation on Isaiah 40:1-11 by Alec Motyer

~ Bob Hayton ~ 1 Comment

Isaiah by the Day: A New Devotional Translation by Alec MotyerI have been making my way through Alec Motyer’s book Isaiah by the Day: A New Devotional Translation. This hardcover, wide margin book presents Motyer’s fresh translation of Isaiah and includes textual notes as well as introductory material and a devotional thought for each of the 71 readings in the book. It is very well done. Written with the heart of a pastor and the care of a scholar, this volume brings the book of Isaiah alive, and the devotions help the reader apply the text personally.

I want to share an excerpt from this book, from the passage covering Isaiah 40:1-11 (day #43 in the book). I trust you will be blessed by reading this passage as I was. You may also want to go out and pick up a copy of this book for your own devotional reading in the future.

Day 43 ~ Isaiah 40:1-11

The consolation of the world (40:1-42:17)

Astonishingly, no sooner has Isaiah pronounced judgement on Hezekiah’s sin than he is directed to organise messengers of comfort. But (maybe because exile to Babylon prompts thoughts of the wider world) the comfort-message covers all the earth, Israel and the Gentiles.

Consolation for the Lord’s people: Voices of consolation

40:1. Console, console my people,1
      your God keeps saying.
2.    Speak lovingly to Jerusalem,2
      and call out to her,
      that her time of duress has been fulfilled,
      that the punishment of her iniquity has been accepted,
      that she has received from Yahweh’s hand
      the exact payment for3 all her sins.

The first voice: Yahweh coming; worldwide revelation
3.    A voice!4 Someone is calling out:
      In the desert,
      clear a road for Yahweh,
      make straight through the open plain
      a highway for our God.
4.    Every valley must be raised,
      and every mountain and hill lowered,
      and the rough ground must become flat,
      and the mountain chain a pass.
5.    And the glory of Yahweh will be revealed,
      and all flesh will see it together:
      for it is Yahweh’s mouth that has spoken.

The second voice: Human transicence and the permanent Word
6.    A Voice! Someone is saying, Call out,
      and someone is saying, What am I to call out?
      All flesh is grass,
      and all its reliability like a flower of the field.
7.    Grass withers, flower wilts,
      for Yahweh’s Spirit has breathed on it.
      Ah, surely, the people are grass!
8.    Grass withers, flower wilts,
      and the word of our God rises up5 for ever.

The third voice: Good news for Zion
9.    To a lofty moutain, up with you,
      Zion, bearer of good news!
      With strength raise your voice,
      Jerusalem, bearer of good news.
      Raise your voice: do not fear.
      Say to the cities of Judah:
      Behold! Your God!
10.   Behold —
      as a strong one,
      the Sovereign Yahweh will come,
      his arm6 ruling for him.
      Behold!
      the wage he has earned7 is with him,
      and his work is in front of him.
11.   Like a sheperd who shepherds his flock,
      in his arm he gathers the lambs,
      and in his bosom carries them;
      those with young he guides along.

 1Plural imperatives. Against the background of the dire prediction of exile and loss, the Lord has such a full message of consolation that not just Isaiah but unnamed others are summoned to bring the consoling word. Far from judgment having the last word (39:6-7) consolation has the first word!

2 Lit., ‘Speak to the heart of’ — as of an ardent lover wooing his beloved, Gen. 34:3.

3 Lit., ‘the double’, referring to one thing exactly matching another. The preposition ‘for’ (The Hebrew prefixed preposition be) expresses ‘price/value/payment’.

4 See 13:4.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
5 The literal meaning of qum. Used to express not just the continuance of the Word while all else wilts but its certainty of fulfilment and its capacity for active intervention — ‘so stand up and be counted’.

6 ‘Arm’ symbolises personal strength. cf., 33:2; 52:10. In 51:9-10 (cf. 53:1) the Lord’s arm is personified, and one is therefore tempted to use the upper case here, ‘Arm’.

7 Lit., ‘his wage’, but a pronoun with ‘wage’ always points to the wage-earner. In ways Isaiah has yet to explain the Lord has worked and earned a wage. The ‘work’ he has accomplished lies in front of him, i.e., the people who are his flock.

Thought for the day: Isaiah 40:1-11

The most wonderful thing about these verses is not the beauty of their expression (though that in itself would have been enough), nor the attractiveness of what they reveal (though, again, that would suffice), but the place where they come. Doom has been pronounced on Hezekiah (39:6-7), and with it the death knell seems to have been sounded for all Isaiah’s glittering predictions of a coming king. At this darkest of moments, the call goes out to speak the word of comfort (v. 1), to proclaim hardship finished and sins forgiven (v. 2), to announce that Yahweh himself is on his way with worldwide significance (vv. 3-5), that his word and promises can never fail (vv. 6-8), and that Zion’s people are the flock he has worked for and now holds in his tender care (vv. 9-11). This is the Lord undefeated even by our most grievous sin; the Lord who never calls back the word he has spoken, and who cannot be deflected from its fulfilment! It will all become even more wonderful as Isaiah develops his message in these chapters. We will learn what the Lord’s ‘arm ruling’ means, that it is in truth his ‘arm’ — the Lord Jesus anticipated in his executive might; we will discover what ‘work’ he has done to earn the ‘wages’ he desired — his people, his flock. So much wonder lies ahead, but let us never lose sight of this initial wonder or fail to stand in awe of it. It is what he is towards us as sinners and failures: it is the way his intentions triumph over our frailties. The Sovereign God is never more sovereign than in the work of mercy and salvation, and it is those who know they have most signally erred and strayed from his ways, who, within the blessed arena of salvation, feel most gently the warmth of his shepherding arms around them, and know themselves for sure to be the lambs of his flock.

~ Taken from Isaiah by the Day: A New Devotional Translation, by Alec Motyer, (Christian Focus: 2011), pg. 188-190.

Pick up a copy of this book at any of the following online retailers: Amazon, Westminster Bookstore, ChristianBook.com, or direct from Christian Focus.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by Christian Focus. The reviewer was under no obligation to offer a positive review.

Book Briefs: “The Gospel According to Isaiah 53” edited by Darrell L. Bock and Mitch Glaser

~ Bob Hayton

Perhaps no chapter in the Old Testament is more foundational to the cause of Jewish evangelism than Isaiah 53. In The Gospel According to Isaiah 53: Encountering the Suffering Servant in Jewish and Christian Theology editors Darrell L. Bock and Mitch Glaser bring together an impressive group of scholars to discuss this text in full detail. The result is an academic work that aims to equip church leaders for effectively using this pivotal chapter in Jewish evangelism.

The book is divided into three sections. Part 1 coves Christian and Jewish interpretations of Isaiah 53. These first two chapters were most informative and really are worth the price of the book. Richard Averbeck surveys a wide variety of Christian interpretations, and Michael Brown masterfully gives a thorough treatment of Jewish opinions on this passage.

Part 2 is a collection of various essays on Isaiah 53 and is the weakest part of the book in my opinion. The essays themselves are fine, but there is repetition and disparity between them. Most of them spend some time discussing whether the Suffering Servant is collectively understood as Israel or should be viewed as an individual Messianic figure. These essays are written independently and not situated in the flow of the book well, so we cover the same ground over and over again. That being said, the articles do make some important points and cover different points of emphases when it comes to Isaiah 53’s development in the New Testament.

Part 3 covers Isaiah 53 in practical theology and is quite good. Mitch Glaser’s piece on using Isaiah 53 in Jewish Evangelism is excellent. His explanation of orthodox Jewish objections to Isaiah 53’s use by Christians as opposed to the average Jewish person’s more secular outlook to the passage is priceless. Too often, we assume that Jews think like Christians when it comes to God’s holiness and personal sin, blood atonement and the like, and Glaser assures us this is not the case.

The book ends with an odd concluding chapter, in which Darrell Bock excerpts several paragraphs from each of the chapters in the book. It seems a strange way to conclude a book, but I wonder if it is an attempt to forge a greater unity between disparate pieces? An appendix then includes two sample sermons on Isaiah 53.

The book points us to numerous additional resources throughout, and really does cover Isaiah 53 well. It definitely accomplishes the task it sets out to achieve. Yet the book is clearly directed toward a more scholarly audience and I believe this will limit its effectiveness. There are no transliterations of Hebrew and Greek terms provided, and sometimes there are not even short lexical definitions of them included either. The interaction with scholarly literature, too, is much more than the average lay leader is equipped to handle. Still there is a lot of value to be had in the book, and I was thankful to be reminded of how important this single chapter is for Jewish evangelism.

Pick up a copy of this book at any of the following online retailers: Westminster Bookstore, Christianbook.com, Amazon, or direct from Kregel.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by Kregel Academic. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

About Book Briefs: Book Briefs are book notes, or short-form book reviews. They are my informed evaluation of a book, but stop short of being a full-length book review.

In the Box: Books from IVP, Kregel, WinePress and Crossway

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

“In the Box” posts highlight new books I’ve received in the mail.

The past few weeks I have had a few exciting titles arrive at my doorstep. I’m truly blessed to be able to read so many great books, and Christian publishers seem to never let up in their race to get high quality materials out the door. We are truly blessed with an abundance of Christian resources to help us in our walk with Christ.

The Gospel According to Isaiah 53 edited by and Richard Patterson (Kregel)

This book looks like it will be a joy to read. Mitch Glaser is the president of Chosen People Ministries, an organization dedicated to evangelizing the Jews. He recounts in the introduction how pivotal a role Isaiah chapter 53 plays in Jewish evangelism and his hopes for this book. Glaser and Bock have brought together a team of scholars who address the question of how to interpret Isaiah 53 from a variety of angles, but a practical, evangelistic fervor is promised to permeate the book. I look forward to jumping into this book and providing my review in the next couple weeks.

UPDATE: Read my review of this book here.

To learn more about this book, visit the book detail page at Kregel, or check out the preview or excerpt available at Westminster Bookstore, Amazon, Christianbook.com or Barnes&Noble.

Interpreting the Parables (2nd Edition) by Craig L. Blomberg (IVP)

This book arrived yesterday and I am excited to see it. Blomberg provides a systematic treatment of parables and the book is a comprehensive manual for how to exegete these dearly loved treasures of the New Testament. I appreciate that he takes C.H. Dodd and Joachim Jeremias to task, arguing that there is a limited allegorical sense to the parables. I’ve never been able to square Jesus’ own explanations of certain parables with what was a prevailing view in scholarship of their “single-point” nature that emphasized just one main punch to the story line. This book promises to be an education in itself, coming in at over 450 pages, but like all of IVP’s softcover reference titles – the quality and the design of the book make it a joy to peruse.

To learn more about this book, visit the book detail page at InterVarsity Press, or check out the preview available at Amazon, Christianbook.com or Barnes&Noble.

From the Cauldron to the Cross by Shari Hadley (WinePress)

This book looks fascinating. It is a personal testimony of a journey from Wicca to Christianity. The author is also a public speaker and licensed clinical social worker. Her story is of the power of God’s grace and promises to be an encouraging read. Dr. Neil Anderson has written the foreword.

To learn more about this book, visit the book detail page at WinePress, or visit CauldrontotheCross.com. Pick up a copy of the book at Amazon or Barnes&Noble.

The Kingdom by Bryan M. Litfin (Crossway)

I can’t leave out a good work of fiction. I was captured by Bryan Litfin’s well-crafted story-world as I read and reviewed book 2 of the “Chiveis Trilogy”. This book is the conclusion to the series, and I am eager to find out what happens to Teo and Ana–the main characters of this post-apocalyptic, medieval-esque story about recovering the Christian faith.

To learn more about this book, visit the book detail page at Crossway, or visit Chiveis.com. Pick up a copy of the book at Amazon, Christianbook.com or Barnes&Noble. You can get a deal on all three books in the series at Amazon, Christianbook.com, Barnes&Noble or Crossway as well.