The Builder and His Bride

Prayer

Heavenly Father, the entrance of Your Word gives light!

We ask that You will shine the light of Your Word into our hearts,

so that it may be reflected in our lives and illuminate the world around us.

Amen

Introduction

When I was a young man I used to go to youth group. When we met it would quite often be a Bible based discussion. Sometimes we would spend our time, Bible in hand, trying to puzzle out where the New Testament got its amazing imagery from.

How did they think of it?

What inspired and motivated them?

If you haven’t guessed already, it was the Bible. To be specific the Old Testament.

We did not always figure out the answer, and yet it was staring us in the face.

For many Christians the Old Testament is a closed book, the remnant of a bygone age that has little or nothing to do with the Gospel.

This idea would have surprised the Early Followers of Jesus, because the Old Testament was their Bible and the basis for the Gospel Message. Our New Testament contains their understanding of the Gospel as it was revealed to the Old Testament prophets. Their 3 favourite books in the Old Testament were Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Isaiah. This selection of favourite books was something that they had in common with the Qumran Community.

The New Testament is filled with quotations, images, and ideas that lead directly back to these books. But the New Testament themes that we will be thinking about will focus our attention upon the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah ben Amoz

Isaiah ben Amoz is not just the most widely read of the major prophets among Christians. He also shows up in the historical books (2Kings 19-20; 2Chronicles 26:22, 32:20, 32:32). According to Rabbinic Tradition, Amoz was the brother of King Amaziah, so maybe Isaiah was from the royal family.

When the Assyrian Empire invaded Judah, King Hezekiah sent for Isaiah the Prophet. Isaiah predicted that King Sennacharib’s plans to defeat Judah and add to his empire would be confounded and that he would be killed in his own country.

We know that this happened from the biblical account, and from the annals of the Assyrian empire written in Cuneiform script and discovered by archaeologist. Tragically Isaiah predicted that Babylon would invade and exile the people of Judea. But as we heard in our readings of this week and last he also predicted that Israel and Judea would be restored to their ancient ancestral home land. Eventually, the Medo-Persian Empire displaced Babylon, and commentators place our passage in the Persian period.

The Book of Isaiah

The book of Isaiah is very well preserved. A number of Isaiah scrolls have been discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls. So much so that there are 22 partial manuscripts and fragments for Isaiah dating from 175 BC to AD 50. Making our oldest manuscripts of Isaiah over 2000 years old. The verses for today’s reading from Isaiah are in two of them. Barring lacunae (gaps), one of the manuscripts agreed exactly with the Hebrew Bible that we base our translations upon (1QIsaiahB=Herodian). The second manuscript was an updated version in Second Temple Hebrew (1QIsaiahA=c.125 BC). The Isaiah Scrolls represent about 10% of all biblical scrolls found at Qumran. Isaiah was the Essenes favourite prophet, second only to Moses in popularity.

He was widely quoted by them, and to-date we have 6 פשרים Pesharim Commentaries [EDEJ].

Where Did the New Testament Writers Get their Ideas?

Did you ever read the New Testament and wonder where they got their ideas from, or what was the source of their imagery?

Did they invent it? Did they just pluck it out of the air? Or did they just wake up one day and think that would be a good idea?

I have already given the game away. Several familiar themes and images contained in the New Testament come from Isaiah.

Today, we are not just going to follow some themes through the Bible, we are going to match some New Testament imagery with a likely source and establish real connections.

Though I should add that there are other Old Testament passages that support the themes that we are going to look at today.

Jesus’ Parable of the Wedding Banquet

Isaiah 61:10 NIV

I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

In Matthew’s Gospel (22:1-14) Jesus tells the parable of the wedding feast which includes marriage and a special garment. Many have puzzled over why a guest would have required a wedding garment. It is not part of any known tradition.

Perhaps the answer is that the Community or Church is the bride, and those who attend are participating in the Great End Time Feast with their Maker.

Parables don’t always make literal sense but usually they are connected to a Bible Passage or Scriptural Principle.

Parables often have a hint of humour and a twist in the tale. It is not uncommon for them to pull in two different directions.

This parable may have been based in part upon the imagery of Isaiah.

Perhaps Jesus’ parable also shares these ideas with the book of Revelation:

Revelation 19:6–9 NIV

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”

The Robe of Righteousness

Isaiah 61:10 NIV

I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

The image of a robe of righteousness comes to us through both in the teaching of Paul, and in the parable that we referred to earlier, and also in Revelation.

Ephesians 4:24 NIV

and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Galatians 3:27 NIV

for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

The Good Seed

Isaiah 61:11 NIV

For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

I am sure you all recognise this familiar theme of the sower and the seed. We are all familiar with the parable of the sower and the seed in Matthew 13 and some will also be familiar with 2 Corinthians 9:6-14.

Most of the New Testament imagery that we are familiar with has its origin in the Old Testament, the Bible of the Early Church. The images often intermingle and support each other to communicate the Good News.

Jerusalem

Isaiah 62:1 NIV

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.

If Early Christianity had a birthplace and a home then it could reasonably be argued that it was the Temple at Jerusalem.

The place where Jesus and his family went to worship. The place where the apostles gathered when the Holy Spirit came in tongues of fire (Acts 2:1-13) at Pentecost. The place where many Christians believe that the Church was born.

Revelation contains images of heaven as the New Jerusalem.

I apologise if any of you were expecting it to be Efford!

A New Name

Isaiah 62:2 NIV

The nations will see your vindication, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.

When I looked into this passage, I was surprised at how often it led me directly to the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is full of Old Testament themes, some of which come from Isaiah.

Many of you will have received a new name when you were married. It may be that this is what Isaiah and Revelation are getting at.

Revelation 3:12 NIV

The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name.

A Crown of Splendour

Isaiah 62:3 NIV

You will be a crown of splendour in the Lord’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

The image of the crown occurs in several places in the New Testament. Sometimes its a royal crown and sometimes it is like a sports award. Sometimes Christians are the crown and at other times Christians receive the crown.

This verse also reminds us that the concept of Israel and that of the Kingdom of God are inextricably linked in the Bible. Jerusalem had been the centre of God’s rule on earth, and it was God’s plan that it should be so again [WBC25]. The Kingdom of God is a prominent Old Testament theme which finds fresh expression within the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels.

This theme would have a special significance for Jerusalem, the city of the Great King (Psalm 48).

The Bride of the LORD

Isaiah 62:4–5 NIV

No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the Lord will take delight in you, and your land will be married. As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.

It was God’s plan that his bride should no longer be called deserted or childless, but he wanted her to experience marital bliss with her husband.

In the Gospel of John, John the Baptist uses the image of the Bridegroom to describe Jesus (John 3:27-30).

Paul takes up this imagery in his circular letter which we know as Ephesians.

Ephesians 5:31–32 NIV

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

Paul must have had a very high Christology to call the Church the Bride of Christ, since the Old Testament indicates the Congregation of believers is collectively the Bride of the LORD.

The image of the Church as the Bride of Christ may be regarded as Trinitarian, indicating that Paul equated Christ with God.

What Does All of This Mean for Israel?

Israel and Judah had gone through a very difficult period in their history at the time when this prophecy was written.

They had watched their people and their Temple decline and fall. Their cities and towns had been ransacked, their nation had been scattered, and they had been cruelly stripped of the homeland that God had promised to them.

They were living in desperate hopeless times.

But the Spirit of the Lord moved Isaiah and gave to him a message of hope and restoration for the people of Israel.

He tells them that God will comfort them, that he is going to change their sorrow into joy. That they would rebuild the ancient ruins, and God was going to give back to them the land that they had lost. The waste places would be restored and Israel would become a territorial and political entity again.

Ezra and Nehemiah witnessed this miracle of restoration in their day.

The scattered sheep of the house of Israel and Judah were still returning home is Jesus’ time, and many look at the modern state of Israel as a further fulfilment of God’s promise to his ancient people to restore them to their land.

However you see the modern state of Israel, this is definitely food for thought. It is my personal prayer that God will bring peace and justice to the Jewish and Arab people of Israel and deliver them from extremist oppression.

What Does All This Mean to Me?

But I haven’t finished yet!

During my life, I have watched with sorrow the decline of the Church in the Western World. I have watched as its sacred values of morality and purity have been ridiculed when they have never been more needed.

But the same God who has performed the miracle of the restoration for Israel against all odds in the face of fierce opposition, Twice. That same God is able to turn the tide and restore the faith of Christ to its rightful place in the hearts and affections of our nation and throughout the Western World.

Our God is the God who turns hopelessness to hope, chaos to order, and brings life out of death. He is the Resurrection and the Life!

Lest we forget! The Christian journey began with the humiliation, crucifixion and death of an obscure outsider. That obscure outsider became the world famous founder of the most powerful religion in human history.

I continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the safety of Israel, and hope that the cease fire will endure.

I will also continue to pray for the revival and renewal of the Church in our time.

The message of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was a powerful message for a nation that had died and then rose again, and so I close with these words of Jesus:

John 11:25–27 NIV

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

AMEN