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The First Sunday after Christmas

 

! Year A

!!!!!!  

!!!!!! December 30, 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*SCRIPTURE: *   Isaiah 63:7-9

 

 

*EXEGESIS:   *

* *

* *

*THE CONTEXT:*

 

It is difficult to know precisely when this portion of Isaiah was written.

"The only clue (63:7 - 64:11) offers is the reference to foreign occupation, widespread destruction in Jerusalem and other Judean settlements, and the destruction and profanation of the temple (63:18; 64:9-10).

The only situation known to us prior to 70 C.E. that corresponds to this description is the one that resulted from the Babylonian punitive campaign of 589-586 B.C.E." (Blenkinsopp, 258-259).

The context for these verses is more complex than is apparent at first glance.

We can benefit by looking both at the wider context and the more immediate context.

THE WIDER CONTEXT is chapters 56-66.

Scholars generally agree that these chapters have a chiastic structure, a literary form that occurs often in this poetic book.

A chiastic structure (or chiasm) looks like this:

 

     A

          B

               C

          B' (also called B prime) [parallels B]. 

     A' (also called A prime) [parallels A]

 

Note the movement in one direction from A to B to C –– and then the reversal as it moves in the opposite direction to B' and A'.

There are various ways to outline the chiastic structure of chapters 55-66.

Oswalt proposes the following (Oswalt, 465):

 

     "A     56:1-8 Foreign worshipers

          B     56:9 - 59:15a Ethical righteousness

               C     59:15b-21 Divine Warrior

                    D     60-62  Eschatological hope

               C'     63:1-6  Divine Warrior

          B'     63:7 - 66:17  Ethical righteousness

     A'     66:18-24     Foreign worshipers"

 

While this might seem terribly academic, it is significant for two reasons.

The first is that it reveals a lovely poetic structure that we might admire for its beauty ––a work of art.

The second is that the structure can reveal clues to the author's meaning.

In this case, it is important to note that our text (63:7-9) is but the beginning of a lengthy section on ethical righteousness.

This section (63:7 - 66:17) parallels a section in 56:9 - 59:15a that tells of the corruption of Israel's rulers (56:9-12), her idolatry (chapter 57), false worship (chapter 58), and injustice and oppression (59:1-15a).

Chapters 56-66 are concerned what Israel has become:  (1) prideful because Yahweh has chosen them; (2) disdainful of foreigners, whom Yahweh also loves; (3) too dependent on cultic ritual as a way of attaining righteousness; (4) too little concerned with holy living; and (5) insufficiently appreciative of the grace of God as the true means of salvation.

THE IMMEDIATE CONTEXT includes chapter 62, which gives ringing reassurance to Zion, promising salvation and vindication and assuring that Israel will be known as "The Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord" (62:12).

Then 63:1-6 recounts the Lord's mighty work to save Israel by destroying her enemies, symbolized by Edom, Israel's traditional enemy located to its southeast (today's southern Jordan).

Then today's text (63:7-9) speaks of God's graciousness –– but is followed by a recounting of Israel's rebellion (63:10-14), a lengthy prayer of penitence (63:15 - 64:12), and an emphasis on the righteousness of God's judgment (chapter 65).

The book closes by emphasizing the kind of worship that God demands (66:1-4), promise of vindication (66:5-13), and a vision of a world in which "all flesh shall come to worship me" (66:23).

What isn't immediately apparent is that verses 7-9 are the beginning of a prayer of lament that concludes with 64:12.

"All the major elements of such complaint psalms are present (1) Affirmations of God's capacity to respond….

(2) Confession of sin….

(3) Accounts of trouble or distress….

(4)  Complaints against God and petitions for his help" (Tucker, 46-47).

*VERSE 7:  *I WILL RECOUNT THE GRACIOUS DEEDS OF THE LORD

 

/7I will recount the gracious deeds /(Hebrew: /hesed/ – steadfast love) /of the Lord /(/YHWH/),

/the praiseworthy acts of the Lord /(Hebrew: /YHWH/ – Yahweh)/,/

/because of all that the Lord has done for us,/

/and the great favor/ /to the house of Israel/

/that he has shown them according to his mercy,/

/according to the abundance of his steadfast love /(Hebrew: /hesed/)/.

/

 

 

*"I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord."

*Watts translates the latter part of that phrase, "YHWH's acts of covenant loyalty, and says, " Remembering what God has done was an important religious exercise and aid to faith" (Watts, 900).

As noted above, verses 1-6 recount Yahweh's actions against Israel's enemy, Edom.

"I trod them in my anger and trampled on them in my wrath; their juice spattered on my garments, and stained all my robes….

I trampled down peoples in my anger, I crushed them in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth" (vv.

3, 6).

Now, in verse 7, the prophet~/poet extols Yahweh's /hesed/ (loving kindness or covenant loyalty) as evidenced on that and other occasions.

In the Hebrew, this verse both begins and ends with the word /hesed/, which speaks not only of love but also of steadfastness.

As we will see if we continue to verse 10, Israel has given Yahweh plenty of cause to abandon them and to transfer that steadfast love to someone more deserving.

But Yahweh, who sometimes punishes Israel, instead loves Israel through thick and thin.

We can see something of that kind of love in good parents today.

Parents become terribly frustrated with their children and wonder why they keep trying –– but they do.

They keep trying and hoping and praying.

They might punish their children as a way of correcting behavior, but would never consider turning the children over to someone who might do them serious injury.

Most parents do their best to defend their children, even undeserving children.

Parents often make great sacrifices to help their children.

It isn't unusual to hear of a mother or father who has died trying to save her or his child.

Yahweh is like that but more so.

He has done "praiseworthy acts" in behalf of Israel –– has shown Israel "great favor" and "mercy" and "steadfast love."

*VERSES 8-9a:  *SURELY THEY ARE MY PEOPLE

 

/8For he said, "Surely they are my people,/

/children who will not deal falsely";/

/and he became their savior /

/9ain all their distress./

*"Surely they are my people."*

These people are Yahweh's people because Yahweh has chosen them –– has chosen them "out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession" (Deuteronomy 7:6).

It was not because they were numerous, because they were in fact "the fewest of all peoples" (Deuteronomy 7:7).

"It was because the Lord loved" them that he redeemed them from slavery in Egypt (Deuteronomy 7:8).

Yahweh assured them that he "maintains covenant loyalty with those who love him and keep his commandments" (Deuteronomy 7:9), but he warns them that he "repays in their own person those who reject him" (Deuteronomy 7:10).

Yahweh therefore commands them to "observe diligently the commandment –– the statutes, and the ordinances –– that I am commanding you today" (Deuteronomy 7:11).

*"children who will not deal falsely."*

Yahweh has promised to be faithful to Israel, and now expects that Israel will respond by being faithful to Yahweh.

This verse assumes that they will do so, but verse 10 (not included in this reading) shows that this is a false assumption –– that Israel has betrayed its heritage –– has rebelled against Yahweh "and grieved his holy spirit" –– in the process becoming Yahweh's enemy.

Young says, "The Lord is not uttering a vain hope that His chosen ones will not deal falsely, but is declaring that they are not to do so" (Young, 481).

However, the prophet has already called Israel "children of transgression" and "offspring of deceit" (57:4).

He has accused them of having hands defiled with blood and lips that speak lies (59:3) –– and of "transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning away from following our God" (59:13).

Yahweh is surely aware of these sins, but has created Israel for something better –– and is determined that Israel should live up to its promise.

Hanson sees the prophet as "seeking to keep God's word of promise alive in a period in which the community stands on the brink of losing its spiritual identity by attributing setbacks not to human unfaithfulness but to divine indifference.

We see the prophet in the role of mediator, …(appealing) to God on behalf of the people and to the people on behalf of God" (Hanson, 235).

Muilenburg would agree with that assessment.

He likens this prophet to Abraham, Moses, and other great Old Testament figures, saying, "Our prophet identifies himself with the life and fate of his people.

He is not the preacher of oracles but, like the priest, the intercessor in behalf of his people to God.

The words are born in the agony and travail of the prophet for his people" (Muilenburg, 729).

*"and he became their savior in all their distress."*

Some translations pair "in all their distress" (v.

9a) with verse 9b instead of verse 8.

However, it matters little whether "he became their savior in all their distress" or "in their distress…he redeemed them" –– the sense is the same.

Yahweh has saved Israel from slavery in Egypt and starvation in the wilderness.