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Isaiah 48:12-22 - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Form Critics = v12-15 a trial speech
        The role of Cyrus forms a different function
        The language of confrontation and strife continues but has been absorbed within the larger parentetic style in addressing the house of Jacob.
        New Feature - the imperative 'hear' in vv. 1,12,14,16... chiastic pattern around the theme of hear and proclaim... vv6-11, 12-16.
        The whole chapter functions to confront Israel's unbelief in relation to the divine prophesies made on its behalf.
        The prior chapters focussed on the promised deliverance of Israel, to be fulfilled in God's new things associated with Cyrus... BUT NOW c 48 addresses the issue of Israel's unfaithful response to the promises, and challenges Israel to obedience in order to share in the promised salvation.
        Cyrus is no longer mentioned but a new one - 'now the Lord God has sent ME.' - there is a transition by the role of the servant... 'it is in the light of Israel's continual misunderstanding of the divine purpose, including the significance of Cyrus, that a new dimension of Israel as suffering servant is introduced. There is, in other words, a literary and historical development within the book that provides the theological force behind the unique function of C 48.
      - EXPO
        48:12 'Here' imperative address to Jacob
        Self definition of Yahweh as the first and the last and creator of heaven and earth.
        14 - the call to assemble
        trial before the nations - combative - which of the idols has foretold these things?
        Brief summary of Cyrus oracles - the Lord's chosen ally king cyrus - love better translated - ally or covenant partner - or as a compound sentence... the one Yahweh loves will do his work against the Babylonians - it continues in first person...
        v15 I have called him... brought him... he shall succeed'
        draws out the legal implications of the evidence... God has spoken openly and given public witness through his prophets
        In sum - the oracle is directed towards Israel - reminding them that God's claim was true - deliverance from Cyrus was evidence for his sovereign authority, which Israel continues to reject through unbelief.
      - v 16 - A new voice introduced - and dramatic shift in direction - 'the Sovereign Lord has sent ME....
        Babylon has fallen yet Israel is rebuked for failure to understand the Sovereignty of God and the nature of his redemption of the world. SO - 48 turns again to the traditional oracles of disputation and trial into an accusatory call for Israel's repentance. God confirms his absolute sovereignty over nature and history. His calling of Cyrus will succeed. But there is something new planned.
        There is a movement within the divine economy... signalled by the introduction of a new messenger. .... this chapter doesn't describe who it is - this is revealed in 49 - where the servant speaks autobiographically - describing the mission to the house of Jacob and to the world.
        The one sent by God has a task to complete... to deliver the divine oracle. vv17-19 and assume a prophetic function
      - v17 - God is identified as Israel's redeemer and Holy one... yet what follows points to less familiar direction - a time after cyrus...
        First 'I am Yahweh your God' - God reaffirms his relation to his people.
        THEN two participles WHO.... which define his future goals...
        
        teaches what is best for you - what is best for Israel -
        
        will guide israel in the way she should go -
        
        in the context of second Isaiah to depart from Babylon for Jerusalem... and in the way of righteousness.. and the way of understanding.
        
        V18-19 close the divine speech - an oracle of admonition reminiscent of deut 30:15 and Ps 81.14 - the call again to listen to the divine commandments...
      - vv20-22: chapter ends with exuberant shout of joy - GO FORTH from Babylon - the inner resonance the flight from Egypt to freedom (ex 14:5)...
        The prophetic hymn can be called eschatological since... Israel is still captive in Babylon... for the writer - deliverance is a certainty... and the Hebrew verbal form expresses the note of finality: 'The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob' Howbere, redeemed Israel is not merely to relish its deliverance. It must also bear witness to all the world in proclaiming what God had done on its behalf on the way home through the desert.
        The last sentence casts a shadow on the celebration of deliverance 'There is no peace for the wicked'
        'Peace with God expresses the deepest meaning of deliverance. In the prophetic vision of the future there remain those who do not share in the blessing, even through the promise is for the whole of humanity. There are those outside the city of joy who have excluded themselves. (see 56-66)
    - - “Israel’s Holy One is your restorer” (Is
        41:14). Yahweh being Israel's Holy one was the reason they had to be disciplined... now... this is turned on its head... because Yahweh is Israel's Holy One... Yahweh cannot simply throw Israel off - he is committed to her - so he will act as her restorer (redeemer gō’ēl) and in 35:10 gā’al - to act as kinsman, do the part of next of kin - so Israel is a member of Yaweh's family - to whom Yahweh accepts family obligation.
        
        Babylon and Assyria saw themselves like Gods - who would never cease to be in power... Israel was in a way not much better...
        With poignancy Yahweh declares,
        “If only you had attended to
        my commands” (Is 48:18)
        Then Israel could have enjoyed šālȏm. Here is one such command: “Get ready to get out of Babylon.” As Israel decides whether to heed the command, remember that to ignore Yahweh’s commands makes one a rebel, and there is no šālȏm for rebels (Is 48:20-22). p. 67
        
        The problem is unresolved... the people of Israel were meant to be Yahweh's servant - to model the freedom and blessing - to embody what is was like to be in covenant relationship with Yahweh - so that others would seek relationship with Yahweh.
        But they were deaf and blind... that is why they were in captivity
        
        So God uses an interim servant - to embody what Israel is supposed to be - 'The prophet is the one person who is willing to give Yahweh the kind of response needed from a servant. He thus embodies wgar Israel is supposed to be. there is thus the possibility of using him to draw Israel to a proper response to Yahweh (Isa 49:1-3). p. 69
        But - even though the prophet, through no fault of his own, seems to fail at drawing people into this direction - Yahweh seems to ever increase the dimensions of the task of the servant... 'The propjet is also going to be the means whereby news of Yahweh's deliverance come to the nations (49:4-6). Acts 13:47 Paul applies this to his own mission - we reading this now as 'gentiles' shows this mission has been fulfilled..
    - - 2nd Isa
        
        Coping with disaster: loss national institutions... how to cope with the experience of disaster - the sense of abandonment following collapse of politiacl and religious structures.... the blame was on Yahweh... 'If disaster befalls the city of Jerusalem - has Yahweh not done it (Amos 3:6)....the questions of God's character bubble to the servise... 'Ps 89 'will you hide yourself forever'... maybe Yahweh was weaker than other Gods, maybe Yahweh didn't care...questions of how to reach Yahweh in a foreign land... with no temple ... In Isa 40-55 - questions of God's hiddenness, forgetfulness... 'my way is hidden from Yawheh, my cause is ignored (40:27); he has cast me off '41:14), he has fogotten me (49:14-15). Isa represents disaster in traditional terms - God's anger, process of refining, penal servitude coming to an end.
        
        MIRROR OF THE ENUMA ELISH MYTH P. 107
        
        Tower of Babel
        
        Isaiah 40-55 concentrates on the theme of the God of Israel as victor, creator, and king. In the setting of the overwhelming political background of the Babylonian Empire.. the power was expressed through the cult of the imperial deity Mardik and its main literary expression was the creation myth enuma elish, recited every year at the new year festival...
        
        Marduk was the supreme God
        12 day festival - prayers, songs, dramas, purification ceremonies.. all culminating of the arrival of statues of the two deities.. Marduk and his son Nabu - which would be processed along the main thorough fare of the city, passing through the Ishtar gate to the extramural akitu house.. then there were probably banquets -so throughout these 12 days the would tell and reinact this creation myth... and at the end of the ceremony the God's - enacted by humans in this dramatic ceremony - cry out ' Marduk is King' and they give him a scepter, a royal robe, throne and magical weapons. There is a final banquet and then the litany recites thr 50 names of Marduk and praise his incomparable greatness.. and we can see in the inscription on the Enuma Elish,, the final declaration 'none among the gods can equal him.'
        
        you can see the clay tablets at the british museum - of the Babylonian creation myth enuma elish
        
        KEY WORDS
        Mispat (justice) can refer to judgement – the place of judgement – legal process, legal rights and simply what is right/ correct
        sedeq (righteousness) the opposite of those who are wicked or guilty – the innocent as well as justified punishment
        5:16 – Gods own exalted character and his holiness comes into expression in the highly distinctive divine title ‘The holy one of Israel’ – term appears 20 times in the book
        ‘This means that God’s insistence on Israel not making foreign alliances and his desire for a holy people in Judah are really one and the same thing. His power to save them IS FOR THE PURPOSE OF making them a people that shows justice and righteousness.’ p.5
        Isaiah is in every sense a vision – insight into the nature of God and reality – unfolds a view of what society could and should be like. It declares that it is God’s intention to make his chosen people into such a society, even though they have so far failed.
        
        D-I used history in many ways – byt mainly to remind the exiles of how Yahweh had shown his power not in anger but IN LOVE – towards mankind and his people – so that the exiles might be brought to a state of mind in which they could accept Yahweh as willing and able to perform such deeds once more. In the range and number of his historical allusions – Deutero-Isaiah is unequalled among the prophets.
        Abraham (48:18-19) – promise to A in Gen 22:17 and to Jacob Gen 32:12 – to fill the dispirited and depleted exiles that just as before – Zion will again be filled with a prosperous and numerous population.
    - - Focus is now Judah - not in a positive way - the 'house of Jacob' are described as eager to claim their heritage and the benefits of worshipping the Lord, but apparently only enjoying this commitment when it suits them (henotheism) -
        v2. 'who swear by the name of of the Lord, and invoke the God of Israel but not in truth or righteousness.
        THE MISUSE OF THE LORDS NAME = we think of that as using Gods name as an expletive - but this is more serious... to undertake an oath - with the opposite intention is a perversion.
        v. Judah is stubborn... it tends to turn to other Gods.. three different words are used to describe idols... none of them were the makers of their story....
        V3-5 - Explain that prophesies from long ago have been fulfilled... therefore they cannot claim that the idols have had impact on their lives... god is supreme
        v6 - paradox - hearers are to admit that they have seen the fulfilment of these things - THEN they are told about NEW THINGS - that are being prophesied now... SO THAT they cannot claim human insight or knowledge about these new things -
        SOOOOO - past prophesies fulfilled deny the power of idols.
        new prophesies unforeseen deny power to human insight
        Stubbornness.. that made them not listen... refusal to acknowledge the Lord..
        the Lord's Glory is his sovereignty over their destiny... based on his profound existence - 10-11 - beyond the life of the cosmos... reflected in the covenant name itself - I am who I am, I will be who I will be, I was who I was.
        The cosmos exists because God is.. 'His power over creation comes out of the fact of his existence
        
        A short but very powerful philosophical point - 'in claiming that he simply is, all human categories and understandings are dependent on Him, all human constructs must be penetrated by his reality.'
        What is being claimed in this passage is revelation at its very essence: he is, and all else in human understanding is dependent on that being.
        
        v 14 - reverts to the new and undeclared prophesy... the rest of the verse articulates the role of Cyrus... the thing not yet declared. The Lord 'loves him' seems to be dependent on the idea that Cyrus performs the Lord's will.
        
        v. 16 signals start of another prophesy... with a change of voice - the prophet speaks in his own voice - summoning the people to hear - 'draw near' a weighty term - used for approaching the Lord in faith... rather than physically coming closer... the prophesy can be trusted because he is accompanied by the Spirit
        
        NOW rebuke - v 17
        a rebuke necessary for their own good... as their present situation is because of their refusal to follow the commandments... in contrast the peaceful life that would have been the result of truly listening to the commandments... the lost blessing - of descendants as many as the grains of sand Gen 32:12 - a great name Gen12.2 the covenant named child Gen 17:12 - 'their family history was in blessing, but their unfaithfulness means they have lost what was given to the family.
        
        v20 - all is not lost.. they must believe the word spoken - not only that but he HAS redeemed...
        appeal made back to exodus... when the journey also felt dangerous...
        Climax... having understood God who exists in the past, present and future, this is what they must do: go out from Babylon.
        v 22. then is odd ending... 'there is no peace for the wicked'
        They might feel safe and settled in Babylon... but
        there is no real peace, no peace, no shalom, no real wholeness in the domain of the wicked.
  - - - Prompts by HS - I was thinking something - like a parent - no actually think like this... brought peace
        Direction - life is not a tight rope
        
        Proverbs - trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight.
        
        use of rhetoric
        
        Memory of school - the 'corridor crush' the transition from woods to concrete jungle... the feeling in society at the moment seems to be - be true to yourself - but at the same time - you must agree to the dominant cultural views... you must adhere to a certain language and mindset... our God can seem small, irrelevant, forgotten,
        
        Polytheism: belief in a multiplicity of gods. 3. Henotheism: polytheistic belief that each nation or country has its own god. ... Monotheism: belief in one god, but not necessarily the theistic God. - Judah were essentially holding a henotheistic belief... they had a god - but Babylon also had god...
        
        DO WE LIVE AS THOUGH ITS TRUE - HONESTLY - OR IS IT AN ADD ON?
        
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