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Isaiah 27:2-11
The next use of “shalom” is in Isaiah 27:5, which is actually a part of a small statement about Israel as a vineyard.
On that day;
A pleasant vineyard, sing about it!
I, the Lord, am its keeper;
Every moment I water it.
I guard it night and day
So that no one can harm it;
I have no wrath.
If it gives me thorns and briars,
I will march to battle against it.
I will burn it up.
Or else let it cling to me for protection,
Let it make peace with me,
Let it make peace with me. (27:2-5)
This is a beautiful little jewel. Israel is likened to a vineyard, lovingly tended and cared for by Yahweh. He takes good care of it, guards it and cherishes it. How Israel responds to such protection and care is up to it. It can revolt against Yahweh and seek to go its own way. Or it can cling to Yahweh. If it chooses the former, it will eventually be destroyed. If it chooses the latter, it will fully experience “shalom”. Which will it choose? The choice is up to it!
Isaiah 32:1-20
The next two uses of “shalom” are in Isaiah 32:17 and 18. It is an integral part of a very important and profound oracle – 32:15-20 – in which the peace of God’s intentions being acted out in society is directly linked to justice.
(When) a spirit from on high is poured out on us,
and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field is deemed a forest,
then justice will dwell in the wilderness
and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
The effect of righteousness will be peace,
and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.
My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,
in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
The forest will disappear completely,
and the city will be utterly laid low.
Happy will you be who sow beside every stream,
who let the ox and the donkey range freely. (32:15-20)
This is a most profound and penetrating passage. In essence, the prophet describes the world and human society as “God intends it to be when God’s Spirit is poured out upon humanity. It presents a vision of a fruitful and abundant earth filled with a people living in peace and in the security of doing the will of God. It ends “with a homey little picture of the farmer in a well-watered land, so free from danger that he can let his cattle out to graze wherever they like” (G.G.D. Kilpatrick, “Exposition of the Book of Isaiah”, The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 5 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1956,), p. 345). As G. Ernest Wright summarizes the passage, “In the age to come, God will pour out his Spirit upon all (compare Joel 2:28-29), the barren places of nature will become fruitful, justice will prevail in society, and the result will be peace, quietness, and trust forever” (G. Ernest Wright, The Book of Isaiah (Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1964), p. 73).
What is particularly significant about this passage is not that it suggests that economic reform and social righteousness will bring in this new society. It is that there will be a profound moral and spiritual transformation that will occur through God’s Spirit being “poured out on us”, and that, in turn, will lead to a political, social and economic transformation. Prosperity, justice and physical blessings result from a new spirit in human relationships. God’s new act of grace will enable humanity to meet God’s moral demands for society.
When God’s Spirit comes upon humanity,
“then justice will dwell in the wilderness
and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
The effect of righteousness will be shalom
and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. (32:16-17)
The social responsibility of Israelite society, as described in this passage, is described as “justice” and “righteousness”. It is important to comprehend the Hebrew understanding of these two words, rather than the English meaning of them. Righteousness, in is English usage, is defined as “acting in accord with divine or moral law; free from guilt or sin” or “morally right or justifiable” (Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, MA.: Merriam-Webster Inc., Publ., 1987, p. 1015). Therefore, “righteousness” means, in English, moral behavior.
But that is not what “righteousness” means in the Hebrew language. Rather the Hebrew word translated “righteousness” (tsedeq) and the Hebrew word translated “justice” are identical! It is the arbitrary decision of the translator that determines whether “tsedeq” should be translated by the word “justice” or the word “righteousness” in any given passage. Therefore, the Hebrew word “tsedeq” has about it right action and fair dealing between person and person, or between the political, economic or religious systems and the people. The word, therefore, has much more of a meaning of compensatory equality, clemency and compassion about it than do the two comparable English words (cf., Alan Richardson, A Theological Wordbook of the Bible. New York: Macmillan, 1960, pp. 202-204).
Even more importantly, when “tsedeq” is used in tandem as it is in Isaiah 32:16 (“Then justice will dwell in the wilderness and righteousness abide in the fruitful field”), it is intentionally nuancing the word so that its first usage is implying its legal usage (i.e., compensatory equality) and the second, its ethical usage (i.e., being compassionate and merciful toward the poor and the victims of the misuses of power).
The point is that wherever an English translation of the Hebrew Bible uses the word “righteousness”, it is using it as indicating compassionate and just behavior, especially toward the poor and powerless. It does not mean pietistic, individualistic or moralistic behavior! So what Isaiah is saying in chapter 32 is that the coming of God’s Spirit upon Israel will accomplish is that it will enable Israel to consistently act as a society by God’s intentions and ideal, acting justly and compassionately toward each other and then creating a society in which wealth will be equitably shared, all people will be treated justly, and the entire society will live in “shalom”.
Isaiah 45:1-7:
We now move in our study of the use of “shalom” to Second Isaiah. This portion of Isaiah (Isa. 40-55) was written soon after the end of the Babylonian captivity (c. 539 BCE). Second Isaiah was the first biblical prophet to thoroughly proclaim a truly monotheistic and universal theology of Yahweh. First, his theology is authentically and thoroughly monotheistic – Yahweh is the only God in the universe. There is no other god. Always before, to the Jews, Yahweh was the supreme God, greater than all the others. But now, Second Isaiah dismisses the idea that there is any truth at all in a belief in other gods.
Yahweh is also universal in his compassion for the world. He is not only concerned with Israel, but is committed to all the peoples of the world. No one is outside his saving love – no matter what his ethnic origin or the nation to which he belongs. Yahweh rules over all nature as well as history, over all nations as well as Israel.
This belief is given testimony in an absolutely audacious statement.
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,
Whose right hand I have grasped
To subdue nations before him
And strip kings of their robes,
To open doors before him –
And the gates shall not be closed:
I will go before you
And level the mountains,
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
And cut through the bars of iron, . . .
So that you may know that it is I, the Lord,
The God of Israel, who calls you by your name. (45:1-3)
In this amazing statement, Second Isaiah is calling Cyrus II his “anointed” – in Hebrew, “meshiakh” (pronounced “Ma sheh ah” (or “Messiah” in English). This was a term previously reserved for Israel’s kings and prophets consecrated to God’s service. But now it is being used of a pagan king who not only does not know Yahweh; he has never even heard of Yahweh! Yet Second Isaiah is saying that Cyrus is to be God’s Messiah to conquer the other nations of the world, and in such conquering, to become knowledgeable about and to recognize the power of Yahweh.
I am the Lord, and there is no other;
Besides me there is no god.
I arm you, though you do not know me,
So that they may know, from the rising of the sun
And from the west, that there is no one besides me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I form light and create darkness,
I make weal (shalom) and create woe;
I the Lord do all these things. (45:5-7)
Cyrus II of Persia is chosen by God to conquer Babylon in 539/538 BCE, set free the exiled Israelites and return them to Jerusalem. In doing this work as God’s “Messiah”, Cyrus will come to learn of Israel’s God and will eventually worship Him (vss. 3-4). For it is God who is using an unaware Cyrus, who is so powerful that He can shape the minds and decisions of kings without their being aware He is doing so, and thus topple empires. He is the God responsible for the natural world (“I form light and create darkness”) and the events of human history (“I make weal and create woe”). It is God who is the only overwhelming force in the world, and who is therefore the giver in the political, economic, social and religious worlds of authentic “shalom”.
Isaiah 48:17-22:
The next two uses of “shalom” is in Isaiah 48:18 and 22. This chapter is being critical of Judah and Israel because they have a long history of obstinacy. “Your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass” (48:4).
But God is going to work a miracle through Cyrus, resulting both in the destruction and defeat of Babylon and of the return of Israel from exile. If Israel will only listen and accept this, they will be blessed by God. But Second Isaiah has little hope that will occur.
Thus says the Lord,
Your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God,
Who teaches you for your own good,
Who leads you in the way you should go.
O that you had paid attention to my commandments!
Then your prosperity (“shalom”) would have been like a river,
And your success like the waves of the sea. (48:17-18)
There then occurs what has become a popular saying, coined by Second Isaiah. “There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked” (48:22; cf. 57:21). This statement has gotten trivialized today into “There is no rest for the wicked”. But that misses its impact – because what is actually being said is “There is no shalom, says the Lord, for the wicked."
There can be no participation in the shalom community, no being a part of (or even in approximation to) a community that builds its power (with God and others) upon relationality and acts that out in a politics of justice and an economics of equitable distribution to rid the world of poverty. The wicked have no part in this – even if they belong to Israel. There can be no enfolding in the shalom community for the wicked, for their very wickedness excludes them from such a community.
Isaiah 50:3-10:
The scripture for today is Isaiah 50:4-10; verses 4-9 make up the third of the “Servant Songs” (42:1-4; 49:1-6 and 52:13-53:12 are the other three songs), while verse 10 is a commentary on it.
There are to common themes of all the servant songs that are in this song. The first is briefly referenced in 50:4-9, while the second is stressed.
The first theme deals with the servant’s prophetic character (50:4-5). He is one who has received God’s word so that he might share that word with the Israelites who are “weary” (i.e., the Israelites in Babylonian exile) so that this word from God will sustain them and give them hope. Rather than be hope-filled by God’s promise of their relief and liberation, however, the “weary” turn upon the servant and persecute him.
The second theme, therefore, is that of the servant who suffers at the hands of his own people (50:6-9). It begins with this powerful image:
I gave my back to those who struck me,
And my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
From insult and spitting. (50:6)
The theme of the servant as one who suffers on behalf of the people is alluded to in 42:4, developed in 49:7, and now is fully exploited in 50:6-9 and 52:13-53:12. The description of his suffering is very specific. Here in 50:6-9, it deals with the beating and scourging he receives. In 52:13-53:12, it describes in details his suffering, sacrificial and even substitutionary redemptive death.
There is an intriguing and likely comparison that one can make between the Suffering Servant of Second Isaiah and Jeremiah (who would have been the outstanding and now revered prophet of the previous generation). Like Jeremiah, the persecutors of the servant are his own people – the Jews who mock both men because of their message (Jer. 20:7-13; Isa. 50:6). Like Jeremiah, the servant proclaims that it is Yahweh who supports, strengthens and sustains him in the midst of this persecution (Jer. 20:11-12; Isa. 50:7-9). But unlike Jeremiah who descends into self-pity, crying out bitterly and regarding how God has allowed God’s detractors to persecute him – and even cursing the day he was born, the Servant accepts his suffering stoically (Jer. 20:14-18; Isa. 50:7-10, 53:7), and even perceiving his own death as being redemptive for Israel and perhaps for all of humanity (53:4-6). As a result, Jeremiah ends his life cursing the fate that has befallen him (Jer. 20:14-18), while the servant ends his life with the hope of personal resurrection and the reclamation of all humanity (Isa. 53:11-12)!
The church from its earliest days claimed that Jesus was the personification of the Suffering Servant. It is easy to see why, given the uncanny parallelism between the account of the Servant’s turmoil (50:4-9; 52:13-53:12) and Jesus’ actual trial, scourging, crucifixion, atoning work and resurrection. Second Isaiah, in writing these passages, was saying far more than he ever perceived or imagined himself as saying. That is the nature of a truly prophetic spirit! But it is also worthy of note that the church never considered embracing Jeremiah as a model for Jesus’ passion (rather than the Suffering Servant), and I wonder if that is because of the profoundly different way Jeremiah chose to deal with his suffering than did the Servant!
Today’s Midday Office ends with a magnificent prayer:
Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give me the grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son my Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.[1]
[1] Tickle, Phyllis, The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime (NY: Doubleday, 2001), p. 337.
Isaiah 53:1-23:
The next use of “shalom” in Isaiah is 53:5 –
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
Crushed for our iniquities;
Upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
And by his bruises we are healed.
The English word “whole” is a translation of the Hebrew word, “shalom”.
Isaiah 52:13—53:12 is the fourth and final “Servant Song” – and as such, the most profound. It is a poem of double meaning – a meaning that its authors clearly had in mind, and then a meaning behind the meaning that God’s people, through the ages, came to recognize was the deep meaning of that passage.
The initial meaning intended by the author was, even so, both profound and revolutionary in nature. One of the challenges that prophets, priests and the writers of scripture faced during and immediately following the Babylonian exile was how to give an adequate theological explanation for that captivity. Isaiah was no exception. The initial explanation was that Israel’s suffering in captivity was just recompense for their persistent disobedience and their refusal to follow the Mosaic covenant and law (Jer. 29:1-19; Ezek. 22).
A second explanation was that God’s servants, the prophets, suffer in anticipation of the suffering of the Israelites, that suffering is to expose to us the will or intention of God both for us but also for all Jewry (Jer. 16:1-4; Ezek. 12:17-20).
But in Isaiah 52:13—53:12, the author’s explanation for the reason for Israel’s sufferings through exile was substitutionary and atoning. That is, their suffering stood in the place of the sufferings and sins of the world, atoned for those sins, and thus redeemed the nations. By this insight, Second Isaiah had extended salvation not just to Israel but to the whole world – to all nations and peoples. But he has also profoundly advanced the doctrine of salvation so that such suffering was deep and significant enough that it actually atoned for the sins of the nations (much as the slaughter of a pure animal atoned for Israel’s sin in Jewish liturgical ritual). It made the nations righteous and brought them into relationship with God! Their suffering, although a perversion of justice (53:7-9) was nonetheless willed by God (53:10) in order to save the world. This, according to Isaiah 53:5, was the only way that the nations, as well as Israel would be able to embrace “shalom” as God’s intentions for life to be lived in this world.
Christians, looking back on this passage, see a meaning beyond this meaning that Second Isaiah intended. The history of Israel after their return from exile demonstrated that, in reality, their suffering not only did not result in the atonement of the world. It didn’t even contribute to their own atonement! Instead, the opposite happened so that Israel withdrew from contact with the rest of the world and became more insular, isolated and even jingoistic. So even the earliest Christians realized that 2:13-53:12 had a far more profound meaning than Israel suffering for the sins of the nations. Rather, it was written to witness to the person, suffering and redemptive work of Jesus of Nazareth. For it was his death that proved truly redemptive and transforming, both for individuals and for societies even to today!
Isaiah 54:1-17:
The “shalom” scriptures for today are Isaiah 54:10 and 13. Those passages occur within the context of a chapter given over to Yahweh creating an eternal covenant of peace with Jerusalem. The imagery is that Yahweh (as the husband) and Jerusalem (as the wife) are married (54:5-8). However, their marriage has deteriorated almost to the breaking point because of Jerusalem’s unfaithfulness. However, Yahweh has decided to restore the marriage, and thus makes an everlasting covenant with Jerusalem (54:9-10) and will recommit to her (54:11-17). It is within this context that the two uses of “shalom” occur.
This is like the days of Noah to me:
Just as I swore that the waters of Noah
Would never again go over the earth,
So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you
And will not rebuke you.
For the mountains may depart
And the hills be removed,
But my steadfast love shall not depart from you,
And my covenant of peace shall not be removed,
Says the Lord, who has compassion on you. (54:9-10)
The other passage is in verse 13:
All your children shall be taught by the Lord,
And great shall be the prosperity
Of your children.
Incidentally, note how “shalom” is used in verse 10 to connote “peace” and in verse 13 to denote “prosperity”.
Verse 10 in particular speaks to me. I like the way the prophet connects “steadfast love” (chesedh) and “peace” (shalom) as a single concept through the Hebraic stylistic vehicle of parallelism (that is, saying the same thing in two distinct ways through parallel phrases – a popular Hebraic poetic device).
My steadfast love shall not depart from you,
My covenant of peace shall not be removed.
To describe Yahweh’s relationship with Jerusalem – and therefore, by extension, all of Israel – as chesedh and shalom is particularly noteworthy. Chesedh (redemptive, unconditional love) and shalom (the being at one with another, society being at peace with itself) is to be the mark of God’s intentions for humanity. But not only does Second Isaiah describe that condition that God wants between the systems (political, economic, religious) of society and its people. It is also the defining words in regards to the relationship God intends between all of humanity and God. It is the epitome of a relational culture, taking Augustine’s famed statement (“God has made us for himself, and our hearts are restless until they repose in Him”) and expanding it beyond individuals to a description of God’s intentions for all society that can be described only in terms of marriage between God and society’s structures (“Jerusalem”)!
Isaiah 57:14-21:
“Shalom” is used three times in Isaiah 57 – in verses 2, 19 and 21. This chapter consists of two parts: Verses 1-2 and 14-21 is a section that deals with God’s help and support to the committed remnant who wish to remain centered in Yahweh. That passage is divided by vss. 3-13 that deals with a description of the cultic practices followed by the Jews and Gentiles who remained behind in Jerusalem during the exile.
When the Babylonian Empire conquered and annexed Judah and took Israel’s political, economic and religious leadership into exile, they also brought Babylonians and other Gentiles into conquered Judah to occupy it. These people, of course, brought their cultural values, religions and beliefs with them. In rather short order, the remaining Jews and these Gentiles began to intermarry, eventually resulting in the formation of the Samaritan people. According to Second Isaiah in Isaiah 57:3-13, these Jew-Gentile “half-breeds” living in Palestine were participating in cult prostitution (vss. 3-8), child sacrifice (vss. 9-10), making offerings to the dead (vs. 6), worshipping a phallus (vss. 7-8) and converting the Temple into a center for ritual prostitution (vss. 7-8). All of these practices were practices that came from either the ancient Cannanite worship of El, Moloch and Ba’al or were imports from Mesopotamian worship.
Therefore, Second Isaiah is noting this strange anomaly. Those who remained behind in conquered Israel were spiritually compromised by Mesopotamian religious practices. On the other hand, those Jews who went as captives into the heart of Mesopotamia – Babylon – had kept themselves pure and centered in an orthodox worship of Yahweh. Those who stayed at home were seduced. Those who went into the “lion’s den” remained pure! Therefore, Second Isaiah contends, it is the exiles, now returned to Palestine, who will experience God’s shalom while the betraying Jewish natives will be dispersed and blown away by the wind of Yahweh (57:13).
It is in this context, therefore, that we can understand what Second Isaiah is saying about the visiting of shalom upon the newly-restored Israel:
Peace, peace to the far and the near (for those who
Remained faithful), says the Lord;
And I will heal them.
But the wicked are like the tossing sea that cannot keep still;
Its waters toss up mire and mud.
There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked. (57:19-21)