Wednesday 26 September 2012

Background

The middle chapters of Isaiah (40-55) anticipate God's peoplerescued from the Babylonian exile through the Persian ruler Cyrus,and redeemed from sin through the work of God's servant. The finalchapters (56-66) envisage life afterwards, and in that thepolitical restoration did not actually achieve all the hopesexpressed, for Christian readers these chapters anticipate howthings will be only when Christ's work is completed and he comesagain.

The words of today's passage come from the lips of one of thewatchmen or guardians that God's anointed agent posts on the wallsof Jerusalem city to pray constantly for successful conclusion ofthe work of salvation (62:6). The speech becomes a prayer ofconfession - one of the finest in the Bible - that continues to theend of chapter 64, but these first three verses are a reminder toGod of what God means, or should mean, to the descendants ofIsrael.

"Gracious deeds" at the start of verse 7 and "steadfast love" atthe end, are alternative attempts to translate the Hebrew word thatactually means 'kindnesses'. The verse as a whole seeks to captureevery possible display of God's never-failing love: things done,the many good things given, and God's emotional compassion.

Verses 8 and 9 then recall the key concrete dimensions of God'slove for the people which theological language calls 'election' and'covenant': God saying, "Surely they are my people, children whowill not deal falsely", followed by God acting for their salvation.The Exodus was seen as the time when God created such arelationship;see Exodus 4:22 and 6:7 for election and covenant, and then Exodus14:30 as the only place in that story where God is said to have"saved them", in the specific sense that the Egyptian pursuers haddrowned in the Red Sea, but this comes to be seen as evidence thatGod will indeed save them from every distress.

The emphasis in verse 9 is on God acting personally to save, notthrough an intermediary; "his presence" is literally 'the angel ofhis face'. The image of God lifting up and carrying is a veryintimate one, and the word translated "love" in this verse is usedonly here in Isaiah and is a Hebrew word that stresses delight inthe companionship of the loved one.

To Ponder

• The speaker seems to be 'talking to God about God'. Is thissomething you do, or might do, perhaps in the form of writtenrather than spoken words?

• What would your list of the 'kindnesses of God' contain?

• Verse 9 is eager to underline the superiority of God's actualpresence to God's depending on angels to do the work of savingpeople in distress. Are either or both of these methods relevanttoday? What has been your experience of meeting God?