If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.
4 May. Isaiah chapters 23-27
These oracles of woe, interspersed with songs of praise, make strange reading. Webb’s commentary that I am following makes sense of them by explaining them as predictions, not of actual historical events (except the oracle against Tyre in chapter 23, which could refer to one of several invasions), but of the final judgement of God against human sin and the establishment of his ultimate reign from Jerusalem with any who would come to him. The oracles therefore belong more in the New Testament tradition of the Revelation to St John, than in Old Testament style prophecy. Those who reign from Jerusalem are those who turn to God through Christ, since there is no temple any more and God’s grace has been shown to all people.
If I am to pick out any particular passage it would be the start of chapter 24, headed (in the NRSV) “Impending judgement on the earth”. The images are of both economic and environmental disaster, all because people have broken God’s laws and covenant. Again, Webb is helpful here is suggesting that the reference is not to the Abrahamic covenant but that with Noah. God promised never again to destroy mankind (at least by a flood), so why does he reveal to Isaiah that he will destroy civilisation? Because once again people have ceased to be what it is to be human. Long before Abraham or Moses, God put humanity on the earth to be stewards of it and to care for and support each other.
When societies break down so that people are neglected and abused, and the earth robbed for its riches at the expense of the poor, then the most basic of God’s covenants is broken and the consequences are inevitable. In our day with inequalities rising, hatred and suspicion growing and climate change destroying livelihoods across the world, we need more than ever to understand this and turn back to basics and to God in repentance.