DAY 293

NOW & NOT YET

Isaiah 56, 57 & 58 and 2 Thessalonians 2

If you have been reading along in Isaiah, keep up the good work…we are at the final section of this Book…chapters 56-66. Barry Webb in his commentary titles this section “Waiting for the new world.” The historical setting is that some of the exiled Jews are returning to Jerusalem – it was a time of high expectations and immense difficulties. Try and picture the scene. There are the locals, those who have lived there since the Jewish people were hauled away. They have made it their home and introduced their own religions. They would likely not welcome returning Jews. The returning Israelites would not approve of them, but there is more. While they have returned, they are still part of the Persian Empire—they are not a free people. Faced with limited resources and resistance from the inhabitants of the land, their job was to re-establish the Kingdom of God. In many ways they lived “between times.” The return from exile had begun, but was nowhere near complete…they lived in the tension of the “now and not yet.”

We live in a similar tension. As Christians we know that Jesus by his life, death, resurrection and ascension has inaugurated God’s Kingdom, and yet it will only come to fulfillment upon his return. Isaiah in this section is speaking to the returning people about all they will face and what will come to pass, but we find ourselves again realizing that what Isaiah is saying applies to more than his specific time.

What Isaiah says to God’s people about living in in-between time, he is saying to us!

And so we find ourselves again having to work through the back-and-forth of Isaiah to find God’s rich message for us…for the Kingdom of God has come, and is yet to come…it is an exciting time and a difficult one…this is our world…the world of being the people who are to shine God’s light to a dark world.

We find in Isaiah 56:1-8 the marks of a redeemed community, the community that is being restored in Jerusalem, and the community we are to establish in Christ’s holy catholic church: justice and openness -- God is for all people.

Yet we quickly see the strain of the situation on the returning exiles new community. Stressful times demand good, very good leadership…it is critical. Leaders in an embryonic community are to be watchmen (56:10) keeping alert for dangers. They are to be shepherds who nurture and strengthen and protect their flock (56:11). Neither happens. And so this community that is to be a community of justice and one which is open to the Lord, turns into a community of the opposite. This plot line unfolds through 57:13, and yet as bad as things have again become, God holds out hope “for those who take refuge in God will possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain."

That is not the only place hope is offered by God. The balance of the chapter speaks not to the wicked, but the faithful. God tells them to “build up” for He, the Almighty, dwells with those of a contrite and lowly spirit. God is constantly in the business of correcting but not abandoning.

The next chapter deals with fasting. You might wonder why? Fasting, ritual fasting, is the natural act of the community that is mourning, repenting, and seeking God…and so God offers wonderful instruction. We still encourage people to fast, but to do so as Isaiah describes here…to share our bread and to break the yoke of the oppressed.

If that is a thumbnail sketch of these chapters, then I invite you to ponder for a moment our world and our church. Do you at times feel like an outsider; that others have completely different values and idols? Today’s idols are money, staying young, material possessions – they own people, people do not own them. Yet we are to be different. That is just one line of tension; there are many more and we live in this stress-field as as followers of Jesus.

How will we get through? How we will stay true and proclaim the Good News of God in Christ? We need quality leaders. I need to be a quality leader, a watchman and a shepherd, but that is not what I, or you, need most. To make it about human leaders is to cut God out of the picture. What we need most are humble and contrite hearts…for it is here that God dwells…it is here that we will find our place in this in-between world…it is here we will find what we need most—God.