12 “Listen to me, O Jacob,
and Israel, whom I called!
I am he; I am the first,
and I am the last.
13 My hand laid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I call to them,
they stand forth together.14 “Assemble, all of you, and listen!
Who among them has declared these things?
The Lord loves him;
he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken and called him;
I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
16 Draw near to me, hear this:
from the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
from the time it came to be I have been there.”
And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.17 Thus says the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you to profit,
who leads you in the way you should go.
18 Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
19 your offspring would have been like the sand,
and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
or destroyed from before me.”20 Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea,
declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
send it out to the end of the earth;
say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
he made water flow for them from the rock;
he split the rock and the water gushed out.22 “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”
— Isaiah 48:12-22, English Standard Version
Sunday Scripture: The LORD’s Call to Israel
Recent Thoughts
Monday morning Ferrari failingIn MondaysNo Comments
Sunday Scripture: The LORD’s Call to IsraelIn Sunday Scripture2 Comments
The Omega KidIn The Agoge2 Comments- Friday T&A: Shop ‘Til You Drop EditionIn fat girl jihad1 Comment
Monday morning turkey stuffingIn MondaysNo Comments- Sunday Scripture: Judgement on the Whole EarthIn Sunday ScriptureNo Comments
Liberalism is a mental illnessIn Philosophy1 Comment
If you enjoyed this article, please:
- Visit the Support page and check out the ways to support my work through purchases and affiliate links;
- Email me and connect directly;
- Share this article via social media;
2 Comments
It’s important to understand that the Israel described in this passage isn’t Judaism. Judaism is a perversion of the Old Testament, a clear departure from the ways of Moses. It’s clear to all who read the Bible seriously how different they are. Judaism did not arise as a clean break from the Old Testament, as if you could go back and pin down a specific time and place when the Israelis got lost. Rather, it’s the net result of trends that have always been a part of who they were, and their tendency to wander from God’s Word as the prophet Isaiah warns against in this passage.
Judaism is the net result of Israel’s fleshly nature, their peculiar moral flaws as a nation, perverting divine revelation. Throughout the history of Israel, we can see how the best and most faithful kept trying to pull them back on track, but the truth is that they were never really there. The bulk of the nation was never faithful without a very active sword keeping them in line. Their wicked nature was never far below the surface.
Jews claim to understand their own Hebrew roots, but their actions as a people betray a literalism that Moses did not promote. Divine Election is not a law or decree; it is the divine Presence Himself. The concept of Israel as “chosen” was not a status painted onto them as a people. Isaiah teaches how it was a domain God built to house them, and which the wicked abandoned with glee. It was Israel as the mission and message, not Israel the people who were chosen.
The living truth is not an instrument. It is a divine Presence with all the subtlety and whimsy of any real person you encounter. You cannot reduce divine revelation to a set of rules. Jewish Law was a manifestation; it was not God Himself.
The only thing Judaism today remembers from that background image is that they insist they should conquer the world with their list of rules, and when it doesn’t work, they are under siege. They see themselves as persecuted because they don’t rule, whining and carping until they do rule. God is not commanding them, so it’s all a fleshly operation. Had they understood the moral and spiritual mandate within that image, then a physical conquest would be unnecessary.
The Covenant of Christ inherits that image – the true Israel, the mission and the message, that the prophet Isaiah is prophesying here. We should recognize that the image is symbolic. We conquer in the moral and spiritual realm, and scarcely pay any attention to the politics of this world. We do not whine about real world persecution; we welcome it as Jesus did the Cross. The sorrow of the Cross led to the joy of conquest in the Spirit Realm. We are besieged in the flesh, but we reign in the Spirit.
The conquest has already taken place in the Unseen Realm. We are not under siege there, and what happens in the flesh is of little consequence. The political manifestation was important for Israel in the Old Covenant but that ended with the Cross; God abandoned human politics into the hands of His opposition, but seized the victory in the Spirit Realm. He now rules in the hearts of people, and the worldly situation is just the background against which His glorious reign shines.
Tikkun Olam is not merely prideful usurpation of God’s role in redemption and salvation, it is diametrically opposed to the entire teaching of the Bible that NO MAN is righteous enough to achieve his own salvation, much less righteous enough to save the entire world.