Week 19 - Isaiah 51:17-52:12
This week’s Isaiah text is sort of troublesome, yet ultimately one of consolation regaling God’s benevolent care after deep adversity. The original readers (or listeners) are asked to wake up to God’s Presence. A new world is upon them after being delivered from the exile in Babylonia. The divine Absence is no more. The ‘cup of wrath’ that the Judahite exiles and those left leaderless in Jerusalem have been drinking 'to the dregs(!)’ has passed on to their enemies. They can have it; much better days are ahead!
- Lyle
Reading: Brueggemann pages 132-140
Questions for Reflection
- Given last week’s discussion of ‘re-imaging God’, what do you see here, if anything, that speaks of re-imaging? Is the God that is imagined delivering the Israelites out of Egypt spoken of differently at all in this new exodus account, the deliverance out of Babylon? How would you describe this special relationship between God and deliverance?
- The text opens with the people drunken with God’s wrath or ‘fury’. How do you configure divine wrath in a way that is restorative and not punitive (as in: guilt and despair-inducing)? Is wrath even a ’thing’ today? A cosmic God who is absolutely indifferent in the face of moral evil isn’t that attractive either. But does God cause anything really, or is there just freedom for us to experience the pain that our willful, egocentric choices cause?
- Jesus, who knew the Isaiah scrolls intimately, likely saw himself in the fourth Servant Song coming immediately after our text (although, of course, it wasn't written about him originally). Giving yourself free imaginative rein, what do you think Jesus made of 51:17-52:12?
- This text is called a ’salvation oracle.’ Name a time in your life (or in the life of your community) when you were delivered by ‘God’ out of trouble. How did you experience this deliverance? Why do you attribute it to God and not to your own brilliant effort?
permission pending from Steve Coffey
