Week 15 - Isaiah 49:13-26
“Those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.” - Isaiah 49:23b
Our passage this week starts with a short, joyous hymn, followed quickly by a short, anything-but-joyous lament. The hymn even has that code word: “comfort,” once spoken when the superhighway was announced in 40:1. Brueggemann had called it the “indomitable voice of comfort.”
But by now Israel has heard it all, and their answer to the promise of comfort is a bitter complaint. “The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.” Despite God’s fancy promises, nothing seems to have changed. God is talking homecoming, but all Israel is experiencing is exile.
What to do when God’s promises ring hollow, leaving only world-weary cynicism? Feel familiar?
I remember a cynical comment my Oma had once made. In the months before she died at age 100, I visited in the care home to feed her lunch. She had always been stoic in the face of suffering, having faced so much of it during the war. But as I helpfully lifted the fork, my normally compliant Oma clamped shut.
I was still in first half of life, with a solution for everything, and like an annoying coach, I pushed on with my agenda. “Come on Oma,” I said encouragingly in german, “the food will give you strength.” With bitter irony, she responded, “Yeah. I need strength to die.” Her cynical tone caught me off guard and I was speechless.
Zion’s lament could have been her own. Her life was too long and this dying business was too much. In the years since, I’ve wondered, where was the God of comfort? How was she supposed to move forward with hope when only death seemed real? Will I have hope in God even when life’s suffering has rubbed off all my shiny parts?
Israel too had good reason to clamp up against a word of comfort in their present circumstance of exile. Unlike me, God was not rendered speechless. What I love about this passage is how over-the-top God’s response seems to be.
- Lydia
Reading: Brueggemann pages 115-125
Questions for Reflection
- This passage has some odd references which might give the reader pause. For this question, design a question that you have about this week’s section of Isaiah.
- Can you remember a time when words of faith felt hollow to you during a time of anxiety and doubt? Or, have you ever tried to comfort someone else during such a time? What did you say? Did it help?
- What experiences have you known, individually or as a member of a group, of seeming to be forgotten by God? Express it in a short lament, like verse 14. Now imagine God is assigned the task of convincing you of another perspective. What would God say? If it helps, exaggerate your lament and/or God’s response.
image by Ariel Burger
