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Have you ever felt yourself to be in utter despair? That nothing would ever be right again? That you were trapped and nothing was changing, or could change?
That’s pretty much how the Israelites felt during their captive years in Babylon, way back in the 6th century BC. The Book of Isaiah from the Old Testament has three parts: the first part (chapters 1-39) is filled with warnings by the prophet that the Israelites were heading for destruction because of the way were living, ignoring the laws of God. Their lack of trust in God led them to trust in their own limited abilities more. The result of that was death and exile. But in the second part (chapters 40-55), we see that they have endured exile and are about to experience restoration. (The third part, chapters 56-66, is preoccupied with the internal struggles after the restoration. Aren’t we ever happy?)
The passages from Isaiah that we are about to begin reading in Small Christian Communities this fall, 40-55, model the human experience: in the midst of our despair God is still there, God wants us to be comforted and flourish. Exile has passed and the people of God are to be restored to wholeness.
Fr. John Scullion once wrote, “Each verse of the Old Testament is being relived somewhere in our world today.” It is our experience of exile and redemption as well that resonates in the book of Isaiah.
Enjoy! And please, share your thoughts here on our blog.
