Isaiah 53 - Surprised by God

The Torah, and especially the  Book of Leviticus and its teaching on the many kinds of sacrifices for sin,  prepares the mind for the servant's  offering of vicarious suffering in Is. 53. The Akedah, or "Binding of Isaac," in Gen. 22: 1-19  where Abraham, at the command of God, takes his son, Isaac, to be offered as a sacrifice is a very mysterious foreshadowing  of the kind of  sacrificial offering offered by the Is. 53 servant, although God put a stop to the sacrifice of Isaac, as a clear statement against the horrific practice of human sacrifice in pagan religion.  The writer of Is. 53 may be alluding to this previous scripture, but the offering of suffering by the servant in Is. 53 still comes as a shock.     

I have been studying Isaiah chapters 40-66 for Lent, and now I am in the middle of this amazing chapter 53.   At verses 4-5 we read: "Yet it was our pain that he bore, our sufferings he endured. We thought of him as stricken, struck down by God and afflicted, But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed."   New American Bible. Is. 53:4-5.  As stated in the New American Bible notes, "One notes the element of surprise, for such vicarious suffering, in the form described here, is without parallel in the Old Testament."   New American Bible. Is. 53:4 (note).   Because these footnotes to chapter 53 clearly put this offering in the context of OT teaching as a whole, I will quote them in part here: 

* [53:4] Struck down by God: the Bible sees suffering as a punishment for sin (e.g., Ps 6:2; 32:1–5), yet sin sometimes appears to go unpunished and the innocent often suffer (cf. Ps 73; the Book of Job). In the case of the servant, the onlookers initially judge him guilty because of his suffering but, in some way not explained, they come to understand that his sufferings are for the sins of others. One notes the element of surprise, for such vicarious suffering, in the form described here, is without parallel in the Old Testament.

* [53:6] The LORD laid upon him: the servant’s suffering is no accidental or casual matter, but part of God’s plan; see also v. 10. The bystanders’ speculation of v. 4 is verified, but not in the sense intended by them.* [53:10–11] Reparation offering: the Hebrew term ’asham is used of a particular kind of sacrifice, one that is intended as compensation for that which is due because of guilt. See Lv 5:14–26 and note. Justify: the verb means “to be acquitted,” “declared innocent,” but since the servant bears “their iniquity,” an effective rather than simply legal action is suggested.

 New American Bible. Is. 53 (notes).

Messiah Primer - History of the Idea

The Messiah (Hebr., "Ha-Mashiaḥ"; Aramaic, "Meshiḥa" = "anointed one") is the  title of  the ideal king of the Messianic age.   Check the the Jewish Encycloclopedia's online article at http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10729-messiah#anchor4       

Temple Mount - Credit Wikipedia Commons 

It is an excellent primer on the history of this idea.  But for those who want a quick glance from a Jewish perspective  at the history of the idea of the Messiah right up to the present, this article from jewishvirtuallibrary.org is a great read: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/messiah.html



     

Law of the Altar - No Stairway to Heaven

Exodus 20: 22-26 in the NRSV  says this:

²² The Lord said to Moses: Thus you shall say to the Israelites: “You have seen for yourselves that I spoke with you from heaven. ²³ You shall not make gods of silver alongside me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. ²⁴ You need make for me only an altar of earth and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your offerings of well-being, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.²⁵ But if you make for me an altar of stone, do not build it of hewn stones; for if you use a chisel upon it you profane it. ²⁶ You shall not go up by steps to my altar, so that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.”

Exodus 20: 22-26 (NRSV).   Lawyers are fascinated by specific rules which come from general rules (key ideas).   The key idea  is that there shall be no idolatry.  Here in verses 22-26 is a case law application of that.  The law prohibiting idols applies  as God’s people,  who are  out in the wilderness before there was a temple,   address this issue:  How do you build an altar?  God tells them  not to make gods (images) of silver or gold and,  as I read verse 24,  not to put  silver or gold into their altars.  And, they are not to use “hewn stones” or use a chisel,  and may not have a stairway to the altar.  

            Avoiding silver and gold is simple advice to keep the people from building  idolatrous structures and images.   But why avoid the hewn stone, the chisel and the stairway?  Iain D. Campbell offers these helpful comments:

An altar is a place of sacrifice and worship. God is to be worshipped only in the way that he demands and requires. He forbids idols of silver or gold to be crafted, because he is a spirit. His altar must be made either of earth or of uncarved stones, and there must be no elaborate stairway or step up to the altar. The emphasis is on simplicity, plainness and earthboundness.

Iain D. Campbell,  Opening Up Exodus (Day One Publications 2006).

            Verse 26 states,  “You shall not go up by steps to my altar, so that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.”   Sarna’s comment shows that this is a statement against pagan rituals and against connecting worship with sex: 

The altar must be so designed as to permit access to it with suitable propriety. This contrasts with many scenes in ancient Near Eastern art that feature priests officiating in the nude. Ritual nudity is a phenomenon known to many religions. It is symbolically associated with both death and rebirth, and it also has a variety of magical uses.  The instruction is clearly intended for the layman at a private altar ….

Nahum Sarna,   The JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus שמות (Jewish Publication Society, 1991) (also explaining that this is directed at laymen at a private altar, not priests, because priests had linen clothing which covered up nakedness). 

            The worship of God must be pure and simple, and have no connection with sex.  God is a spirit, and as Sarna says, “God is content with a simple earthen altar and requires no elaborate structure.” 

            I have titled this post, "Law of the Altar," but Exodus 20:22-26 is much more than law.  Verse 22 says in part:  “You have seen for yourselves that I spoke with you from heaven."  This whole section, verses 22-26,  expresses the idea  that when God speaks from heaven he is making a momentous statement about himself, and about what he expects.   By communicating through his voice rather than from some visual image, God makes a statement that he is above all gods.   The people experience the voice, and that's a spiritual experience which radically opposes the idolatrous spirituality which the people knew from life in Egypt where they worshiped man (Pharaoh) and animals, and  earthly places and things,   The voice from heaven naturally leads to the law of the altar.  The voice is a statement against idolatry, and the law of the altar flows out from that.

            This scripture opens up huge areas for application today, which are beyond the scope of this post.  But one thing can be said:  We have just as many idolatrous forces in our world as they had in the days of Moses.   This scripture at verse 24 teaches that God "will come to you and bless you," but this promise of blessing assumes that the person seeking God has made the right disconnections from these other forces. 

Missionary Disciple

Abram K-J has  this  wonderful Advent post  on Jonah and included this painting.  Jonah no doubt had the heart of a missionary, but he gets depressed at Nineveh where he finds missionary success. Jonah is a great story of the love of God.  

Jonah  Thrown into the Sea, by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)

This all brings to mind Pope Francis' teaching on the missionary disciple.    All believers are called by God to reach out. It's difficult and there will be times when the missionary wants to give up, like Jonah did, but the presence of God is in the mission.

Making Events Present

If you use the "search" on this blog there are several posts on anamnesis (remembering).  As God's people  gather in worship God comes with memories of his mighty acts, events which become present in liturgy.  Because God is in eternity, this is more than a re-representation of past events.

Sarna says this about remembering in his comment on Exodus 2:24: 

The Hebrew stem z-k-r connotes much more than the recall of things past. It means, rather, to be mindful, to pay heed, signifying a sharp focusing of attention upon someone or something. It embraces concern and involvement and is active not passive, so that it eventuates in action. As Menaḥot 43b has it: “Looking upon leads to remembering, and remembering leads to action.”

Remembering leads to action.  How does this happen?   The worshiper relives the events, as described in Sarna's notes to Exodus chapter 13:

This section continues the process of historicizing existing institutions by reinterpreting them in terms of the Exodus experiences. The revitalized ancient rituals, now charged with new historical meaning, serve to perpetuate the memory of those events by making them living realities for succeeding generations.

Nahum Sarna,   The JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus שמות (Jewish Publication Society, 1991). 

Read the NT in Greek

No excuses.  I've had the classes.  I can handle the grammar.     But   I've just been too lazy to plow through the NT in Greek.  Well, here is the challenge from Travis Bohlinger:  http://tavisbohlinger.wordpress.com/2014/10/02/no-more-reading-the-nt-in-english-please/

Gospel of Luke

I will be back to Exodus soon.   But today I have to  mention Brian Davidson's insight into Luke's 
Gospel:

While reading through Luke over the past couple weeks, it seemed to me that Luke makes explicit ideas that are implicit in the other Synoptic Gospels. I note here four: (1) the exodus motif, (2) the movement of the Synoptics’ presentation of Jesus’ ministry from Galilee down to Jerusalem, (3) the idea that Jesus was a prophet “in word and deed,” and (4) the belief that Jesus rose physically and bodily. 

http://brianwdavidson.com/2013/06/14/luke-states-what-others-imply/#_ftn2  
If you read Brian's  post you will see four fascinating  scriptural cases where Luke makes explicit what is implicit in the other Synoptic Gospels.