are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news,
who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
8 Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices,
together they sing for joy;
for in plain sight they see
the return of the Lord to Zion.
9 Break forth together into singing,
you ruins of Jerusalem;
for the Lord has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations;
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.
Isaiah 52:7-10, part of a larger poem with the theme of the restoration of Zion (Isaiah 51:1-52:12), has the theme of the announcement of the advent of peace, a prediction of salvation.
I begin this reflection with an observation. Whatever it is that you want to announce, choosing the right strategy to get the maximum impact is critical. We need to ask three questions if we are going to maximize the impact and spread of the announcement.[1] In a playful way, I am going to suggest that the strategy God has for announcing the advent of peace and salvation is right on target.
Who is your spokesperson? It is a clever idea to identify one person who will be the point of contact for the big announcement and who will be the only person who speaks on behalf of the family or organization. Having a single spokesperson keeps the message consistent and focused. Of course, it is most important that the people within the organization are clear about who is speaking on their behalf. Otherwise, the message can get muddled and leak out in ways that one would not intend.
What are your key messages? No matter how complex the big announcement may be, you should be able to boil it down to three key messages that address the most important questions people may have upon hearing the announcement. Keeping these key messages consistent and repeating them often tends to make them stick in the minds of the hearer.
What is the timing? Experts say that if you are going to announce unwelcome news, Friday afternoons are the best time to do it since few people pay attention to the news on weekends. Good news, on the other hand, should hit the media on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday morning. It is all about the timing, which can either minimize or maximize the announcement's impact.
Considering these questions, let us see how the message of this text fits with maximizing the impact of the announcement.
First, who is your spokesperson? The prophet is the speaker. 7How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger, making it clear that the big announcement God is making to his people in exile in Isaiah 52:7-10 is coming straight from the top: "Therefore my people shall know my name; therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here am I" (v. 6). God chooses various spokespersons throughout the Scriptures -- prophets, angels and shepherds, just to name a few. Yet, the message that God alone commissions is consistent.
In this case, the "messenger" who makes the announcement in verse 7 may refer to Isaiah himself, who God commissioned to take God's message to God's exiled people (6:1-13). Nevertheless, like a good spokesperson, the prophet is always pointing to the larger message and not to himself. The words of Isaiah 52 sit intermingled amidst the four "servant songs" of the prophet's writing, where the whole nation of Israel is the Suffering Servant through whom God will make known to the world the message of peace, salvation, and redemption. Scripture reveals, however, that Israel was not a consistent spokesperson given that, like all of us, it too easily distorted the message and mission through sin and self-interest.
From the perspective of the Christian faith, Jesus is the one accurate, worthy, and consistent spokesperson for God who takes Israel's message of hope and mission of suffering on himself and carries it all the way to the cross. He is God in person! The one who brings the message is also the one who will make it a reality. Later, the prophet says 10The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. We might think of this as on analogy with saying someone rolls up his sleeves and is willing to get his hands dirty. The message God wants delivered is that Jesus will speak, of course, but he will also embody the message in the Incarnation as fully human and fully divine. God spoke to Israel in many and various ways by the prophets, but in the last days, in which the writers of the New Testament announce their message, God has spoken to Israel and the world through the Son (Hebrews 1:1-2). Thus, in Jesus the Messenger is the message.
Second, what are your key messages? In this case, the prophet is clear: who announces peace, who brings good news, and who announces salvation. To a people torn apart by war and captivity, the message is peace. The angels announced the birth of Jesus by singing of glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace (Luke 2:14). Jesus taught the disciples to offer peace to those they met (Luke 10:5), and as their risen Lord he offered peace (Luke 24:36). In a world bombarded by images of violence and war, such a message seems just as impossible today as it was in the past. To a people who had endured bad news for so long, the message is good news. The book of consolation (Isaiah 40-55) is a “Gospel,” in that it announces Good News. We have the origin of the New Testament term in passages like this. Thus, the angel is bringing to the shepherds good news of great joy for all the people (Luke 2:10). Jesus preached the good news of the coming rule of God. Of course, we live in a world in which bad news is the theme of almost every day. To a people ruled by tyrants, the message is salvation. The angels announce to the shepherds the birth of a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord (Luke 2:11). Jesus embodied the work of salvation through his deeds of healing and liberating people from that which oppressed them. G. Ebeling stressed the similarity of the message of Jesus concerning the coming rule of God and its dawning in his own work. In Jesus, the future of the rule of God forms the starting point. Luther considered the message of salvation as lovable and desirable because of the forgiveness of sins to those made anxious by the law. However, the reason for joy in this text is the dawning of the reign of God, not the promise of forgiveness of sins. The good news addressed to Zion and the covenant people becomes a missionary message to the world in the New Testament.[2] What they announce to Zion is that their God reigns, a rule that remains a distant dream. The prophet envisions inaugurating it in a personal way. The reign of God replaces that of earthly kings. It could refer to the restoration of Jerusalem as an inauguration of the reign of God. It could also refer to renewed worship in the temple. The rise of the Persian Empire under Cyrus and the return of the exiles saw the renewal of the belief in the initiation of the royal rule of God over the nations. The hope of an establishment of the royal rule of God over the nations will take on eschatological features during the Hellenistic period. Throughout the history of Israel, the expectation that the establishment of royal rule would free the covenant people from foreign domination, bringing peace and salvation, motivated the hope for the royal rule of God. Such an expectation was no longer obvious to John the Baptist, the Qumran Teacher, or to Jesus.[3] Today, the people of God are to embody in word and deed the peace, the good news, and the rule of God in personal and collective ways. Of course, the people of God find it no easier than the world to do so.
Third, what is the timing? For the New Testament, every day is part of the last days. In this passage, they are to 8listen, so that their sentinels lift up their voices in song for joy. Since the abandonment of Jerusalem has occurred, it would not have a sentinel, so some irony here. The reason is that in plain sight they see the return of the Lord to Zion. The sentinel does not see the messenger. Rather, the sentinel sees the Lord in an act to which the world will be witness. They are to 9break forth together into singing, even if Jerusalem is in ruins. After all, the Lord has comforted the people of the Lord and redeemed Jerusalem. Further, 10the Lord has bared the holy arm of the Lord in the presence of the nations, in such a way that the earth shall see the salvation of their God. They are to go away and leave that place, not touching anything unclean. They are to get of the city and purify themselves, especially those who carry the vessels of the Lord. They are not to hurry away. They are not to leave like fugitives. The Lord marches at their head. The God of Israel is their rearguard. The new Exodus takes place under the protection of God, like the first in Exodus 14:19, where the angel of God went to the rear of the escaping Hebrews and the pillar of cloud moved to the front. However, this time it will not be a hasty departure as in Exodus 12:11, where they are to eat the Passover in a hurry, and as if in flight in 14:5, where Pharaoh and his advisors lament allowing the people to go. It will be a procession in which they carry, not the jewels seized from the Egyptians, but the sacred vessels of the temple, given back by Cyrus.
Well, I am still working on this thought. I do think that one of the themes in the Bible is the proper spokesperson for God, which the New Testament will disclose as Jesus of Nazareth. I also think that from the perspective of the self-revelation of God in Jesus, the message is consistent in its over of shalom, well-being, or salvation. The timing is a matter that we must leave for God, of course. We might fuss about that, but again, the New Testament is clear that the Father sent the Son in the fullness of time and thus at just the right time. The point is that just the right time must intersect with the march of chronological time. Because of what the Father has done in sending the Son at a chronological time, the Holy Spirit now makes it possible for every moment to become just the right time for each of us who hear the message.
Good thoughts.. Have you given the spokesman (Jesus) thought in terms of Jungel?
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to do so along the lines of way of the cross I suspect.
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