Behold Your God

This morning’s first lesson taken from the Hebrew Scriptures is from the 40^th chapter of Isaiah. That’s significant and really should get your attention. It really helps to have the broader context, especially since the passage we heard this morning may sound a bit strident. We began with Isaiah 40:21; just a few verses earlier at the very beginning of Isaiah 40, we find these words: “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people… comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem….” Biblical scholars are quite certain that the prophetic book that we call Isaiah contains writings by at least three different authors from two distinct periods in history. Within the Biblical book of Isaiah, chapter 40 is the beginning of the prophecy of an anonymous writer commonly called Second Isaiah. This morning’s reading is part of the sweeping opening statement of Second Isaiah.

The book Isaiah draws its name from Isaiah of Jerusalem who prophesied in the nation of Judah from approximately 740 – 700 B.C. during the reigns of the kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. The anonymous author now referred to as second Isaiah wrote 200 years later; the nation of Judah has been conquered and its people are languishing in exile in Babylon. Exile is the historical context for second Isaiah’s powerful poetry and prophecy. His words have been described as “the noblest literary monument bequeathed to us from Semitic antiquity.”

I have a copy of the Interpreters Bible passed on to me by a priest from my home parish. It’s a twelve-volume analysis and commentary on all of the books of the Bible. The version I have was cutting edge scholarship when it was published in the 50’s. Some of it is out of date, but much of the interpretation is still very helpful. It was fascinating to read the commentary on Second Isaiah. Listen. These words were written by a Biblical scholar sometime in the early 50’s, not too long after a second and devastating world war had ended.

The author writes under the heading: The Relevance of These Prophecies to Our Time. The relevance of the prophecies of Second Isaiah to people in the 1950’s. “The century… during which these poems [of Second Isaiah] were written and addressed to the exiles in Babylon, and to the returned community attempting to build again its ruined land, had a mood strangely similar to that of the mid-twentieth century…”

“The poet-prophet spoke to apprehensive people. After more than a generation of the exile in Babylon, a new military power rose suddenly on the scene under Cyrus, the Persian, and moved westward, sweeping everything before it. Empires were toppling. Commerce and trade were in chaos. The Hebrews in Babylon had followed the counsel of Jeremiah and had settled down in the communities where they had been placed. With industry, thrift, and skill…” (traits we certainly cherish and celebrate) “…with industry, thrift, and skill they had become a vigorous element in the body economic. Financial uncertainty now clouded the horizon. What was befalling their world? They looked with alarm upon this new conqueror from the east who was upsetting it.”

That’s Second Isaiah’s world, the world of 6^th century B.C. Then the commentator describes his own time, mid-twentieth century America.

“A modern volume of verse bears the title The Age of Anxiety. It portrays the mind of its generation all over the earth. Destructive wars have left many lands on the brink of economic collapse. Men follow with concern the meetings of statesmen, wondering whether powers as spiritually incompatible as those which dominate the current world can adjust to one another. Do they wish for stability and prosperity for every people? Or are some hoping that financial chaos will prove the undoing of the regimes of others? Many nations seem hopelessly divided within themselves. The worst result of the world wars has been widespread moral deterioration, together with a loss of nerve. Nations, once vigorous, lack the spiritual vitality needed to cope with existent problems. Fear of another global war which would portend the destruction of our civilization, and even more immediate dread of business depression with consequent unemployment and social upheaval, leave few men “of cheerful yesterdays and confident of tomorrows.””

The words and perspective of James Muilenburg, Professor of Hebrew at Union Theological Seminary in New York, reflecting on his world just after World War Two. His words are eerily relevant today, fifty years later. So if the message of Second Isaiah was vital and timely in post-war America, surely it is just as vital and timely today in our present time of war, global instability and serious financial insecurity.

In his own time, six centuries before Christ, the hope of the anonymous poet-prophet Second Isaiah was humble, but challenging. He sought to “induce downhearted folk to behold their God”. Just that: his humble goal was to induce downhearted folk to behold their God. He sought, in a time of hopelessness, confusion and anxiety simply to draw folks’ attention to the glory of God present with them. In Second Isaiah there is no particular command to human beings to respond or to act in any particular way. With passion and compassion, Second Isaiah simply seeks to induce downhearted folk to behold their God.

Can we be induced, nudged, provoked to behold our God? To look up from our fears and anxieties and see the glory of God present in our world? The season of Epiphany reminds us that God has done his part. The heart of the Epiphany message is that God is manifest in the world. God makes himself visible, knowable, perceivable. God does not hide; God actively reveals himself and his glory in the world. So, look. Listen. Behold your God.

I love the tone of Second Isaiah in this morning’s reading. It sounds like the loving chiding of a parent. “How many times do I have to tell you to wash your hands before dinner?” “Didn’t you hear me the first/tenth time I told you to clean your room?” “Have you not known?” the prophet writes. “Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?” Where have you been? Haven’t you been listening? How could you possibly have missed the memo? How could you miss what has been clearly revealed? Who do you think created the foundations of the earth and stretched out the heavens like a curtain?

And are you anxious about the nations and rulers of this earth? Before the presence of God, they are as nothing. Lift up your eyes to the sky, literally, and behold God. Behold your God. Look at the stars and behold the care and power of your God who summons and names every star in heaven. Not one star is missing or overlooked. Look. Behold.

Who have you been listening to? What have you been looking at? How can you not know? The Lord is everlasting and does not faint or grow weary. And “those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Behold. Your God is with you.

Behold God’s presence; behold God’s power and action in the world. “Behold” is a great word. We don’t use it often in daily conversation, but think about it. Behold. It is part command, part invitation. And it is said in response to revelation. God is revealed, made known, made visible. I command you; I invite you, behold! Behold your God revealed to you. Today’s psalm also speaks of God’s action revealed in the world. It’s full of active verbs. The Lord rebuilds and gathers. Behold what the Lord does. The Lord heals and binds up, lifts up the lowly, provides. Behold. The Lord heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars and calls them all by their names. (Both Isaiah and the psalmist mention that.) The Lord covers the heavens with clouds and prepares rain for the earth; He makes grass to grow upon the mountains and green plants to serve mankind. He provides food for flocks and herds and for the young ravens when they cry… Behold, he provides for the young when they cry.

Look. Listen. Behold. “Great is our Lord and mighty in power; there is no limit to his wisdom,” says the psalmist.

And always remember Second Isaiah’s very first words: Comfort. Be comforted. Like the word “behold”, “comfort” in this passage is part command, part invitation, part hope and prayer. Be comforted; take comfort, Second Isaiah urges his people and all of us over the centuries. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.”

You are God’s people. Behold your God and be comforted.