Day 9: Will someone please explain?
Isaiah was a prophet during the reign of Ahaz and Hezekiah--from about the 720s to the 700 bce. He had three sons, one of them named "Immanuel" and the others with much more ominous names about God's wrath.
Now, the Biblical scholars employing their fancy historical critical methods speculate that there was not just the one Isaiah but that there were several authors/prophets spouting oracles and talking about what the LORD has/can/will do. 66 chapters of Isaiah in all, they guess that the first five chapters are a later Isaiah, more like the last 17 chapters--dating from after the Jewish people have been released from Babylonian captivity (after 538 bce). Then there is the stuff in the middle 40-55, which is more like in the middle of everything, i.e. in the middle of the Babylonian captivity which started with the first deportation in 597 bce. Nice structure, huh? :-)
All there is to say about Isaiah right now is: this God thinks that purging and hewing is important to redemption. You know: unclean lips getting burned by hot coals in order to be a prophet for the LORD (Is 6). I just don't see how this is love.
Sure, there is all the historical stuff: maybe it was them retroactively seeking an explanation for all the suffering, the exile, the Assyrian and then Babylonian destruction. But Isaiah says it is God punishing his people and then loving them again. I just don't understand the love that wants to cut in order to heal. I get the medical principle. But the relational or spiritual principle?
Help.
Now, the Biblical scholars employing their fancy historical critical methods speculate that there was not just the one Isaiah but that there were several authors/prophets spouting oracles and talking about what the LORD has/can/will do. 66 chapters of Isaiah in all, they guess that the first five chapters are a later Isaiah, more like the last 17 chapters--dating from after the Jewish people have been released from Babylonian captivity (after 538 bce). Then there is the stuff in the middle 40-55, which is more like in the middle of everything, i.e. in the middle of the Babylonian captivity which started with the first deportation in 597 bce. Nice structure, huh? :-)
All there is to say about Isaiah right now is: this God thinks that purging and hewing is important to redemption. You know: unclean lips getting burned by hot coals in order to be a prophet for the LORD (Is 6). I just don't see how this is love.
Sure, there is all the historical stuff: maybe it was them retroactively seeking an explanation for all the suffering, the exile, the Assyrian and then Babylonian destruction. But Isaiah says it is God punishing his people and then loving them again. I just don't understand the love that wants to cut in order to heal. I get the medical principle. But the relational or spiritual principle?
Help.