The first reading today again comes from the Prophet Isaiah. At the end of this reflection, there is some background on the prophet and his writings which might prove insightful in this first week of Advent readings. But in today’s reading the messianic hope which began to be expressed in Isaiah 7:14 (Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign; the young woman, pregnant and about to bear a son, shall name him Emmanuel) and which was amplified in 9:1–6 (The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Upon those who lived in a land of gloom a light has shone…) comes to full flower.
The Messiah is not merely promised or announced but is depicted as ruling. In place of the kings from the line of David which have proved to be faithless and fickle, in defiance of the empires such as Assyria, these verses describe a king in whose hands the concerns of the weakest will be safe. He will usher in a reign of safety and security to which the weary exiles may come streaming in return.
If we just pause to consider what that means, it points to a time when the ruler will no longer see himself as privileged but rather as responsible, when he will become one for whom his people’s welfare is uppermost. In a word, the ruler will be the servant, not because he is too weak to dominate, but because he is strong enough not to need to crush. Something beyond human capability to implement and sustain, but at the same time, a model for the faithful to follow.
How will we be able to implement and sustain such a posture in our lives? By the grace of God and the gifts of the Holy Spirit:
The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him:
a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
A Spirit of counsel and of strength,
a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,
and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD. (Isa 11:2)
In our age, the Messiah promised and announced to our ancestors in the faith, has come. As the gospel notes, we have been blessed to see and hear the fulfillment of the promises. But one question lingers: is He ruling? Yes – one heart at a time. The question each of us faces every day is whether we are using the gifts of the Spirit received in the Sacraments to act in a responsible, not a privileged way, so that we are ever mindful of the welfare of others.
We have been given the sign in the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus. The great light has shone into our lives. Will we walk in the light?
Background on Isaiah
There is much scholarly debate over the composition of the book and the periods of history that form its setting, but there is agreement on Isaiah of Jerusalem, who prophesied “in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah” – a mixed lot of kings to be sure. His contemporaries included the prophets Amos, Hosea, and Micah, all of whom were prophets to the Kingdom of Judah.
Isaiah’s career was marked by a series of crises under the threat of the great Assyrian empire. The first great crisis, in the years 735–733 BC, was the Syro-Ephraimite war. The northern Kingdom of Israel (which had broken away from the Davidic throne in Jerusalem some 200 years earlier) joined forces with Syria to form an alliance against the Assyrians. When King Ahaz of Judah refused to join, they mounted a campaign against him with a view to deposing him and installing a more cooperative Judean king.
Isaiah counsels Ahaz to trust in God rather than foreign allies, and tells him to ask for a sign to confirm that this is a true prophecy (Isa 7:11). Ahaz refuses, saying he will not test God (v.12). Isaiah replies that Ahaz will have a sign whether he asks for it or not, and the sign will be that the virgin will birth a child, and the child’s mother will call the child Immanuel, meaning “God-with-us” (vv.13–14). While here in the approach of Christmas, Christians hear this as a prophecy of Christ, in its immediate context it was telling Ahaz not to depend on alliances, but to depend on God, the Lord who has been with his people since the beginning. Ahaz turned away and appealed to Assyria for help which protected Judea against the Israel-Syria alliance, but made them a vassal state of Assyria.
This vassalage was the primary cause of the degrading of the religious foundations of Judea. He introduced foreign altars into the Jerusalem Temple, he closed the schools and houses of worship so that no instruction should be possible, and as the rabbis reflected – all this was so that the Shekinah (or Glory of God) would abandon the land.
The next great crisis came about a decade later. The northern kingdom of Israel (also called Samaria), who had long ago turned against the true faith of the Lord, rebelled against Assyria, and in 722 BC the northern kingdom was destroyed. Half of its population was deported and foreign settlers were brought in. The northern kingdom of Israel ceased to exist.
Notes on yesterday’s first reading
It is against all these crises that words from the opening chapter of the prophetic book are written: “Sinful nation, people laden with wickedness, evil offspring, corrupt children! They have forsaken the LORD, spurned the Holy One of Israel, apostatized.” (Isa 1:4)
All that is background for the first reading from yesterday, which is positive, uplifting and preaches hope for a future. Suddenly here, with no transition at all, the focus is upon Israel’s glorious destiny as a lighthouse to the nations for truth and peace. One is tempted to ask, “What happened?” Will God merely forget Israel’s sin? How can this Israel become that Israel?
The passage seems to fulfill two functions. First, it emphasizes the certainty of Israel’s destiny. Whatever the present may be, however grim the immediate future may be, the distant future beckons the Judeans to live in its certain light. This constituted a prophetic word with all the force which that setting can convey. The second function was motivational. What can convince the present Judeans to live lives of faithfulness and righteousness? Not so much the threat of punishment as the promise of greatness. And what can convince coming generations that the destructive lash under which they bow is, indeed, not to their final dissolution but to their restoration? It is the conviction that they exist not merely as another nation but in order that the nations might be redeemed.
The reading begins: “In days to come” but can literally be translated as “in the afterward of these days.” As one scholar notes, “the Hebrews did not face the future as we do. Rather, they faced the past and backed into the future. So the past was before them and the future behind them.” The future was not visible, but God’s fidelity in the times past was evident.
“The mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills.” On that basis, what Isaiah was asserting was that one day it would become clear that the religion of Israel was the religion; that her God was the God. To say that his mountain would become the highest of all was a way of making that assertion in a figure which would be intelligible to people of that time.
And we see evidence of that in the Gospel as the centurion is drawn to the true God in the person of Jesus Christ.
Image credit: Prophet Isaiah, Mosaic, Right of Lunette, South Wall of Presbytery, Basilica of San Vitale | PD-US | Pexels